France delays Russian order for warship

HELICOPTER CARRIER DEAL SUSPENDED UNTIL TRUCE WITH UKRAINE TAKES EFFECT

France ruled out delivery of a warship to Russia over the conflict in Ukraine and criticised the government in Kiev for saying it wants to join Nato. Terms for handing over the Mistral helicopter carrier “have not been met,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on France Inter radio yesterday.

While Russia’s presence in eastern Ukraine is “unacceptable,” there are “serious problems” with statements from Ukraine’s new government that it seeks Nato membership, he said.

Contract

France has a contract to sell two Mistrals to Russia. President Francois Hollande has said delivery can’t begin until a September 5 cease- fire agreement is implemented between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists in its eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The US and the European Union accuse Russia of fuelling the conflict, a charge Russia denies, and Ukraine says Russian troops and ve- hicles continue to cross the border into rebel- held areas.

Russia will send 100 trucks with more than 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine on November 28, its eighth convoy to the region, RIA Novosti reported yesterday, citing Deputy Emergencies Minister Vladimir Stepanov.

Nato referendum

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the former Soviet republic will decide in a referendum at the end of the decade whether to seek Nato membership once it completes necessary policy changes. Admission to the military alliance requires agreement by all member states, currently 28.

“We have worked out an intense plan for the next six years, so that the country meets the criteria to join the EU and to join Nato,” Poroshenko said in Kiev yesterday. “And only then the Ukrainian people will decide on joining or not joining, in a referendum.”

Ukraine’s government said on September 26 that it seeks Nato membership in the “short term.”