Obama Promises Methods Against Russian-Backed 039Aggression039 As …
(Reuters) – Pro-Moscow rebels, backed by what NATO says is the open participation of Russian troops, pressed on with their offensive on Sunday immediately after restarting the war in eastern Ukraine with the very first all-out assault given that a truce 5 months ago.
U.S. President Barack Obama stated Washington was contemplating all selections brief of military action to isolate Russia. The European Union referred to as an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of its 28 member states.
“We are deeply concerned about the newest break in the ceasefire and the aggression that these separatists — with Russian backing, Russian equipment, Russian financing, Russian education and Russian troops — are conducting,” Obama told a news conference through a take a look at to India.
“I will appear at all extra options that are obtainable to us quick of military confrontation and try to address this issue. And we will be in close consultation with our international partners, particularly European partners.”
NATO accuses Moscow of sending troops to fight on behalf of rebels in territory the Kremlin has dubbed “New Russia” in a war that has killed much more than five,000 people.
In some of the strongest language ever from Brussels, Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who now presides over EU summits as European Council president, denounced “appeasement” of Moscow, a word with unmistakable World War Two connotations.
“Once once more, appeasement encourages the aggressor to greater acts of violence. Time to step up our policy primarily based on cold information, not illusions,” Tusk stated on Twitter.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine had primarily died down since a September ceasefire, but in recent days the war has returned in complete force, with the rebels announcing the powerful finish of the truce and an offensive to expand territory beneath their handle.
On Saturday rebels attacked Mariupol, a strategic Black Sea port of 500,000 men and women and the greatest city still in government hands in the two rebel-dominated eastern provinces. Kyiv said 30 civilians were killed in shelling.
Rebels launched new attacks on Sunday against government positions elsewhere along the front line that winds via the two restive provinces, the Kyiv army said.
“Rebels are attacking the positions of anti-terrorist operation troops really intensively, using artillery, mortars, grenade launchers, tanks,” military spokesman Andriy Lysenko mentioned in a televised briefing.
He mentioned 4 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and 17 injured in the previous 24 hours and that rebel attacks on the town of Debaltseve, northeast of separatist-held Donetsk, had been especially fierce.
“Mainly because of continual shelling in the previous couple of days, there are dead and injured among neighborhood residents. Around 60 residences have been destroyed or damaged,” he said without having providing a figure for the quantity of casualties.
Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said on Saturday the separatists planned to encircle Debaltseve, which has a population of around 26,000.
NEW SANCTIONS
Right after months in which European politicians had been debating regardless of whether it was time to start rolling back sanctions, the speak now is of how to tighten them.
“If the Russian government cannot prove that it is making verifiable progress towards a de-escalation of the predicament, we’ll have to speak about extra severe sanctions sadly,” said German politician Karl-Georg Wellmann, a foreign policy specialist for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
The rebels say government forces have been hitting cities with artillery, killing civilians and forcing them to advance to push Kyiv’s troops further from population centers. Moscow blames the West for failing to force the Kyiv government to talk to the rebels.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on Sunday to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini. He told both the escalation in violence was a outcome of Kyiv refusing a proposal laid out in a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko to withdraw heavy weapons away from the demarcation line.
Lavrov blamed the escalation of violence in east Ukraine on what he named “continual shelling of populated locations by Ukrainian army.” He named on Kerry to press Kyiv to renounce “betting on the military situation.”
Mogherini named an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers for Thursday to talk about Ukraine and the Mariupol assault.
Russia says it has not sent troops into Ukraine, and any Russians there are volunteers. NATO says this is nonsense.
“Russian troops in eastern Ukraine are supporting these offensive operations with command and control systems, air defense systems with advanced surface-to-air missiles, unmanned aerial systems (drones), sophisticated numerous rocket launcher systems and electronic warfare systems,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
“I strongly urge Russia to cease its military, political and economic assistance for the separatists, quit destabilizing Ukraine and respect its international commitments,” he stated.
Last week Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated Russia had 9,000 troops stationed in his nation.
(Further reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow Writing by Peter Graff Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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