EU calls for Russia to remove its armies, offers significant aid to Ukraine

The EU Council called for the Russian government to immediately remove its armies from Ukraine following an Aug. 30 meeting, the UNIAN news agency reported. “The EU Council condemns the growing streams of fighters and arms from the Russian Federation’s territory into eastern Ukraine, as well as the aggression from Russian Armed Forces on Ukrainian territory,” its summary said. “It calls upon the Russian Federation to immediately remove its armed forces and hardware from Ukraine.” The first steps to resolving the conflict should be a mutual ceasefire, renewal of Ukrainian control of its border, the immediate halt of flows and arms and personnel from Russian into Ukraine and the immediate release of all hostages held by illegally armed groups and prisoners held by the Russian Federation.

 

The French government has evidence of Russian forces invading Ukrainian territory, French Foreign Minister Lauren Fabius told a television network on Aug. 29. “When a country sends its armies into another country without its permission and against its will, that’s called an intervention,” he said, adding, “We are supposed to show simultaneously our toughness and readiness for dialogue.”

 

The entry of Russian forces into the southern part of the Donetsk region is an act of aggression based on United Nations criteria, the Polish Foreign Ministry said in an Aug. 29 statement. “The Foreign Ministry express its firm protest in relation to increasing the insertion of Russian military forces onto Ukraine’s territory,” the statement said. “In the last period, we have observed offensive action of Russian armies in the southern part of the Donetsk region, particularly in the vicinity of Novoazovsk.” The Polish Foreign Ministry supports a diplomatic resolution to the conflict on the bases of international law while preserving Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told an Aug. 30 press conference in Brussels that an EU decision on possibly imposing a new round of sanctions was based on his peace plan, the Interfax-Ukrayina news agency reported. “The possibility of introducing sectoral sanctions, including sectoral sanctions of the third level, was supported by an absolute majority of EU member-states,” he said. “And that was related to the success of the Ukrainian president’s peace plan, which gained the unanimous support of the EU today, from the moment of ceasefire.”

 

Poroshenko announced he secured a third wave of macroeconomic aid for Ukraine consisted of loans of EUR 1 bln and EUR 510 mln, as well as a EUR 250 mln grant. He also said he secured agreements with certain EU member-states on widening military cooperation and receiving military aid of non-lethal, state-of-the-art armaments.

 

The EU Foreign Ministers held an informal meeting in Milan on Aug. 29-30 at which they held a “profound discussion” on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, tweeted Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. “Very little doubt now that Russia will use also its regular armed forces to try to carve out a Novorossiya semi-state from Ukraine,” he commented.

 

Russian armies razed the village of Novosvitlivka in the Luhansk region, destroying all its buildings, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko told the 5 Kanal television network on Aug. 30. Afterwards they moved towards neighboring villages to offer support for separatists. The next day, Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey confirmed that Russian armies entered the city of Donetsk (population 950,000) and are fighting in the vicinity of the airport of Luhansk (population 424,000). Russian armed forces were also strengthening their position in Novoazovsk, which they took under control on Aug. 28.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the Ukrainian government to begin negotiations on the statehood of territories that are under the control of pro-Russian forces. “It’s necessary to immediately enter substantial, meaningful talks, not on technical issues, but issues on the political organizations of society and statehood in southeastern Ukraine with the goal of unconditionally ensuring the legal interests of people that live there,” he told the First National Television network. He also called for ending armed fighting and renewing infrastructure. “If someone is counting on a situation, in which the towns and villages of southeastern Ukraine are going to be shot under direct aim, and the militia won’t react to this but will simply wait for promised negotiations, then these people are from a field of some illusions,” he said.

 

Russian Armed Forces have distributed in the town of Novoazovsk leaflets containing instructions entitled, “How to behave with the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation armies.” Lysenko reported on Aug. 31. “The instructions explain that residents aren’t supposed to interfere with the transit of Russian armies, which, allegedly acting in accordance with the Geneva Conventions of 1949, have arrived to protect you from the terrorists of the illegal Ukrainian army,” he said. The instructions call for strict adherence to local curfews and to be prepared to the possible

surrender of residences for “peacekeeping forces,” he said.

 

The instructions call for residents on the “liberated territories” to speak exclusively in Russian, offer the peacekeepers inform about the located of Ukrainian Armed Forces, prepare lists of Ukrainian soldiers, Maidan participants and pro-Ukrainian civic activists in return for additional food and benefits, Lysenko said. The Russian Defense ministry guarantees that “no one is shot simply like that,” he said.

 

Zenon Zawada: The European reaction is encouraging, but slow. The West’s policy towards Russia– reactive rather than pro-active – is playing into Putin’s hands, especially considering that the reactions are entirely predictable. By the time the next round of sanctions is imposed, Russian “peacekeepers” may be occupying significant chunks of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

 

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government needs to do more to demonstrate to the public that it has a legitimate strategy – whether escalating military action, offering concessions, or retreat – in dealing with the expanding Russian occupation of Ukrainian lands. Otherwise, public confidence stands to weaken in the Ukrainian government, which will affect the prospects of Poroshenko’s party gaining a strong result in the early parliamentary vote in October.