EU to urge Russia to withdraw troops, draft potential sanctions

BRUSSELS - EU foreign ministers Monday (3 March) indicated they will urge Russia to pull back its troops from Ukraine and threaten sanctions if it does not comply.

With British foreign minister William Hague in Kiev, his deputy, David Liddington, told press in Brussels ahead of an emergency foreign ministers’ meeting that: “I hope we will all unite behind in calling upon Russia to withdraw her forces to her base areas, to desist from the current intervention, and certainly to refrain from any further acts of aggression.”

He noted: “We will want to make it clear today that if the Russian government were to persist with its current course of action then that will come at a cost to Russia.”

The UK, as well as Ukraine, Russia, and the US are signatories to a 1994 pact, the so-called Budapest memorandum, which guarantees Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

But with EU leaders set to hold a snap meeting on Ukraine on Thursday any big decisions are likely to wait.

For its part, Germany indicated the EU will not impose sanctions right away.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Brussels on Monday the Union should first try to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table, for instance, under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a Vienna-based body which includes both countries as members, and to send an OSCE “fact-finding mission” to Crimea.

Steinmeier noted that Chancellor Angela Merkel i discussed the OSCE idea by phone with Russian leader Vladimir Putin i on Sunday.

He said “there is a real danger of another division of Europe" after the Cold War ended 25 years ago, but he added that nothing is “decided” yet and that ”a reversal is still possible.”

Hungary’s Janos Martonyi also underlined the importance of Russia-Ukraine talks, saying he would be willing to host a meeting of the Budapest memorandum signatories in his capital, where it was signed.

But Ireland’s Eamonn Gilmore noted “the issue of sanctions is an option and that’s something that will be discussed today.”

The Czech Republic’s Lubomir Zaoralek went further, saying that “given the current situation, talks on visa-free travel for Russians to the EU should be put on hold or abandoned.”

Other EU sanctions options include: halting talks on a new EU-Russia treaty; halting co-operation on an EU-Russia Modernisation Partnership; imposing a symbolic arms embargo on Russia, and imposing visa bans and asset freezes on members of Putin’s establishment, many of whom have extensive holdings in Europe.

On Ukraine itself, the EU foreign ministers are also expected to pledge economic aid to say the offer to sign an association and free trade agreement with the new government remains on the table.

They could also trigger a sanctions list against members of the former Ukrainian regime who are guilty of human rights violations.

No shots have yet been fired in Ukraine.

Russian forces began irregular movements in Crimea on 21 February. But moved in en masse to seize strategic assets, such as airports, over the weekend.

Amid fresh reports on Monday that pro-Russian militants have seized public buildings in the Ukrainian cities of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Odessa, and that Russian soldiers in Kaliningard, which borders Lithuania and Poland, have launched a surprise drill, Poland’s Radek Sikorski echoed Steinmeier on the gravity of the situation.

“We have the most serious crisis in Europe since the wars of Yugoslav secession. The credibility of the international community, and the EU in particular, is at stake,” he said.

For their part, the G7 club of leading industrialised nations has already said its leaders will boycott a summit with Russia, in the “G8” format, in Sochi in June.

Russia has also paid an economic cost for its actions, with markets on Monday wiping out between 12 and 15 percent of the value of leading Russian firm, such as Gazprom, and with the Russian ruble tumbling against the dollar.

But Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, continued to blame Western powers for causing the situation.

He told a meeting on Syria in Geneva that: “Those who try to interpret the situation as an act of aggression, threaten us with sanctions and boycotts, are the same partners who have been consistently and vigorously encouraging the political powers [in Ukraine] close to them to declare ultimatums and renounce dialogue, to ignore the concerns of the south and east of Ukraine, and consequently to the polarization of the Ukrainian society.”

His ministry added in a statement there are “no grounds” for the G8 boycott.