EU officially extends Russia sanctions
BRUSSELS – Ambassadors from the European Union’s member states have officially extended the bloc’s economic sanctions against Russia by another six months. The 28 EU heads of state and government agreed last week during a two-day summit in Brussels that they would extend the measures until January 31. The Kremlin on June 28 responded by saying Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory steps against the EU. At the summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron gave an assessment on compliance by Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine to the 2015 Minsk agreements, which are aimed at ending a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014. EU diplomats told RFE/RL that there was broad agreement among member states to stay firm with Moscow on Ukraine, while at the same time being open to dialogue on other foreign policy issues. The EU sanctions, which mainly target Russia’s banking and financial sectors, were first imposed by Brussels in the summer of 2014 in response to Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine. The sanctions package has been renewed every six months since then. (RFE/RL)
Poroshenko on EU solidarity with Ukraine
BRUSSELS – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he and European Council President Donald Tusk have discussed relations with the European Union, as well as U.S. sanctions related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and to Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. “I am happy to hear today from Donald [Tusk] and from our consultations with other leaders of the European Union that the position of the EU is unity and solidarity with regard to Ukraine, which is vitally important for us,” Mr. Poroshenko said at a news conference with the European Council president in Brussels on June 22. The EU on June 19 extended the bloc’s investment ban against Crimea for another year, while the United States on June 20 announced new financial measures against Russia-backed separatists involved in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The EU sanctions were introduced in 2014 in response to Russia’s illegal annexation of the Ukrainian region and have since been extended on a yearly basis. “The message about the rolling over of the sanctions is exactly what we are happy to hear these days,” Mr. Poroshenko said. The Ukrainian president, who had just returned from a trip to the United States, also said that he and U.S. President Donald Trump had “a very promising negotiation and coordination first of all about the sanctions.” The new sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department on June 20 targeted more than three dozen fighters and separatist leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine. “You know that the United States introduced the new sanctions and confirmed that all sanctions remain in place until the full implementation of [the] Minsk [agreement],” Mr. Poroshenko said. (RFE/RL)
Macron, Poroshenko voice hope of progress
PARIS – After meeting in Paris, the French and Ukrainian presidents have voiced hope of making progress in resolving the conflict between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron told a joint news conference with Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko on June 26 that he expected “consultations” to be held within a four-way process known as the Normandy format before a G20 summit in Germany on July 7-8. It was not immediately clear whether the consultations would occur in person or take the form of a telephone conversation among the leaders of the countries involved – France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine – as was the case on a number of occasions in the past. Mr. Poroshenko said that he was “much more optimistic” following his meeting with Mr. Macron, adding that “peace can take the form of ending the Russian aggression.” He added, “We have agreed that we will put on paper projects of possible solutions for the Normandy format.” A ceasefire agreement brokered by France and Germany was signed in Minsk in February 2015. Mr. Macron said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel shared his determination to resolve the conflict, adding that he disagrees with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s view that the hostilities in Ukraine could be resolved outside of the Minsk agreement framework. Mr. Tillerson told U.S. lawmakers on June 14 that “it is very possible that the government of Ukraine and the government of Russia could come to a satisfactory resolution through some structure other than Minsk that achieve Minsk.” He told the House Foreign Affairs Committee, “My caution is I wouldn’t want to handcuff ourselves to Minsk if the parties decide to settle this through a different agreement.” Mr. Macron also insisted that France refuses to recognize Russia’s illegal annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in March 2014, saying, “France is committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty with its recognized borders.” The comments come two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Crimea on a trip that Kyiv condemned as a violation of its sovereignty. Mr. Poroshenko called for the release of Ukrainians held by separatists in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as in Russia. “One hundred and twenty-eight Ukrainian captives are held on the occupied territory and more than 40 in Russian jails,” he said. “We would expect that a revival of the consultations in the Normandy format will enable us to achieve instant progress in this highly sensitive area.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, AFP, Interfax, and TASS)
U.S.: Separatists ‘harass’ OSCE monitors
WASHINGTON – The United States has accused Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine of a campaign of “violence and harassment” against international monitors aimed at preventing them from reporting truce violations. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on June 22 that Washington was “deeply concerned” about the situation, describing the separatists as “Russian-led, Russian-funded and Russian-trained.” Ms. Nauert said that on June 20 separatist forces fired at retreating Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) vehicles carrying monitors, and in April an American paramedic accompanying the monitors was killed when his truck hit an explosive. “The incidents are part of a broader effort to keep the international community from seeing what is happening in eastern Ukraine,” she said. “We call on Russia to use its influence to end this campaign of intimidation and honor its commitment to allow free, full, and safe access to the OSCE monitors.” (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Reuters)
Two soldiers killed despite ceasefire
