U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, while the leaders of France and Germany announced they are also heading to Ukraine with a new peace proposal.
Ahead of Kerry’s arrival, a senior State Department official announced the U.S. is providing Kyiv with an additional $16.4 million in aid to help civilians affected by fighting between Ukraine’s military and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The official also said the U.S. continues to evaluate whether to provide “defensive lethal weapons” to Ukraine, but he said there were concerns whether Ukrainian forces had adequate training to handle such equipment.
Meanwhile, diplomats said European Union governments have agreed on a list of new entities and Russian and pro-Moscow Ukrainian individuals who will suffer sanctions in the bloc.
Of the 19 individuals, including five Russians, and nine entities, of which one is Russian, none were very senior or prominent, EU diplomats said Thursday. The names were not immediately available.
Foreign ministers will meet on Monday in Brussels to endorse the list, which adds to measures taken last year.
Latest breakdown in talks
Violence in eastern Ukraine escalated after last week’s breakdown of the latest round of peace talks aimed at ending the nine-month rebellion.
French President Francois Hollande said Thursday he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Ukraine to present a “new solution to the conflict based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Hollande and Merkel will discuss the plan with Poroshenko before heading to Moscow for talks with Russian leaders, the French leader said.
No details of the peace initiative were immediately available.
In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was set Thursday to strengthen its defenses near Russia’s borders in response to Moscow’s “aggressive actions” in Ukraine.
Stoltenberg said defense ministers meeting in the Belgian capital plan to boost the size of the NATO response force from 13,000 to 30,000. They will also likely approve the establishment of a new rapid-response force of about 5,000 troops, he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is attending the Brussels meeting. Vice President Joe Biden also is expected in Brussels later this week, before heading to Munich for security conference where Ukraine is also to be discussed.
Washington has provided Ukraine with over $355 million in assistance over the past year, but has so far been reluctant to provide weapons, fearing getting involved in another protracted overseas conflict.
Modern weapons
Ahead of his meeting with Kerry, Poroshenko told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper the recent escalation of the conflict should move NATO to provide Ukraine with more support, including modern weapons.
“We still need a lot of military, technical, and specialist help to improve the fighting strength of the Ukrainian army in its resistance of Russian aggression,” Poroshenko said in the interview.
The diplomatic push comes as fighting raged in the separatist-controlled, Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, near the Russian border. The latest fighting centered on the Ukrainian-controlled town of Debaltseve
The United Nations said nearly 5,400 people have been killed and more than 12,000 others wounded since separatists launched their rebellion in April.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday joined calls for a temporary truce in Debaltseve. In a statement, Ban condemned indiscriminate shelling and called on both sides to move their military positions away from densely populated civilian areas.
Pam Dockins in Kyiv contributed to this report. Some material for this report came from Reuters.
…
