EU set to slap Russia with new sanctions over Ukraine
Ukrainian president: Today we are talking about the fate of Ukraine, tomorrow it could be for all Europe
The European Union readied a fresh wave of sanctions against Russia on Saturday, with warnings that the escalating conflict in Ukraine was putting all of Europe at risk.
Fears of an wider confrontation spiralled after NATO said Russia sent troops and weapons across the border to help pro-Kremlin rebels in a new counter-offensive that has seen key towns in the southeast wrested from Kyiv’s control.
The European Union’s 28 leaders were to meet later Saturday to discuss the worsening situation, with French President Francois Hollande already indicating that leaders would “no doubt increase” their sanctions on Russia.
EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso warned that the crisis was near a “point of no return” and said tougher measures against the Kremlin were ready.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in Brussels to drum up support from the EU for a firm riposte to Russia, was expected to plea his case directly to the leaders at the summit.
“Ukraine is now the subject of foreign military aggression and terror,” he said after meetings with top EU officials.
“Today we are talking about the fate of Ukraine, tomorrow it could be for all Europe.”
The EU and US have already slapped the toughest sanctions on Russia since the Cold War over the crisis, sparked last November when Ukraine’s then president Viktor Yanukovych abandoned a deal on trade ties with Brussels.
The scope of any new measures was not immediately clear but the EU could widen the range of Russian banks and companies denied access to Western financial markets, as well as tightening up further on hi-tech exports that are vital to Russia’s key energy industry.
NATO said Thursday that Russia had sent at least 1,000 troops to fight alongside the insurgents, along with air defence systems, artillery, tanks and armoured vehicles, and had massed 20,000 troops near the border.
The fresh rebel offensive has raised fears the Kremlin could be seeking to create a corridor between Russia and the strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea which Moscow annexed in March.
‘Don’t mess with us’
Moscow has denied any troop presence in its western neighbour, despite the capture of paratroopers by Kyiv and reports of secret military funerals being held in Russia.
Ukraine has openly asked the EU for military help, and on Friday it announced that it will also seek membership in the NATO alliance, a move set to further enrage the Kremlin.
Poroshenko will travel to the NATO summit in Wales next week to meet US President Barack Obama and seek practical help from the Western alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued what appeared to be a thinly veiled warning to NATO on Friday, saying: “Our partners should understand they better not mess with us.”
The sudden surge in tensions came only days after Putin and Poroshenko held talks which failed to achieve any breakthrough after almost five months of fighting in eastern Ukraine that has killed almost 2,600 people.
Plane shot down
On the ground there seemed to be little let up for Ukrainian government forces who have been fighting the separatists in the industrial east since April and had recently been boasting of major advances.
Kyiv said Saturday that another airforce plane has been shot down in the east, blaming it on a “Russian anti-aircraft system”.
Faced with the reinvigorated rebel push that has dramatically turned the tide of the conflict, Ukrainian forces have been trapped in a string of town in the southeast.
Kyiv’s contingents began a withdrawal from besieged positions near the transport hub of Ilovaysk which lies east of the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk after holding ground without reinforcements for 10 days.
An undefined number of troops from Kyiv’s volunteer battalions and other forces have been trapped in the area in what one commander said was a blockade substantially reinforced by Russia’s airborne troops.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said Saturday that the first 100 soldiers were able emerge from the surrounded area overnight, but it was not immediately clear whether they fought their way through or were allowed out by the rebels.
Pro-Russian militants in the Donetsk region boasted on Friday that the insurgency now has full control of the border with Russia.
In the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol to the south of Donetsk, citizens geared up to defend the city from a feared offensive from the east.
The nearby town of Novoazovsk was captured Wednesday by rebels, who Kyiv says were substantially helped by Russian troops.
Mariupol’s massive industries have promised to start forging fortifications, with residents called on to defend the city.
“We are Ukrainians, we are not slaves,” Mariupol resident Alexander, a shoe salesman, told AFP. “Help us! Give us weapons and we will do the rest,” he said.
[AFP]