Ukrainian president pins hopes on UN talks

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he wants the planned meeting today between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin to lead to better implementation of an accord aimed at halting war in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko, in New York to attend the annual UN General Assembly, told The Associated Press that talks between the US and Russian president might produce "a firmer incentive" for Moscow to comply with international agreements agreed earlier this year and last year in Minsk, Belarus, calling for a cease-fire and weapon pullbacks by all sides.
Putin and Obama are to meet on the margins of the United Nations gathering today. It will be their first face-to-face encounter in nearly a year amid deteriorating relations between Russia and the US.

Poroshenko stressed that Ukraine and its US and European allies need to be steadfast with Russia to make sure it lives up to the terms of the agreement to resolve the differences in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists with support from Moscow have seized territory in the Donbass region and battled government forces. Russia earlier seized Ukraine's Crimea region and declared it part of Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said he expects Ukraine, the United States and the European Union to coordinate "a firm incentive for Putin to comply with the Minsk agreements."
"This applies to the impossibility of holding sham elections in the occupied territory, thorough implementation of all terms of the deal, access for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to all control checkpoints, withdrawal of all Russian soldiers from the occupied territories and closing the border," he said.

"I believe that effective coordination of our actions will bring results," Poroshenko added.
Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine are organizing local elections in defiance of the Ukrainian government, announcing a vote in October and November. The Ukrainian government dismisses the planned elections and says voting can only be held in accordance with Ukrainian law.
Besides Ukraine, the subject of Syria is sure to come up in the Putin-Obama meeting. US officials have expressed concern about Russia's military buildup in Syria, which Russia says is intended to fight Islamic State terrorists but the US sees as a move to bolster embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad's rule.