U.S. Keeps Tough Line On Russia Despite Ukraine Truce
Victoria Nuland, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, has said the United States will maintain sanctions imposed on Russia over its actions in Ukraine until the terms of the Minsk peace plan are fully implemented.
Nuland was speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 8, as the cease-fire agreed in Minsk in February has been widely upheld in the past month.
The conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists has killed more than 7,900 people since April 2014.
Nuland also said that sanctions imposed on Russia after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 would remain in place until the Kremlin agrees to withdraw Russian forces.
"We will judge Russia and the separatists by their actions, not their words," she said.
Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
Poroshenko, Nazarbaev Discuss Ties, Ukraine Crisis In Astana
ASTANA -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbaev, have discussed bilateral ties in Astana.
The two leaders on October 9 also discussed the situation in Ukraine's east, where the military conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian armed forces has left more than 7,900 dead since April 2014.
Poroshenko, who arrived in the Kazakh capital on October 8, said after the talks that the current cease-fire in Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions give reasons for "cautious optimism" for full implementation of the conflict-regulation agreement reached in Minsk in February.
Nazarbaev said his country supports the Minsk process, stressing that "there is no alternative" to a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
Nazarbaev added that Kazakhstan will continue sending food to Ukraine's east and will financially support the regions hit by the conflict through the International Red Cross.