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Kerry Turns Up Pressure on Russia Over Ukraine Kerry Turns Up Pressure on Russia Over Ukraine
(about 5 hours later)
PARIS — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Russia needed to take steps over the coming “hours” to pressure armed separatists in eastern Ukraine to give up the fight or face the prospect of toughened sanctions. PARIS — Amid a flurry of diplomatic consultations aimed at preserving a fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that Russia faced the prospect of toughened sanctions unless it took steps over the coming “hours” to pressure armed separatists in eastern Ukraine to give up the fight.
The European Union is scheduled to meet on Friday in Belgium to consider the imposition of additional economic sanctions. Mr. Kerry’s warning injected new pressure a day before a European Union meeting in Brussels during which leaders were expected to consider imposing additional economic sanctions on Russia, and in which President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine was expected to sign a free-trade accord that his predecessor, Viktor F. Yaunkovych, scuttled last fall, setting off months of civil unrest.
“We are in full agreement that it is critical for Russia to show in the next hours, literally, that they are moving to help disarm the separatists, to encourage them to disarm, to call on them to lay down their weapons and begin to become part of a legitimate political process,” Mr. Kerry said after meeting here with Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister. While President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has voiced support for the cease-fire and for peace talks between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatist rebels, the United States has expressed doubts that Mr. Putin is genuinely committed to ending the violence.
Making a similar point, Mr. Fabius said that “commitments” had been made on “de-escalation” of the crisis in a lengthy four-way call on Wednesday with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine. Mr. Fabius said France hoped these promises would be fulfilled “today and in the coming days.” “We are in full agreement that it is critical for Russia to show in the next hours, literally, that they are moving to help disarm the separatists, to encourage them to disarm, to call on them to lay down their weapons and begin to become part of a legitimate political process,” Mr. Kerry said after meeting in Paris with Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister.
Western nations and Ukraine have accused Russia of providing political support and weapons to separatists in eastern Ukraine. They have demanded that Russia use its influence to get the separatists to lay down their arms, and that it support efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully and pull back Russian forces from the Ukrainian border. In a news conference at NATO headquarters on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry also warned that sanctions were being prepared. But it was not certain that the European Union would enact new sanctions on Friday if Mr. Putin failed to take major steps to defuse the conflict.
In recent weeks and days, Mr. Putin has consulted with the Ukrainian president, Petro O. Poroshenko, on the details of a peace plan, supporting Mr. Poroshenko’s call for a temporary cease-fire as well as an extension of that measure. Russia has also revoked a Parliamentary order authorizing the use of Russian military force in Ukraine. While Mr. Fabius made a point similar to Mr. Kerry’s, saying that “commitments” had been made on “de-escalation” of the crisis in a lengthy four-way call on Wednesday between Mr. Putin and the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine, he offered a longer time frame, adding that France hoped these promises would be fulfilled “today and in the coming days.”
Despite Mr. Putin’s apparent peace offensive, the State Department has accused the Kremlin of continuing to aid the separatists covertly, and of sending tanks and other armored vehicles and weaponry over its porous border with Ukraine. Although the United States has been vocal in threatening additional sanctions, its European allies are juggling competing concerns, including business interests in their own countries, which have far more economic dealings with Russia than does the United States. Mr. Putin has also has also been adept of taking limited steps that have stirred debate among the Europeans about the need for tougher sanctions.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kerry drew attention to the military support the West says Russia is providing to Ukrainian separatists, a charge the Kremlin has denied. In a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mr. Kerry said the separatists had shot down a Ukrainian military helicopter, killing nine Ukrainian soldiers, “with a Russian weapon.” In Ukraine, sporadic skirmishing between government forces and rebels continued in the east on Thursday, including a firefight near a strategically important airfield in Kramatorsk. The cease-fire has been tentative at best, and on Wednesday Mr. Poroshenko said that 18 government soldiers had been killed by rebels since he ordered the halt in military operations last Friday.
