Reuters: Analysis – West clings to fraying Ukraine peace deal despite Kyiv doubts
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko speaks to official in his office in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 6, 2015. (AP Photo)
0
Shares
Few people in Kyiv believe Putin will lessen his support for the separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 6,100 people in just over a year
Western powers are clinging to a fraying peace deal in Ukraine and forcing Kyiv to follow suit, even though Russian President Vladimir Putin shows no sign of wavering and NATO is warning that Moscow may be preparing for a new offensive.
The United States and European Union are still backing the three-month old ceasefire, despite a growing feeling that it is in its death throes, telling Putin that sanctions will remain if he does not honour his promises.
This offers little consolation to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who, while under pressure at home over a steady loss of troops fighting pro-Moscow rebels in the east, has to keep in diplomatic step with the West whose political and financial help he needs.
His feelings showed in Berlin on Wednesday when a German journalist suggested eastern Ukraine was relatively calm.