OUISTREHAM, France — Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke face-to-face with Ukraine’s incoming president about ending the violence in the former Soviet state, and Kiev’s new leader said talks could begin in earnest as soon as Sunday — a diplomatic breakthrough playing out along the battlefield beaches of Normandy.
Friday’s 15-minute meeting was followed by a brief exchange between Putin and President Barack Obama, who had been keeping the Russian at arm’s length over the Ukrainian crisis.
Speaking after his meeting with Petro Poroshenko — who is to be sworn in Saturday as Ukraine’s president — Putin called for an immediate cease-fire in eastern Ukraine before any further talks, and said he expected Poroshenko to show “state wisdom” and “good will.”
Poroshenko later said talks could begin in earnest on his first full day in office.
“All the questions were difficult,” Poroshenko told Associated Press before returning to Ukraine, “but we will make every effort to achieve the goals we have set ourselves and begin negotiations on Sunday.”
Putin said he welcomed Poroshenko’s call for an end to the bloodshed and liked his approach to settling the crisis but wanted to wait until the Ukrainian leader could deliver it in detail to the nation.
“If it continues like that, then conditions will be created for developing our relations in other areas, including the economy,” Putin said.
He specified that Moscow is ready to lower gas prices for Ukraine if it pays off its debt for previous supplies, easing fears of a gas shutdown to Europe dependent upon gas pipelines that cross Ukraine.
French President Francois Hollande, who orchestrated the meeting along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Putin and Poroshenko also discussed how Russia could recognize the Ukrainian elections as well as measures to de-escalate the fighting.
“It didn’t last a long time but long enough for the message to be passed on,” Hollande told the French network TF1.
Outside the building where world leaders met for lunch, reporters saw another animated conversation between Putin and Poroshenko lasting about a minute. That conversation also included Merkel, who at a much more public commemoration at Sword Beach appeared to shuttle between the men.
A senior U.S. administration official, who was not authorized to discuss the meeting on the record, said the possibility of arranging a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders gained traction at the G-7 meeting with the objective for Russia to hear the same message from “all of the allies.”
There was no mention of rolling back Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
At least 15 pro-Russian rebels were killed Thursday in clashes with government troops at a Ukrainian border crossing with Russia, an aide to Ukraine’s interior minister said.
