Obama suggests further sanctions against Russia over Ukraine incursion

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/28/obama-ukraine-russia-more-sanctions-invasion

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The United States expects to agree on a further round of economic sanctions against Russia during meetings with European allies next week, but has ruled out any military intervention to deter further attacks on Ukraine.

Speaking at a hastily arranged Thursday afternoon press briefing to address a series of simultaneous foreign policy crises, president Barack Obama played down the extent to which reports of direct Russia attacks inside Ukraine marked a distinct escalation.

Instead, he insisted that Ukrainian successes against Russian-backed rebels in the east of Ukraine had merely forced the Kremlin to be more “overt” in its support.

And despite growing international concern that Russian forces have effectively invaded and annexed eastern Ukraine much as they did in Crimea, Obama insisted his policy of responding with economic sanctions was working and isolating Russia more than it has been at any time since the end of the Cold War.

“I think that the sanctions that we have already applied have been effective, our intelligence shows the Russians know this ... and there are ways for us to deepen and expand the scope of some of that work,” he said.

“In consultations with our European allies and partners, my expectation is that we will take additional steps – primarily because we have not seen meaningful action on the part of Russia to try to resolve this in a diplomatic fashion.”

The president also insisted there would no military escalation in the west’s response, despite calls for Nato to supply arms to Ukraine or move naval units to the Black Sea.

“We are not taking military action to solve the Ukrainian problem,” said Obama. “What we are doing is to mobilise the international community to apply pressure on Russia.”

Though he noticeably refused to use the word ‘invasion’, Obama echoed criticism of the latest Russian interference that was made more forcefully by US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power earlier Thursday.

“It’s a continuation of what’s been taking place for months now,” said the president. “There is no doubt this is not a homegrown indigenous uprising in eastern Ukraine.”

“Separatists are backed, trained, armed and financed by Russia,” he said. “Throughout this process we have seen deep Russian involvement in everything they have done ... because of the [Ukrainian] progress around Donetsk and Luhansk, Russia determined it had to be a little more overt in what it was already doing, but it’s not really a shift.”

Obama spoke with German chancellor Angela Merkel earlier on Thursday and the US will meet with other key European allies at next week’s Nato summit in Wales.

Despite previous difficulties securing support for sanctions that would hurt European industries, Obama suggested recent attacks in Ukraine would serve as a rallying call.

“What I have been encouraged by is the degree to which our European partners, even though they are bearing a cost, understand that there is a broader principle at stake,” he said.

He also said recent events should help Nato refocus on common defence principles during the Welsh summit.

But the White House stressed that Ukraine was not a Nato member and acknowledged it was in “a difficult situation” when it came to responding to Russian aggression.