Confident of progress on Ukraine, says Kerry

SAINT-BRIEUC, France: US Secretary of State John Kerry Saturday voiced hope that there would be a breakthrough on ending the Ukraine crisis, enabling Washington to avoid imposing new sanctions against Russia.
“I hope that in the next few days we can see some steps taken that will reduce the tensions ...I’m confident there are ways forward, we look for Russia’s help and our hope is that we won’t have to move to more serious sanctions and other steps,” he said.
He spoke of the “possibility of a cease-fire, the possibility of Russia helping to be able to get the separatists to begin to put their guns away, get out of buildings and begin to build Ukraine, where people’s needs can be met.”
Kerry spoke as Western-backed chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as Ukraine’s new president.
On Friday Poroshenko held his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in France a since a May 25 election victory entrusted him with taming a bloody crisis that has shaken the post-Cold War order and redrawn Europe’s map following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Meanwhile, Poroshenko on Saturday called for dialogue with the separatists. His inaugural address after taking the oath of office in Parliament gave little sign of a quick resolution to the conflict in the east, which Ukrainian officials say has left more than 200 people dead.
He also took a firm line on Russia's annexation of Crimea this spring, insisting that the Black Sea peninsula "was, is and will be Ukrainian." He gave no indication of how Ukraine could regain control of Crimea, which Putin has said was allotted to Ukraine unjustly under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
Hours after the speech, Putin ordered security tightened along Russia's border with Ukraine to prevent illegal crossings, Russian news agencies said. Ukraine claims that many of the insurgents in the east have come from Russia; Poroshenko on Saturday said he would offer a corridor for safe passage of "Russian militants" out of the country.
Rebel leaders in the east dismissed Poroshenko's speech. "This statement doesn't concern us," said the so-called prime minister of the insurgent Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Borodai, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.