KIEV: The United States warned yesterday that the West would inflict tough new sanctions if Russia and its allies in Ukraine disrupt a crucial presidential election just 10
days away.
Ukraine’s interim leaders are battling to keep the country together for the May 25 vote in the face of a bloody pro-Moscow insurgency in the eastern industrial heartland.
“Our message is really, quite simple: ‘Let Ukraine vote. Let the Ukrainian people choose their future’,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said at a meeting with European counterparts in London. He said the separatists who have seized over a dozen towns in a month of fighting and declared independence in two industrial regions in defiance of Kiev and the West were “sowing mayhem”.
“Far from defending the rights of the people in the east they are seeking to speak for everybody through the barrel of the gun,” Kerry told reporters.
“If Russia or its proxies disrupt the elections the United States and those countries represented here today in European Union will impose sectoral economic sanctions as a result.”
His tough talk, echoed by British Foreign Secretary William Hague, came as Ukraine pressed on with a military operation against rebels around Slavyansk, the epicentre of the uprising. On Wednesday, Kiev had hosted the first round of unity talks under an OSCE initiative to try to resolve the escalating crisis on Europe’s doorstep.
Crucially however, the rebels fighting against Kiev’s rule were not invited, despite Western calls for inclusive talks, and no progress was reported.
President Barack Obama has already drafted an executive order for sanctions across key sectors such as banking, energy, defence and mining, adding to punitive measures already imposed by Washington and Brussels.
“There are a lot of things we can do to create bleeding,” a US official said, adding that the aim was “to use a scalpel rather than a hammer”.
Facing the very real prospect of Ukraine’s partition, interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said his administration was ready to reach out to pro-Russians in the east but that the separatists must first lay down their arms.
“We will not yield to blackmail,” he said. “We are ready to listen to the people of the east but they must not shoot, loot or occupy government buildings.”
Western leaders see the May 25 vote as crucial for the future of Ukraine after Russia’s much criticised annexation of Crimea in March, which plunged relations between Moscow and the West to their lowest point since the
Cold War.
Dozens of people have been killed in the southeast since mid-April as government troops continue their offensive to try to dislodge the rebels.
Fears are growing that Ukraine could tear apart after rebels declared “sovereignty” in the industrial regions of Donetsk and Lugansk following weekend referendums.
“When Ukrainians kill Ukrainians I believe this is as close to a civil war as you can get,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. AFP
