Ukraine agrees to talks but its foes are missing

The Ukrainian government reluctantly agreed to launch talks on decentralising power today as part of a European-backed peace plan, but with no invitation for the pro-Russian insurgents who have declared independence in two eastern regions.
It was unclear what the negotiations might hope to accomplish.
Ukraine's prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was to chair the first in a series of round tables set to include national lawmakers, government figures and regional officials as part of a peace plan drafted by the OSCE, a trans-Atlantic security and rights group that includes Russia and the United States.
But Yatsenyuk gave no indication that he would invite his foes into the process, as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe plan calls for.

And even as he launched the talks he was dismissive of them, thanking the OSCE for its efforts but saying Ukraine has its own plan to end the crisis. In a speech in Brussels yesterday, he gave no details of that plan.
Acting Ukrainian President Olexandr Turchynov said the talks would involve "regional elites." Also expected were former Ukrainian presidents, officials and lawmakers. But, Turchynov said, "the government will act against those who are terrorising the region with arms in hand in line with the law, by continuing an anti-terrorist operation against them."

Many insurgents in the east shrugged off the round table as meaningless.

"The government in Kiev does not want to listen to the people of Donetsk," said Denis Patkovski, a member of pro-Russian militia in Slovyansk, which has seen some of the most intense fighting in recent weeks. "They just come here with their guns."
Even so, European officials applauded the start of the talks. The EU's enlargement commissioner, Stefan Fule, welcomed the launch of the round table on his Twitter account, voicing hope that the next such meeting will take place in the east.
Russia has strongly backed the OSCE road map. The United States, while saying it's worth a try, views its prospects for success with scepticism.

Ukraine and the West have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest in eastern Ukraine, where insurgents have seized administrative buildings, fought government forces and declared independence for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after a jury-rigged vote last weekend that Ukraine and Western powers called a sham.
Ukrainian forces have mounted a scatter-shot offensive against the insurgents, and dozens have died in the fighting across the east.
Yesterday, the Defence Ministry said six soldiers were killed by rebels who ambushed a convoy near the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region -- the deadliest attack the Ukrainian military has seen since it began last month to try to uproot the mutiny.