MOSCOW — In a rare direct address to the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin hailed on Friday the success of a recent rebel offensive and asked that a humanitarian corridor be opened to allow encircled Ukrainian Army units to retreat.
In an address to the “Novorossiya,” or New Russia, militia that was posted on the Kremlin website at 1:10 a.m., Mr. Putin said the rebels had “achieved a major success in intercepting Kiev’s military operation,” an offensive that Western governments have accused the Russian military of leading.
In light of the heightened tensions, the Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, announced on Friday that a bill had been introduced in Parliament to cancel Ukraine’s status as a nonaligned country and to “restore its aspirations to become a NATO member.”
“This law also reaffirms the main political goal of Ukraine — to become a member of the European Union,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said on his Facebook page, a clearinghouse for public announcements. “This law will prohibit the Ukrainian state to become part of any other economic, political or military alliances that would hinder the main goal of accession to the E.U.”
The law would prohibit Ukraine’s entrance into the Russian-led “Customs Union,” an economic grouping that includes Kazakhstan and Belarus Mr. Putin has promoted as a counterweight to the European Union.
The decision in December by the former President Viktor F. Yanukovych to spurn an association agreement with the European Union in favor of stronger ties with Russia sparked the Maidan protests in Kiev that eventually led to Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster.
In his message to the separatists, Mr. Putin said, “I call on the militia groups to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian service members who have been surrounded, so as to avoid any needless loss of life, giving them the opportunity to leave the combat area unimpeded and reunite with their families, to return them to their mothers, wives and children, and to quickly provide medical assistance to those who were injured in the course of the military operation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/world/europe/ukraine-conflict.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=first-co
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