Yahoo – AFP,
17 July 2014
Washington (AFP) - The United States and Europe significantly strengthened sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine Wednesday, with Washington for the first time directly targeting Russia's banking, military and energy sectors.
Men look at
a building destroyed by the Ukrainian Air Force in Snezhnoye,
80 km east of
Donetsk, on July 16, 2014 (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget)
|
Washington (AFP) - The United States and Europe significantly strengthened sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine Wednesday, with Washington for the first time directly targeting Russia's banking, military and energy sectors.
The new
blows against Russia deepened the most serious standoff between Moscow and the
West since the end of the Cold War, as fighting between the Kiev government and
pro-Russian separatists threatened to escalate into all-out civil war.
Pro-Russia
militants look overhead at a
Ukrainian army plane as they exchange
fire near
the town of Marynivka, 100 km
east of Donetsk, on July 16, 2014 (AFP
Photo/Dominique Faget)
|
Kiev
reported the deaths of 11 more servicemen overnight and warned that Russia had
deployed thousands of troops along its entire border with Ukraine in
preparation for a possible invasion.
The United
States said it had no option but to act after Russia refused to take steps to
halt both its support for separatists and the cross-border flow of weapons and
material.
"We
have moved to impose additional sanctions on Russia for its actions in
violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," said a
senior US official on condition of anonymity.
President
Barack Obama was due to make a televised statement on the Ukraine sanctions
move and on other foreign policy issues, likely to include Iran nuclear talks,
at 2115 GMT.
US
sanctions key Russian sectors
The US
measures, Washington's most punitive move against Russia so far in the Ukraine
crisis, struck directly at key sectors of the economy.
They
included moves against two major Russian financial institutions, Gazprombank
and VEB, and two giant Russian energy firms, OA Novatek and Rosneft, which will
limit access to US capital markets.
The US
Treasury also said that eight Russian arms firms that produce small armaments,
mortar shells and tanks would also face direct sanctions.
The US list
of sanctions also included measures against the self-styled breakaway Donetsk
People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin
is reflected in the polished
company plate of the state-controlled
Russian oil
giant Rosneft at the entrance
of the headquarters in Moscow, on
May 17, 2011
(AFP Photo/Dmitry
Kostyukov)
|
A
diplomatic source in Brussels told AFP that the European Union would suspend
new investments in Russia by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the
European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
"The
situation in Ukraine is unacceptable," said British Prime Minister David
Cameron, arriving for summit talks in Brussels -- before the new measures were
announced.
"We
need to send a very clear message with clear actions," he added.
Europe's
measures come amid significant opposition to deeper punishments for Moscow in
the European business community.
US
officials however said that they believed the combined action by the
transatlantic allies would impose a significant price on the Russian economy.
One
official said that he could not rule out the possibility of the new sanctions
tipping the Russian economy into a recession.
Washington
had previously imposed sanctions against the leadership of some key Russian
firms and enterprises and what it said were "cronies" around Russian
President Vladimir Putin, as well as key leaders of the separatist movement.
Revived
truce efforts
More than
three months of fighting in Ukraine has already claimed more than 600 lives.
A barricade
of tyres is seen in front
the entrance of Lugansk's regional
administration
building on July 12,
2014, eastern Ukraine (AFP Photo/
Dominique Faget)
|
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko's attempts to set up a Skype videoconference on
Tuesday with the separatists -- a conciliatory step previously agreed with
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel -- were rebuffed by the rebel command.
But senior
rebel leaders said Wednesday that they had agreed to hold new European-mediated
consultations with Kiev representatives by the weekend.
Merkel had
earlier blamed Russia -- a country that she had spent her first years in office
trying to coax into taking a cooperative approach with the West -- for the
collapse of the peace talks.
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