Back in March, during a working visit to Washington, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko argued that sanctions “are the only line in the sand that the West drew after 2014. It is the only line between good and evil drawn in the context of this war. And if there is no line anymore – then what’s the difference between good and evil? Do we really want a world devoid of political boundaries? Do we want a world where one can grab other nation’s land, kill thousands – and stay unpunished?”
Unfortunately, nothing has changed in Russia’s behavior. Evidence of that abounds. In fact, Russia and its proxies have increased the level of aggression in Ukraine, and there are clear indications that Russia is preparing for more war.
• On June 9, U.S. Ambassador Daniel B. Baer minced no words when he told the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe: “Within a single week, combined Russian-separatist forces shot down the SMM’s [Special Monitoring Mission’s] two long-range UAVs [drones] near Horlivka, and threatened to shoot down a mini-UAV sent by the SMM to search for wreckage of the downed UAVs. Combined Russian-separatist forces also sabotaged OSCE cameras outside of Donetsk, which are critical to monitoring volatile hot spots… This deliberate effort to blind the SMM is intended to conceal from the international community the build-up of combined Russian-separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, the advanced Russian weaponry these forces have in their arsenal, and the military personnel and materiel that regularly cross the border from Russia into Ukraine. This calculated effort is part of a strategy of deception undertaken by the Russian Federation to cover up its ongoing aggression against Ukraine.”
• Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council reported that on June 8 Russian terrorist forces were firing on Popasne, Avdiyivka, Novotroitske, Mariyinka and other positions in the Donbas. The spokesman of the Presidential Administration on ATO-related issues, Col. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, said the next day that active shelling was continuing as militants moved their forces, including mortar and artillery batteries, closer to the line of contact.
• A June 8 Reuters story revealed that Russia is building a new army base near its border with Ukraine; last year, Russia had established two other bases further to the south. “When completed, the base will be the latest component in a build-up of forces along a line running from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south,” Reuters correspondent Anton Zverev wrote.
• An infographic released on June 3 by the Ukraine Crisis Media Center reminded the world that at the Kremlin continues to hold at least 31 Ukrainian political prisoners.
• According to a report published on June 3 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 9,371 people have been killed and 21,532 others injured in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began in mid-April 2014. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic, who recently returned from a weeklong visit to Ukraine, also pointed to the deteriorating human rights situation in the Crimea, where “Anti-extremism and anti-terrorism laws have been used to criminalize non-violent behavior and stifle dissenting opinion, while the judicial and law enforcement systems have been instrumentalized to clamp down on opposition voices. Worst affected are Crimean Tatars…” The U.N. official underscored: “The increase in heavy weaponry near the contact line, and the hostilities …in the Donetsk region since early March, are all indicators that the crisis is far from over and should not fall off the radar of the international community.”
From all of the foregoing, it is clear that now is not the time to ease up on sanctions against Russia.
And yet, the French Senate voted overwhelmingly this week to urge the government to gradually reduce sanctions on Russia. This, RFE/RL reported, is a sign of growing European opposition to sanctions, which are to be discussed at a June 28-29 meeting of European Union leaders.
In the U.S., Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 7 that sanctions are “the largest piece of leverage that we have on Russia” and that is why the U.S. is advocating that the sanctions be renewed. “While Moscow has not yet changed its approach to Ukraine, our readiness to toughen sanctions even further has likely played a role in deterring further Russian efforts to grab Ukrainian territory,” she stated.
Western leaders must stand firm, and united, in opposing Russia’s war against Ukraine.