Ukraine rebels vow to continue offensive if talks fail
The rebels last week pulled out of peace talks and announced the start of a new offensive
KIEV (AFP) - Pro-Russian insurgents vowed on Friday to push their east Ukrainian offensive if new talks with the pro-Western leaders in Kiev fail to achieve results.
"Should the negotiations collapse... the Donetsk and Lugansk People s Republics reserve the right to pursue their offensive until the entire Donetsk and Lugansk regions are freed" of Ukrainian troops, the rebel regions main truce negotiators said in a joint statement.
The rebels last week pulled out of peace talks and announced the start of a new offensive designed to expand their control over a much broader swathe of the industrial southeast.
An urgent new round of talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk that had been agreed for Friday under pressure from European envoys was postponed due to disagreements over who should represent the rebel camp.
But Kiev said it expected to send its envoy to Minsk on Saturday for talks aimed at reinforcing a tattered September truce.
The insurgents joint statement said the fighters were ready to pull back their heavy weapons from the frontline as long as Ukrainian forces did the same.
But they also stressed that any new border outlining rebel-run regions should run along the current front.
Kiev insists that the buffer zone be established along lines set out in September.
The rebels have since managed to win control of what analysts believe is about 500 square kilometres (200 square miles) of previously government-held territory.
