EU sanctions separatists as Ukraine crisis deepens

BRUSSELS

 The EU agreed on Monday to blacklist more Ukrainian separatists but stopped short of fresh economic sanctions against Russia, as Moscow expelled several diplomats in a deepening of the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.

Fresh bloodshed between pro-Kremlin rebels and Kiev’s forces added to the tensions after Russian President Vladimir Putin left a G20 summit in Brisbane early amid criticism from fellow leaders.

Putin hit back on Monday, rejecting western claims that Russia has sent troops and equipment into Ukraine to buttress the uprising that has killed 4,100 people, while saying “righteous” fighters would “always get weapons”.

In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers agreed to add more separatists to a blacklist of people facing asset freezes and travel bans over the crisis in Ukraine, diplomats said. There would be a final decision on the names at the end of the month, they said.

But Russia escaped further economic sanctions, with EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini saying sanctions should be accompanied by talks with Moscow and reforms in Ukraine. “Sanctions in themselves are not an objective,” she said.

The EU has so far blacklisted 119 individuals, ranging from close Putin allies and Russian oligarchs, to separatists in Ukraine.

Kiev urged the EU to go further, with Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin calling for Brussels to send a “clear message” to Moscow, with “robust “sanctions if Russia continues to destabilise Ukraine”.

Western leaders at the summit, including US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron, denounced Putin’s “unacceptable” actions in Ukraine, warning of more sanctions to come unless he changed course.Meanwhile, workers spent a second day recovering wreckage from the doomed Malaysian Airlines plane, which was shot down en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over rebel-controlled territory.

We need a very clear message identifying the further steps the EU is ready and committed to take if the situation on the ground deteriorates,” Klimkin said in an interview after talks with Mogherini.

The EU has long been divided over sanctions, first targeting individuals after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March, then broadening them to target the Russian economy after the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in July over eastern Ukraine.

The West said it was downed by pro-Moscow rebels using a missile supplied by Russia.

More than 4,100 people have died in seven months of violence in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has denied backing the rebels but relations with the West are at their worst since the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.

Moscow said it had expelled a German diplomat and a number of Polish diplomats in a tit-for-tat measure for similar expulsions of Russian staff from those countries.

The Polish diplomats were expelled for conduct “incompatible with their status”, diplomatic jargon for espionage, while the German was kicked out in retaliation for Berlin’s “unfriendly” expulsion of a Russian diplomat, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on the West not to lose hope in what may be a long struggle with Russia over Ukraine, but vowed that the Kremlin “will not prevail”.