MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia warned today that the Kosovo crisis is not over despite progress on finding a diplomatic solution and said it still believes NATO must first end its airstrikes to ensure peace.
A draft peace plan worked out by Western powers and Russia ``is not a breakthrough, but a step in the right direction. There will be a breakthrough when the war is stopped,'' said Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
Moscow's special envoy on Kosovo, ex-premier Viktor Chernomyrdin, said Friday he will fly to Belgrade for talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, but did not say when. The Russian envoy will follow up on the talks between the Western powers and Russia, aides said.
Ivanov, who represented Moscow at talks of the G-8 nations on Thursday in Bonn, Germany, expressed disappointment that NATO had not agreed to end its attacks on Yugoslavia.
``Had our partners accepted our proposal to halt the airstrikes, better conditions would've been created to adopt a decision,'' Ivanov told reporters during wreath-laying ceremonies to mark the end of World War II.
``You know that every hour brings new tragedies'' because of the airstrikes, he added.
Chernomyrdin, who is heading Russia's diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, expressed cautious optimism that a solution was closer. ``At present the positions of the two sides have been drawn nearer,'' he said on Russian television. He also called for an immediate end to the airstrikes.
Chernomyrdin's office declined to say today if he would resume his shuttle diplomacy to Belgrade and Western capitals anytime soon, saying only that several options were under consideration but details were ``secret.''
The plan worked out in Bonn includes the deployment of ``effective international civil and security presences'' in Kosovo, a province of Yugoslavia's dominant republic, Serbia.
But many details still have to be worked out. Belgrade still hasn't accepted the presence of armed forces on Yugoslav territory, while Russia and NATO have different interpretations of a ``security presence.''
NATO has ruled out ending airstrikes until its conditions are met by Belgrade.
Russia's Communist opposition denounced Moscow's peacemaking efforts, insisting that Moscow should be aiding Yugoslavia against the United States. The opposition wants to supply weapons and other aid to Yugoslavia.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said Yeltsin's government ``is silently betraying and selling Yugoslavia.''
Yeltsin, while deploring both NATO airstrikes and Yugoslav ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, has focused on finding a diplomatic solution, insisting that Moscow will not be drawn in to the military conflict.
Russia's fierce opposition to NATO strikes on Yugoslavia is partly due to its intense dislike of the alliance itself. Moscow has said repeatedly that the United Nations, a body in which it has a powerful role, should work out a resolution to the crisis.