OSCE envoy to Ukraine resigns, "peace process is basically dead", "we will see an escalation this summer.”

Heidi Tagliavini, a Swiss diplomat who played a key role in negotiating a February cease-fire and peace deal, has decided to resign as special envoy of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The resignation came as Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged officers and funding to bolster the Ukrainian police force during a visit to Kiev, in his country’s latest show of support for Ukraine in its standoff with Russia.

“Tagliavini’s resignation reflects her growing frustration and is another sign that the peace process is basically dead,” Joerg Forbrig, a senior program director at the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. in Berlin, said by telephone. “The expectation is we will see an escalation this summer.”

Rebel negotiator Denis Pushilin expressed concern Saturday at Tagliavini’s resignation.

“I’m not very happy that Heidi is leaving us as we learned to work with her over this period, she listens to our arguments,” Pushilin said in an interview with Russian radio station Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei. “We expect an objective approach from her successor.”

Ukrainian ex-President Leonid Kuchma, who represents the government in Kiev at the peace talks, also said he regretted Tagliavini’s departure. He praised her “constructive” work, according to the Interfax news service.

Tagliavini, a Swiss diplomat fluent in Russian, served as the OSCE envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group that has brought together the Ukrainians, Russians and separatists. Known among other diplomats as “the facilitator,” she earned the trust of all sides, according to Russian, Ukrainian and separatist officials.
[link to www.bloomberg.com]