European ministers will call on Moscow to rein in Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine after an escalation in violence that has killed at least 19 people and left thousands without heat, power or water in the depths of winter.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, spoke of his great concern about the surge in fighting in a phone call to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Friday.
“He appealed to his Russian counterpart to do everything to bring an end to this situation, in order to allow as a priority the supply of humanitarian aid to the civilian population,” stated a report of the telephone call released by the French government.
At meeting of EU foreign ministers next Monday, Britain’s Boris Johnson and a large number of EU colleagues are expected to call for Russia to bring the separatists under control.
On Friday EU diplomats cautiously welcomed an announcement from the Trump administration that its Crimea sanctions would remain in place.
Donald Trump’s newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told the UN security council on Thursday that “the United States continues to condemn and call for an immediate end to the Russian occupation of Crimea”.
She added: “Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine.” Haley said eastern Ukraine was “suffering because of Russia’s aggressive actions”.
An EU diplomat described her announcement as helpful and extremely important, but said it was only one element of US policy on Russia. “Europeans are still trying to work out exactly what the policy position will be.”
In contrast, Haley’s remarks received a frosty response from a close ally of Vladimir Putin, who drew a parallel with Haley’s predecessor, Samantha Power, an Obama appointee. “It seems that the new US ambassador to the UN came with a text written for her by S Power,” Alexei Pushkov, a senior Duma deputy, wrote on Twitter. “According to Haley, the US wants the best relations with Russian. Then don’t repeat the lines of Barack Obama’s ambassador.”
Russia annexed Crimea almost three years ago, a move that led the EU and US to impose sanctions on senior Kremlin officials. These were extended to economy-wide sanctions after a Russian missile shot down a Malaysia Airlines plane, killing 298 people.
Trump, who has long voiced his admiration for Putin, appeared to leave the door open to lifting sanctions at a recent meeting with Theresa May, jangling nerves across Europe.
EU supporters of sanctions are left hoping that the US Congress and Republican party will them in place. One senior German politician said it was incomprehensible for the US to shift policy without progress on the Minsk peace process in Ukraine. “What would [lifting sanctions] be a signal for, if there is no agreement on Minsk. I just cannot imagine that this is in America’s interest.”