EU ministers meet on Ukraine crisis
European Union (EU) foreign ministers were today set to consider adopting a tougher stance on the Ukraine crisis amid increasing calls to beef up economic sanctions against Russia.
The meeting of the EU’s 28 top diplomats in Milan came a day after Nato said Russia has already slipped about 1,000 soldiers and much heavy weaponry into Ukraine, a development that raised fears of a wider invasion.
The US and the EU have imposed sanctions against dozens of Russian officials, several firms and the country’s financial industry. Moscow has retaliated by banning food imports.
President Barack Obama said yesterday that Russia’s support for rebel combatants in eastern Ukraine must incur “more costs and consequences”.
However, the EU ministers were not expected to make a decision on new sanctions.
Instead, their discussions were set to prepare possible further steps that could be announced at a summit of the bloc’s 28 leaders tomorrow.
In what appeared to be a last-minute bid for more support and tougher action on Russia, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko is set to meet the head of the EU’s executive Commission, president Jose Manuel Barroso, and summit chairman Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels.
New EU sanctions against Russia would have to be agreed unanimously – a requirement that has in the past blocked tougher action as some nations fear the economic fallout of sanctions.
Russia is the EU’s third-largest trading partner and one of its biggest oil and gas suppliers.
The fighting between Ukrainian military forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has already claimed at least 2,200 lives, according to UN figures.
The two-day foreign ministers’ meeting was also set to feature discussions about the situation in Gaza and the crises engulfing Syria and Iraq.
Meanwhile, Russia’s president has called on pro-Russian separatists fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine to release Ukrainian soldiers who have been surrounded by rebels.
Vladimir Putin’s statement came several hours after Ukraine accused Russia of entering its territory with tanks, artillery and troops, and western powers lashed out at Moscow for lying about its role and dangerously escalating the conflict.
“I’m calling on insurgents to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian troops who were surrounded in order to avoid senseless deaths,” Mr Putin said.
He did not address the claims about Russia’s military presence in Ukraine.
The statement could be referring to Ukrainian troops who have been trapped outside the strategic town of Ilovaysk, east of Donetsk, for nearly a week.
Protesters rallied outside the Ukrainian General Staff yesterday, demanding reinforcements and heavy weaponry for the troops, most of whom are volunteers.
