EU: new sanctions on Russia, despite ceasefire
Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed separatists said they had agreed with Ukraine on a ceasefire starting Friday
The European Union agreed on a new package of economic sanctions against Russia on Friday, despite a ceasefire between government forces and pro-Kremlin rebels in Ukraine, diplomats said.
A EU diplomat said there was “agreement in principle on new sanctions” and that they would be officially implemented in writing on Monday.
The sanctions tighten existing measures imposed in July, targeting more individuals with travel bans and asset freezes, as well as tightening access to capital markets for Russian oil and defense companies.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barros said in a letter to European leaders that the new measures were an “effective tool” to “reinforce the principle that EU sanctions are directed at promoting a change of course in Russia’s actions in Ukraine”.
“The implementation is expected on Monday,” a senior EU diplomat told Reuters, the press agency reported – but if the ceasefire holds, the sanctions will be lifted, he implied.
Earlier on Friday, Ukraine’s Russian-backed separatists said they had agreed with Ukrainian officials on an immediate ceasefire, at peace talks in Minsk.
“Representatives of Ukraine and Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic signed a ceasefire protocol from 6 pm on Friday,” the Twitter account of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic said, without providing further details.
Officials on the ground in the Belarussian capital Minsk were not immediately available to confirm the statement.
‘Careful optimism’
Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko voiced “careful optimism” about the talks.
NATO leaders are also expected to approve plans to position troops and military equipment in Eastern Europe to reassure ex-Soviet bloc member states unnerved by Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine.
“While talking about peace, Russia has not made one single step to make peace possible,” NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after Ukraine-focused talks at the leaders’ summit on Thursday.
“Instead of de-escalating the crisis, Russia has only deepened it,” he said, adding that previous Russian statements on peace had been “a smokescreen for continued Russian destabilisation of the situation”.
Poroshenko said he was hopeful about the plan because the initiative had come from pro-Moscow rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine.
Poroshenko said some NATO members would cooperate with Ukraine on “non-lethal and lethal military items”, although he did not specify which countries were involved and whether it would include direct arms supplies.
Former US presidential contender and outspoken Kremlin critic John McCain, on a visit to Kyiv, urged Western allies to provide Ukraine with weapons to fend off Russia, and warned that otherwise the country could end up being “landlocked”.
His concerns were backed up by a statement from the Pentagon, which said Russian forces massed near Ukraine’s eastern border are “more lethal” than before and heavily armed with artillery and air defence weaponry.
(with AFP)