Russia, Ukraine Dispute Truce Format as NATO Sees Buildup
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- Category: General
- Published on Wednesday, 19 November 2014 07:27
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Photographer: Ronny Hartmann/Photothek via Getty Images
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, chairing her first ministers' meeting since taking office Nov. 1, favored embedding sanctions in a broader strategy that includes encouragement for reforms in Ukraine and continued European contacts with Russia. Close
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, chairing her first ministers' meeting since... Read More
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, chairing her first ministers' meeting since taking office Nov. 1, favored embedding sanctions in a broader strategy that includes encouragement for reforms in Ukraine and continued European contacts with Russia.
Ukraine and Russia clashed over how to move toward a new cease-fire agreement, after President Petro Poroshenko said his country is ready for “total war” with President Vladimir Putin’s forces.
As NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg criticized Russia for staging a “serious military buildup” and sending troops and weapons across its border, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk advocated new “Geneva format” talks including the U.S. to de-escalate the crisis. Russia said that framework, which followed April talks in the Swiss city that excluded pro-Russian separatists, would skirt a process that led to a Sept. 5 cease-fire in Minsk, Belarus.
“There is the Minsk format,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today in the Belarusian capital. “Attempts to dissolve this format, to present it in a way that the insurgents, representatives of the southeast, may sit aside while the ‘grownups’ agree on what to do -- such attempts are completely illusory.”
Lavrov, who later met German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Moscow, called on the U.S., the European Union and all other parties to uphold the September agreements and urged the government in Kiev to pursue dialogue with the rebels. There can be no military resolution, Steinmeier said.
Photographer: Alexander Khudoteply/AFP via Getty Images
Ukrainian army maneuvers on the coast near the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Oct. 21, 2014. Close
Ukrainian army maneuvers on the coast near the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Oct. 21, 2014.
Ukrainian army maneuvers on the coast near the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Oct. 21, 2014.
‘Keep Working’
“I can understand your skepticism,” Steinmeier told reporters in the Russian capital. “But I believe we should keep working to carry out the Minsk protocol.”
The conflict shifted into a higher gear after the separatists held Nov. 2 elections condemned by Ukraine, the U.S. and the EU as illegitimate. As Russia denies military involvement in the former Soviet republic, it’s still funneling troops and weapons into Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.
The Geneva format is “the most acceptable for solving the crisis in the Ukrainian-Russian relationship,” according to Yatsenyuk. Russia was seriously violating the Minsk agreement, which has been broken almost daily, he said in Kiev today.
“Russia is still escalating the situation,” he said. “We urge Russia to pull back its forces, its agents, its artillery, its howitzers and its tanks and to stop this mess, which is directly created and crafted by the Russian regime.”
Four-way talks in Geneva in April led to an agreement to ease tension following Putin’s March annexation of the Crimean peninsula. The pact later unraveled as fighting intensified in the conflict, which has killed more than 4,100 people and wounded almost 10,000, according to UN estimates.
A pro-Russian soldier stands guard at the military base in Perevalsk, Eastern Ukraine on Nov. 5, 2014. Ukraine said separatists shelled its troops 13 times yesterday. The most intense shelling took place near the city of Avdiyivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said. Mstyslav Chernov) Close
A pro-Russian soldier stands guard at the military base in Perevalsk, Eastern Ukraine... Read More
‘Destabilizing Ukraine’
“Russia is still destabilizing Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said today in Brussels. “We see the movement of troops, of equipment, of tanks, of artillery and also advanced air defense systems. This is in violation of the cease-fire agreements.”
Six Ukrainian troops were killed and nine wounded in the past 24 hours, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said today in Kiev. Rebels shelled government positions 28 times in the past day, the Defense Ministry in Kiev said in a statement.
EU foreign ministers decided during a meeting yesterday to impose additional travel bans and asset freezes against separatists involved in the Nov. 2 ballots and will release the names by the end of the month. The bloc left unclear whether Russian supporters of the breakaway states in Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions would also be targeted.
They stopped short of stiffer economic sanctions against Russian companies or industries, and may deliberate the matter again at a Dec. 18-19 summit.
Working, Effective
“Targeted measures against individuals are a must,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told reporters. “They’re working. They have effect, in spite of some denials.”
The EU has blacklisted 119 Russians and Ukrainians, including at least eight officials and military officers from the breakaway regions. Sanctions require unanimity among the 28 governments in the bloc, which have struggled to overcome divisions over how to deal with Russia.
Russia won’t ask the U.S. and the EU to lift sanctions, Lavrov said during a visit to Belarus. He called the penalties a “road to nowhere.”
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To contact the reporters on this story: Volodymyr Verbyany in Kiev at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; Aliaksandr Kudrytski in Minsk, Belarus at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Paul Abelsky, Tony Halpin