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Ukrainian Rights Activists Worry About 'Kremlin Hostages' as Peace Talks Loom

Jamie Dettmer

   MOSCOW, RUSSIA - Authorities in Kyiv are working on plans to ease
   transport difficulties Ukrainians face entering and exiting Crimea, the
   Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

   Although formal transport links between Crimea and the rest of Ukraine
   won't be restored, construction of new checkpoints and pledges to
   improve bus and train service from the border is being seen as another
   confidence-building measure.

   And, the move is adding to growing optimism about the prospects for
   broader peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv to end the six-year-long
   war in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine -- a Moscow-fomented
   separatist conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives so far.

   New dynamics are now in play

   Both Ukrainian and Russian officials have said they are ready to
   participate in a summit in Paris hosted by French President Emmanuel
   Macron to try to kickstart long-stalled peace talks based on the 2015
   Minsk agreement. The deal is intended to stop the fighting in eastern
   Ukraine. A prisoner exchange in September between Ukraine and Russia
   appeared to add momentum and offer the hope that new dynamics are now
   in play between Kyiv and Moscow.

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