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President Barack Obama said Russia faces “more costs and consequences” because it “has deliberately and repeatedly violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Ukraine. Obama ruled out “a military solution to this problem.” The Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement in the unrest.
Fighting expanded today in Ukraine’s easternmost regions, which the United Nations says has claimed more than 2,000 lives in the
past five months. The escalation prompted calls by the European Union to threaten Russian President Vladimir Putin with further sanctions, even as the bloc’s governments -- along with the U.S. -- stopped short of calling the events an “invasion.”
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“We need modern high-tech weapons, we need means to conduct reconnaissance,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told the country’s security council yesterday in Kiev.
Battles Rage
Ukrainian soldiers are battling Russian-backed forces near Donetsk, Luhansk, Alchevsk and other towns in the area, military spokesman Leonid Matyukhin said.Insurgents took control of several towns outside their strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, including near the Sea of Azov. That opened a seaborne supply channel for the rebels, said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk issued a plea for international help in defending against Russia’s army, which he said “is armed to the teeth.”
The government in Kiev will reintroduce a military draft in the coming months and is seeking U.S. support and special partner status, Mykhailo Koval, the deputy head of Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council, told reporters. The U.S. has a “range of tools” to help Ukraine and discussions with the country’s government are under way, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Washington.
‘Ratchet Up’
The U.S. will work with its Group of Seven and European allies to “ratchet up the consequences” on Russia for its “continued aggression,” Samantha Power, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said at an emergency meeting of the Security Council yesterday. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin criticized the U.S. for meddling in Ukraine and said “everyone knows” that there are Russian volunteers in the country.The ruble sank 0.5 percent to 36.9295 per dollar, weakening for a fourth day after closing at the lowest level since at least 2003 yesterday. The currency has dropped 3.2 percent in August, its second monthly slide. The Micex stock index traded down 0.2 percent at 1,421.39 as of 11:23 a.m. in Moscow, extending yesterday’s 1.7 percent tumble, the steepest since Aug. 6.
The yield on Ukraine’s dollar-denominated notes due in July 2017 rose 16 basis points to 12.37 percent, a three-month high. The yield is up 354 basis points in August, the biggest monthly increase since the notes were sold in July 2012.
Russia Masterminding
Russia is masterminding the rebel counteroffensive, with more than 1,000 of its troops operating inside Ukraine to man sophisticated weaponry and advise the separatists, NATO said.The rebels’ opening of second front along the northern edge of the Sea of Azov could be a prelude to establishing a land corridor with Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine and annexed, Brigadier General Nico Tak told reporters yesterday at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military headquarters in Mons, Belgium.
Pro-Russian separatists have put Ukraine’s government troops on the defensive after weeks of advances that pushed the rebels into Donetsk and Luhansk and took large areas previously occupied by the insurgents.
Putin today urged pro-Russian rebels to open a humanitarian corridor to free Ukraine soldiers they have encircled, according to an e-mailed statement from the Kremlin. He said Russia will continue to send humanitarian aid and called on the Ukraine government to accept a cease-fire and start negotiations “to resolve all matters peacefully.”
NATO Meeting
NATO ambassadors are meeting today to discuss the crisis in Ukraine and will meet the country’s envoy. EU leaders will discuss Ukraine at a summit in Brussels tomorrow that may be attended by Poroshenko who is due meet European officials there earlier in the day.EU leaders will discuss Ukraine and possible tougher sanctions against Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin yesterday. Russia faces more sanctions if the escalation of fighting continues, according to French President Francois Hollande.
Obama said that he’ll use a trip next week to Estonia, a former Soviet republic that’s now a member of both the EU and NATO, to reaffirm the U.S.’s “unwavering commitment” to defend its members, some of which are “close by” Ukraine. A Sept. 4-5 NATO summit in the U.K. will also address the Ukraine crisis.
The alliance takes its “commitments to defend each other very seriously,” Obama said. “That includes the smallest NATO member and the largest NATO member.”
Finland, a non-NATO member which has the EU’s longest border with Russia, said its fighter jets were ready to intercept foreign aircraft after Russian planes repeatedly violated its airspace.
A Russian Antonov AN 72 transport plane crossed the Finnish border yesterday at about 12:08 p.m. local time near Porvoo on the Gulf of Finland, the government in Helsinki said. Russian state aircraft are also suspected of two other airspace violations on Finland’s south coast since Aug. 23.
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