While the Obama administration and its European allies have long threatened to impose tougher economic measures if Mr. Putin does not cooperate, they have been slow to follow through. The former president, Leonid M. Kuchma, who was tapped by Mr. Poroshenko to coordinate talks with the rebels, said Thursday that another meeting aimed at resolving the conflict would take place on Friday. After the first session on Monday, rebel leaders agreed to adhere to Mr. Poroshenko’s cease-fire, but that truce is scheduled to end Friday night.
After Mr. Kerry said that Russia needed to act within “hours,” a Western official said it was not absolutely certain the European Union would impose measures on Friday if Mr. Putin failed to take major steps to defuse the crisis. In the long negotiations over Ukraine, Mr. Putin has often managed to deflect tougher sanctions by taking partial steps toward peace while not fully resolving the conflict. Kiev has refused to call the talks “negotiations,” because Mr. Poroshenko has said he will not bargain with leaders of the violent separatist rebellion. In a statement on Thursday, Viktor V. Medvedchuk, a former chief of staff to Mr. Kuchma and personal friend of Mr. Putin’s, who has helped arrange the talks, urged Mr. Poroshenko to rethink that view.
In his comments here on Thursday, Mr. Kerry referred to the European Union meeting on Friday and noted that it would concern “their component of the sanctions.” “It is important to understand that to have a truly productive dialogue, negotiations should be conducted with those who really control the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk and the armed resistance,” Mr. Medvedchuk said.
“We all agree that they need to be ready,” Mr. Kerry said of the sanctions under discussion. “But our preference is not to have to be into a sanctions mode. We would like to see a cooperative effort between the United States, Europe and Russia and the Ukrainians. And we are going to try to encourage that as much as we can.” He added: “Kiev, inviting to the negotiating table only government officials and political elites, should ask a simple question: can they enforce signed memorandums? If not, then the peace plan will be another unviable initiative by the central government.”
American officials have sometimes referred to the measures under discussion as “sector sanctions,” which has led some observers to conclude that they would apply to entire areas of the Russian economy. Following up on the Wednesday conference call, Mr. Putin and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke again by telephone on Thursday.
But officials said the measures that have been considered in recent weeks were less sweeping and would actually involve the imposition of specific sanctions within individual economic sectors. That approach would spread the economic pain among Western nations that have economic dealings with Russia, they said. In a statement, the Kremlin said the two leaders had discussed how to monitor compliance with terms of the cease-fire as well as “the need to extend the truce, to organize a regular contact group and to release the individuals held by force.”
Mr. Poroshenko on Thursday said pointedly that Russia had not yet done enough to end the violence and implement a peace plan, and that it was still allowing fighters and arms to cross the border into Ukraine.
“Sadly, so far, Moscow’s support has been insufficient,” Mr. Poroshenko said in a speech in Strasbourg, France, to European lawmakers. “From this podium, I urge Russia once again to resolve the situation. Please support the peace plan with deeds and not just words. With deeds, we can stop the deaths of civilians and military people.”
“We await these actions,” he added. “Strengthen the border control; stop the illegal infiltration of military vehicles into Ukraine. Stop recruiting mercenaries, and finally pull back military forces from the border. The people of Ukraine do not want war or anarchy.”
The agreement to be signed Friday by Mr. Poroshenko calls for the establishment of a “deep and comprehensive free-trade area” between Europe and Ukraine. Two other former Soviet republics, Georgia and Moldova, are expected to sign similar agreements on Friday.
The goal, according to European Union documents, is to “significantly deepen political and economic ties between the signatories with a long-term perspective of closer political association and economic integration.”
Russia has been opposed to closer ties between the ex-Soviet republicans and the West, saying that it will be put at a disadvantage and that the agreements are ultimately aimed at a broader military and strategic alliance that could lead to further expansion of NATO, which Russia opposes.
Though Mr. Poroshenko’s signing of the agreement is an important symbolic step, Europe’s ultimate goal of strengthening ties with Ukraine will be virtually impossible to achieve without a peace deal to end the separatist violence and the resolution of an ongoing dispute between Russia and Ukraine over the cost of natural gas — including how much Ukraine owes in unpaid bills and what it will pay for energy in the future.