EU foreign ministers decide to keep pressure on Russia

The EU Foreign Ministers Council didn’t consider returning to normal relations with the Russian government at their Jan. 19 meeting, Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told a press conference, as reported by the Ukrayinska Pravda news site. “The situation in east Ukraine has become significantly worse than just several weeks ago,” she said. “Instead, the Council discussed their plans for the first personal sanctions imposed against Russian officials that will reach their one-year term in March”, she said. “The decision will be based on the policy of not recognizing the annexation of Crimea and that won’t change.” 

The EU Foreign Minister Council decided at its Jan. 19 meeting not to change its policy towards the Russian Federation and none of its participants advocated loosening sanctions, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna told a Jan. 19 press briefing, as reported by the Ukrayinska Pravda news site. Their discussion was heated and lasted four hours. “The softest position on Russia at the meeting was the idea that the EU, in relation to Russia, can’t rely only on sanctions,” he said. “But no one said that sanctions need to be weakened or canceled altogether.” 

The Ukrainian government is ready to immediately call a meeting of the trilateral contact group to address the Donbas warfare involving representatives of the pro-Russian separatists and Russian government, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during his Jan. 19 meeting with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz. The Ukrainian side is also ready to meet with diplomats and heads of states in the “Normady format” – referring to a meeting involving representatives of France, Germany and Russia – in order to implment the Minsk ceasefire agreement and its schedule, he said.

The Ukrainian government has submitted an ambitious reform program and the European Commission is working with it to create a road map for its implementation, said on Jan. 19 EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, as reported by Interfax-Ukrayina. The road map will be drafted in “a few weeks” and will consist of quarterly reviews, with the goal of holding am imvestors conference at the end of the first quarter, he said.

Zenon Zawada: As we’ve stated before, the West’s policy towards Russia has succeeded in restraining military aggression against Ukraine (to a significant extent) but hasn’t caused President Putin to abandon his strategy of destroying Ukrainian statehood using various instruments, particularly violence. If this weekend’s escalation in aggression continues, we expect a new round of non-military measures from the EU.   

We have little hope for any road map for reform, which has been attempted many times before, without financial incentives awarded for each reform implemented by the Ukrainian government. Unfortunately, a very primitive carrot-and-stick approach is what’s necessary to get this government to change anything in a corrupt political system that, as we see it, they feel extremely comfortable in and have few incentives in modifying.