KYIV – The Ukrainian military has said that two soldiers were killed and two wounded in the eastern part of the country despite a ceasefire that began on June 23. In a statement posted on Facebook on June 24, the military accused anti-government rebels of firing artillery rounds in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The statement did not provide details about the casualties. The two sides and representatives of Moscow and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed on the ceasefire on June 21. It is intended to last until August 31 to allow locals to harvest crops. Representatives of the Russia-backed rebels on June 24 accused government forces of violating the ceasefire 10 times, adding that information about the purported violations had been sent to the OSCE monitors. The conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it began in early 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP)
Defense deals with U.S. to be signed soon
WASHINGTON – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that representatives from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have agreed to visit Kyiv “in the near future” and will sign “very important” defense agreements. Speaking after talks at the Pentagon in Washington on June 21, Mr. Poroshenko said U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Vice-President Mike Pence told him that the visit to Kyiv by key members of the Trump administration would take place during the next two to three months. “Very important agreements will be signed, including agreements on defense cooperation, including an agreement on defense procurement, and an agreement on military-technical cooperation,” Mr. Poroshenko noted. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters, Interfax-Ukraine, and Interfax)
Over 40,000 troops in occupied Donbas
WASHINGTON – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko reported that over 40,000 Russian regular troops and Russian-backed military forces are now deployed in occupied areas in Ukraine, according to Fox News. “We have a very well-coordinated exchange of intelligence data with NATO, with the U.S., with our European partners. Today we have more than 3,000 regular Russian troops on my territory, plus the Russian-operated proxies – all together more than 40,000,” Mr. Poroshenko told Fox News in an exclusive interview amid his working visit to Washington on June 20. He also reported on the presence of Russian military hardware in the occupied areas. “And we have more [Russian] tanks, more multi-rocket launch systems, more artillery on this occupied territory than the Bundeswehr in Germany,” he added. (UNIAN)
Manafort registers as foreign agent
WASHNGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has registered as a foreign agent for consulting work he did for the political party of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Mr. Manafort said in a Justice Department filing that his firm, DMP International, received more than $17 million from the Party of Regions, the pro-Russian former ruling party, for consulting work from 2012 through 2014. Mr. Manafort is the second member of the Trump campaign to register as a foreign agent. In March, former national security adviser Michael Flynn registered with the Justice Department for work his consulting firm performed for a Turkish businessman. Mr. Manafort headed Trump’s campaign for about five months until August and resigned from the campaign immediately after the Associated Press reported on his firm’s covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s ruling political party. He is one of several people linked to the Trump campaign who are under scrutiny by a special counsel and congressional committees investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign and potential coordination with Trump associates. Mr. Manafort has denied any coordination with Russia and has said his work in Ukraine was not related to the campaign. Under U.S. law, people who represent foreign political interests and seek to influence U.S. public opinion and policy are required to register with the Justice Department before they perform any work. Manafort’s registration comes more than three years after he completed his work. In the filing, Mr. Manafort said that his company’s work was mostly focused on domestic Ukrainian politics as part of its work for Mr. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. Mr. Manafort’s filing repeatedly states that his firm worked “to advance the goal of greater political and economic integration between Ukraine and the West.” Mr. Manafort’s firm also acknowledged that it had some involvement with a Brussels-based nonprofit called the European Centre for Modern Ukraine, saying that it provided “advice” to the entity. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP, DPA and The Washington Post)
Lavrov cites “Russophobic mania”
MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov has denounced new sanctions the United States announced against 38 people fighting with and supporting Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. “It in no way helps to improve the atmosphere. The sanctions were imposed for no apparent reason, again,” Mr. Lavrov said after meeting with his French counterpart in Moscow on June 20. “I can express nothing but regrets about such Russophobic mania of our American colleagues. It goes beyond all bound,” he said. The Trump administration announced the new sanctions the same day that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with U.S. President Donald Trump for the first time at the White House. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the penalties were designed to “maintain pressure on Russia to work toward a diplomatic solution” in Ukraine. Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with Interfax that the new sanctions will backfire. “The sanctions that have been applied supposedly in the interest of settling the situation in southeastern Ukraine play into the hands of forces in Kyiv that are absolutely not interested in any settlement,” he said. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, TASS and Interfax)
Ryan on meeting with Parubiy
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on June 15 met with Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy, and the leaders signed a memorandum of understanding reaffirming the U.S. Congress-Rada Parliamentary Exchange (CRPE). After the meeting, Rep. Ryan issued the following statement: “I was proud to join Speaker Parubiy to renew our interparliamentary ties with the Rada. This mutually beneficial program fosters closer political, economic, and security relations between our legislatures. Amid ongoing aggression from Russia, close coordination with the people and government of Ukraine is more important than ever. I appreciate Speaker Parubiy’s commitment to strengthening this critical partnership.” (Press Office of the Speaker of the House)