Sanctions on Russia to stay as Ukraine seeks EU help
Bloc agreed that the lifting of sanctions must be tied to peace accord, Merkel says
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held summit talks with the European Union as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expects sanctions against Russia to be renewed over the conflict in Ukraine’s east.
Poroshenko met European Union Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker in Kiev on Monday, as international monitors reported a surge in fighting near Ukraine’s strategic port city of Mariupol. Merkel said EU governments agreed in March that removal of sanctions, which expire in July, must be tied to adherence to the Minsk peace accord.
“It’s completely clear that fulfilling the terms of this package will take longer than August or September,” Merkel said after talks with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz in Warsaw. “We will take up this question in June and I think that, on the basis of the joint political decision in March, we will decide to extend the sanctions.”
Accusations
Ukraine, the EU and the US accuse Russia of sending troops and weapons to aid separatists in the conflict that has killed more than 6,100 people and devastated the country’s economy.
Russia rejects the allegation and has accused the government in Kiev of waging war on its own people, as a fragile ceasefire negotiated in Minsk, Belarus, in February comes under strain. Poland and Germany agree “that there is no basis to ease sanctions against Russia,” Kopacz told reporters at the conference with Merkel.
Ukraine seeks political, financial and humanitarian support as well as a visa-free regime from the EU, while membership of the bloc remains the country’s “key goal,” Poroshenko said.
There’s no alternative to a diplomatic solution to the conflict and “we hope for a further increase in the leading role of the EU in the peaceful regulation of the situation,” including by sending peacekeepers to promote implementation of the Minsk agreement, Poroshenko said.
Ukraine’s third-largest bank got bondholder approval yesterday to extend the maturity on $750 million of Eurobonds by three months to July 27. The State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine won support from an “overwhelming majority” of bondholders at a meeting to push back the redemption date.