A meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's president-elect Petro Poroshenko in France on the sidelines of the "Victory day" celebrations has raised hopes about a possible ceasefire in the eastern Ukraine where the "Kiev" troops are battling the pro-Russian activists for last several weeks.
The two leaders talked for a quarter of an hour in a gathering hosted by French president Francoise Hollande before a lunch of the world leaders at the ceremonies, marking the D-Day anniversary.
The occasion has provided a much-needed opportunity for contacts between or among the countries having direct stakes in the Ukraine crisis, which by all accounts, is worsening, drawing the big global powers closer to confrontation. The United States President Barack Obama and several other European leaders, who attended the "V-Day" celebrations, are also seized with the Ukraine crisis where they are pitted against Russia, at least indirectly.
The Kremlin has shocked the Western nations by "annexing" Crimea, which earlier formed as an autonomous region of Ukraine. This happened as a sequel to the change of guards earlier in "Kiev", where pro-West leadership took over replacing the pro-Moscow government.
The change in authority in Ukraine, a former Soviet Republic, was the result of a long-running political trouble that eventually went in favour of the pro-Western people of the volatile country.
But Russia, as was expected, could hardly swallow the development and retaliated by annexing Crimea, a strategic Black sea peninsula, claiming that the region has only come back to its fold since it was once a part of the Russian federation.
Despite vociferous protests by the US and its allies, Moscow has put its foot down and said the incorporation of Crimea is irreversible. This has infuriated the "West" and the Ukraine government. But the developments there are unlikely to alter, though the legal and other issues, relating to the "annexation" of Crimea, remain a big sour point between Moscow, on one side, and the US and its allies, on the other.
The ever-increasing assertiveness of president Putin, who has rekindled the east-west rivalry of the old cold war era, despite the fact that the present Russian federation is a democratic nation and the former Soviet union was a communist giant, has not stopped, even after the incorporation of Crimea. Clearly, he has encouraged the pro-Russian people in several places of mainly eastern Ukraine to revolt against the "Kiev" rule, while pretending that the Kremlin has no role to play in such uprisings.
The Ukraine government has made it clear that it would not allow another "Crimea" in its territory. But it is also grappling to contain the situation.
The "West" has thrown its entire eight behind the Ukraine government while the fighting in the eastern Ukraine has not stopped. It is against this background that the president of Russia and the president-elect of Ukraine met in France, raising hopes that things may mark an improvement in this crisis zone. The presence of the Western leaders in the gathering where Putin was also present, may, however, impact the subsequent developments concerning the Ukraine tangle.
The prevailing situation in Ukraine appears quite complicated, even though a broad settlement of the crisis, especially the cessation of the fighting in its eastern part, has become a necessity: the warring sides are locked in a seemingly intractable position.
Moscow is calling for ending the "operations" by the Ukraine troops while pleading its own innocence apropos the activities of the pro-Russian supporters, who occupied several towns.
Although the activists have been driven out from some of such areas by the "Kiev" troops, they are still holding out in several others.
The battle in Normandy in France during the second world war marked the victory of the allied forces over Germany and its former allies, during the Second World War. The US, Russia and other nations of the allied forces are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the "V-Day" that is otherwise expected to help reduce tensions in Ukraine. Yet then, it would be too much to expect an early resolution of the crisis because of its multi-faceted complications.
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