Obama says Russia not abiding by deal on Ukraine

N TSK A P US President arack bama accused ussia yesterday of failing to respect an agreement to defuse the crisis in Ukraine, the latest salvo in the Cold ar-like duel between ashington and oscow over the future of the e -Soviet nation.

bama said ashington was ready to slap fresh sanctions on oscow, a day after ussia, which has massed tens of thousands of troops on its border with Ukraine, warned that it was ready to strike if its interests were attacked.

“So far at least we have seen them not abide by the spirit or the letter of the agreement in Geneva,” bama said in Tokyo at the start of a four-nation tour of Asia.

“Instead, we continue to see malicious, armed men taking over buildings, harassing folks who are disagreeing with them, destabili ing the region and we haven’t seen ussia step out and discouraging it.

“ n the other side you have seen the government in Kiev taking very concrete steps, introducing amnesty law, offering the whole range of reforms with respect to the constitution, that are consistent with what we discussed in Geneva.”

If ussia did not play its part, there would be “conse uences and we will ramp up further sanctions,” he warned.

Under the deal struck between Ukraine, ussia, the US and the U in Geneva last week, militias in Ukraine were due to disarm and give up control of sei ed state property.

ut while ashington and Kiev have put the onus on pro-Kremlin militants holding buildings in the east, oscow said the responsibility fell to pro- estern nationalists camping out in Kiev.

The Kremlin has an estimated 0,000 ussian troops poised on Ukraine’s eastern border, prompting ashington on ednesday to start deploying 00 US troops to boost NAT ’s defenses in eastern uropean states bordering Ukraine.

The first unit of 150 US soldiers arrived in Poland on ednesday, with the remainder due to land in stonia, ithuania and atvia in the coming days.

The Geneva accord was aimed at easing the crisis that first flared in Ukraine in November, when its pro-Kremlin president backed out of an agreement to bring the country closer to the U, sparking protests in the strategic nation of million sandwiched between ussia and the uropean Union.