Poroshenko says Russia attacking Ukraine, calls for European support:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has reiterated his charges that Russia is deeply involved in the fighting in eastern Ukraine and urged European countries to support Kyiv.
Poroshenko, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 7, said Ukraine's "once friendly neighbor" Russia has broken international law "and taken a part of our territory," a reference to Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
He said that Russia had provided military equipment and hardware to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and that Russian troops are in the rebel-held regions.
Poroshenko held up several red passports and military IDs that he claimed were taken from Russian soldiers and officers fighting in Ukraine and said they were proof of Moscow's presence in his country.
He said the Ukraine crisis will "remain unsolved" unless Kyiv receives political, economic, and military support from Europe and other international allies.
Declaring himself a "president of peace, not war," he said the principles in the Minsk agreement were the only way to end the fighting in Ukraine.
He held out hope for a peace initiative made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande presented to Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 6, and said everyone will see in the coming days "who is responsible for not signing a cease-fire agreement."
Biden: Putin can "get out" of Ukraine or face "isolation":
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says Russian President Vladimir Putin faces a choice to either "get out" of Ukraine or face "continued international isolation" and domestic economic problems.
Biden, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 7, said that unless Russia changes course in its involvement in Ukraine, the international community will continue to "impose costs" on Moscow for its "violation of international norms."
He said that Russia is disregarding Ukraine's sovereignty with its involvement in eastern Ukraine, where a conflict between rebels and the government has killed more than 5,350 people since April, and charged that pro-Russian separatist leaders and the core of the "trained fighters" in eastern Ukraine "directly answer to Mr. Putin."
Biden told an audience that included world leaders and senior officials that no country has spheres of influence and said at every independent country has the "sovereign right to choose its own alliances" -- a warning that Russia cannot keep Ukraine out of NATO against its will.
He said that the United States wants to reassert the "bedrock principle" of a "Europe whole and free."