Kerry To Russia: Implement Ukraine Agreement Or Face Continued Sanctions
By RFE/RL
MUNICH, Germany -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia of "repeated aggression" and said sanctions will stay in place until the Minsk II agreement to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine is fully implemented.
The United States and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions on Russia in response to its support for separatists who control parts of eastern Ukraine and have fought government forces in a devastating war.
Sanctions will remain in place until "the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine is protected in full implementation of the Minsk agreements," Kerry said at the Munich Security Conference on February 13.
He said "Russia faces a simple choice: fully implement Minsk" or face continued sanctions.
He added that implementation includes the withdrawal of Russian forces -- which Western governments say are in Ukraine despite Russian denials -- and restoration of Ukrainian control over the entire Ukrainian-Russian border.
He spoke of joint and "unwavering support for a democratic Ukraine" by the United States and the European Union, and called for Ukraine to do more to fight corruption.
Our correspondent in Munich, Steve Gutterman, filed this update from the security conference:
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier noted some progress in negotiations, including on the thorny question of how to conduct elections in areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
But he said that all sides were still "a long way off from resolving the conflict."
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said foreign ministers planned to come together again in early March in Paris for a full-fledged meeting.
Lots of Ukraine news coming out of the Munich Security Conference today. Here's another dispatch from our correspondent there, Steve Gutterman:
Ukrainian President: 'Mr. Putin, This Is Your Aggression'
By RFE/RL
MUNICH, Germany -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sharply criticized his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and said the security of Europe and the world are at stake in Ukraine.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 13, Poroshenko called on Russia to fulfill its obligations under a deal aimed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine by withdrawing Russian troops and ceding control of the border.
"Mr. Putin, this is not a civil war in Ukraine, this is your aggression...this is your soldiers who have entered my country," Poroshenko said in English.
More than 9,000 combatants and civilians have been killed in eastern Ukraine since fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists began in April 2014, following Russia's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
Fighting has decreased dramatically since September 2015, but main aspects of the Minsk II deal to resolve the conflict have gone unfulfilled amid mutual recriminations.
Poroshenko said that it is "not only Ukraine, not only Ukrainian security" that is at stake. "This is European and global security," he said.
He warned that Putin is threatening Europe and its values, saying there is an illiberal "alternative Europe" and its "name is Vladimir Putin."
Putin did not attend the annual Munich conference. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speaking earlier in the day at the conference, blamed Ukraine for problems with implementation of the Minsk II agreement.
Russia's Ukraine Interference In Focus At Security Conference
By RFE/RL
MUNICH, Germany -- German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivered a rebuke to Russia at a prominent security conference, saying that "the question of war and peace has returned to the European continent" following Moscow's seizure of Crimea and backing for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Steinmeier's remarks opened the second day of the annual Munich Security Conference.
He did not identify Russia by name. But he said that after the end of the Cold War and the violent 20th century, "we had thought that peace had returned to Europe for good" and that "borders would not be put into question."
The "turbulence" on Europe's eastern edge is one of several major challenges the European Union is facing, Steinmeier said.
EU unity is also being threatened by a refugee crisis fueled by the five-year war in Syria.