EU readies new Russia sanctions

AFP

The European Union (EU) has readied a fresh wave of sanctions against Russia with warnings that the escalating crisis in Ukraine is putting all of Europe at risk of conflict.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said as he visited Brussels to plead with EU leaders for tougher measures, arguing that Kiev and Moscow were on the verge of 'full-scale war'.

Fears of a wider confrontation spiralled after claims that Russia has sent troops to help fight a new offensive by pro-Kremlin rebels that has wrested several southeastern Ukrainian towns from Kiev's control.

EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso warned that the crisis was near a 'point of no return' and said Brussels had drawn up new sanctions against the Kremlin that the 28 leaders would discuss at their summit on Saturday.

The EU delivered a further riposte to Russia on Saturday when it elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a vocal Kremlin critic, as its next president.

Poroshenko said Ukraine was the victim of 'foreign military aggression and terror' and alleged that thousands of Russian troops and hundreds of tanks were on Ukrainian soil.

'Today we are talking about the fate of Ukraine, tomorrow it could be for all Europe,' he warned before meeting EU leaders.

Speaking later, he added: 'I think that we are very close to the point of no return, the point of no return is full-scale war, which is already happening in the territories controlled by the separatists.'

Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite, whose Baltic country is wary of a resurgent Russia on its own borders, said the EU should send military equipment to Kiev.

'Russia is at war against Ukraine and that is against a country which wants to be part of Europe,' she said.

'Russia is practically in a state of war against Europe.'

French President Francois Hollande said the EU would 'no doubt increase' sanctions, while British Prime Minister David Cameron said the lessons of history demanded action.

The European Union and the United States have already slapped tough sanctions on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis, including Moscow's annexation of Crimea in March.

New measures were likely to focus on extending current sanctions covering financial services, armaments, dual-use products and energy, Finland's Prime Minister Alexander Stubb told reporters.

The naming of Poland's Tusk as the future head of the European Council was a further strengthening of Europe's stance against what the outgoing president, Herman Van Rompuy, called 'the gravest threat to continental security since the Cold War.'

NATO said on Thursday that Russia had sent at least 1000 troops to fight alongside the insurgents, as well as air defence systems, artillery, tanks and armoured vehicles, and had massed 20,000 troops near the border.

The fresh rebel offensive has raised fears the Kremlin is seeking to create a corridor between Russia and the strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

Moscow has denied any troop presence in Ukrainian territories, despite the capture of paratroopers by Kiev and reports of secret military funerals being held in Russia.

© AFP 2014

Email your news tips