Cameron calls for halting Russian aggression in Ukraine before it spreads

Russian aggression needs to be stopped now in Ukraine otherwise it can destabilize nearby countries such as Moldova and the Baltics, said on Feb. 24 British PM David Cameron, as reported by the B.B.C. news agency. Further Russian aggression in Ukraine may lead to new sanctions, including a third round targeting key spheres of the Russian economy, he said. In regards to dispatching arms to Ukraine, he said it’s not the time to discuss that now.

The psychological barrier that might change the West’s policy in Ukraine could become a siege of the key port city of Mariupol, which would mark the end of the Feb. 12 Minsk ceasefire accords, said former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in an interview published in Newsweek Polska on Feb. 23. Russia must pay for its attempts to divide Ukraine and invasion towards NATO borders, he said. There are many problems with supplying arms to Ukraine, Sikorski said. “The decision to provide arms should be well thought out,” he said. “We believe that we are ready to do this together with other states.”

The heads of the foreign ministries of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine issued a statement on Feb. 24 confirming that they couldn’t reach a political resolution the situation in Debaltseve during their meeting in Paris that day, reported the French Foreign Ministry web site. At the same time, they agreed on important technical issues on supporting the OSCE monitoring mission. The separatists haven’t backed away from Mariupol, Klimkin said, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he needs more information to be able to influence them, as reported by tyzhden.ua.

The Russian government declined to condemn the tragic events in Debaltseve, as well as the violation of the ceasefire regime, tweeted on Feb. 23 Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.

Meanwhile, police in Mariupol discovered ten kilograms of explosives hidden by Russian-backed separatists, reported on Feb. 24 the press service of the Donetsk regional police. The explosives were stored in a building in a residential area. A police operation to catch saboteurs in the city led to one criminal being neutralized while killing one police officer and wounding two. Meanwhile, the OSCE special monitoring mission reported on Feb. 23 that shootings continued near the village of Shyrokine east of Mariupol, “but the intensity of gunfire has decreased on the whole”.

Zenon Zawada: We are confident that a significant attack on Mariupol would change the West’s policy towards Ukraine. If Western military leaders have enough evidence of a possible attack, we expect them to get authorized the dispatch of carefully selected defensive lethal weapons to defend the city. Authorizing weapons once attacks begin would be too late. We also hold the view that shipments of arms are a more likely scenario than a U.N. peacekeeping force, which would encounter many hurdles and political friction. The arms shipment scenario would be carefully thought out by Western military commanders.