The European Union has decided to extend until September an initial group of sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia separatist officials due to the continued fighting in eastern Ukraine and has plans for further action.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said on January 29 after an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels that sanctions due to expire in March had been extended by six months.
She added that “we have shown that the EU is ready to take further measures.”
The extension was agreed to by all 28 EU member countries, including Greece, which the previous day had suggested it objected to the extension of the sanctions.
The EU is due to hold a summit on February 12 to discuss new action against a fresh group of Russian and pro-Moscow separatist officials.
Calls for the sanctions to be extended came after a rocket attack on the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol last week that killed 30 people and wounded dozens more.
Kyiv and the West say the rebels have stepped up attacks in violation of a cease-fire deal signed in September in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, decreasing the chances of ending a conflict that has killed more than 5,100 people since April.
Rebels have said that the terms of the Minsk agreement are no longer in force and vowed to seize more ground in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia denies sending troops to eastern Ukraine to aid the rebels, saying the only Russians fighting there are “volunteers.”
But the head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said on January 28 that Russia has deployed seven “mobile military crematoriums” in the eastern Donetsk region to burn the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in combat there.
Valentyn Nalyvaychenko said the crematoriums are mounted on Kamaz trucks and said each is burning eight to 10 bodies per day.
He said Ukraine had “documented this information” but did not explain how.
Courtesy of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a broadcasting organization that provides news, information, and analysis in 21 countries where free press is banned by the government or not fully established.
Copyright (c) 2014. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
ETFs: RSX, ERUS
Discussion
No comments yet.