DEVELOPMENTS
— Insurgents said goodbye as they loaded their families onto Russia-bound buses and began hunkering down for what could be the next phase in Ukraine’s conflict: bloody urban warfare. Ukraine’s forces could face grueling warfare inside cities in the east, where rebels are regrouping after losing significant ground.
— The Pentagon warned that Russia is building up its forces along the Ukraine border again, with 12,000 troops massed there, reflecting a steady increase in recent weeks.
Associated Press
Struggling to defuse the persistent crisis in Ukraine, both the U.S. and European Union imposed new economic sanctions on Russia on Wednesday, with President Barack Obama declaring that Russian leaders must see that their actions supporting rebels “have consequences.”
Though the American and European sanctions were coordinated, they nonetheless exposed fissures in what the West has tried to project as a united front in its months-long effort to isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin said the United States was only hurting itself.
The penalties announced by the White House were broad in scope, targeting two major Russian energy firms, a pair of powerful financial institutions, eight arms firms and four individuals. Leaders in Europe, which has a far deeper economic relationship with Russia than the U.S., were more restrained, ordering investment and development banks on the continent to suspend financing agreements with Moscow.
Even the U.S. penalties stopped short of the most stringent actions the West has threatened, which would entail fully cutting off key sectors of Russia’s economy.
But officials said those steps were still on the table if Russia fails to abide by the West’s demands to stop support for pro-Russian insurgents who have destabilized swaths of eastern Ukraine.
“What we are expecting is that the Russian leadership will see once again that its actions in Ukraine have consequences, including a weakening Russian economy and increasing diplomatic isolation,” Obama said as he announced the U.S. penalties from the White House.
Publicly undismayed, Putin said the new sanctions run counter to U.S. national interests because they put American companies that want to operate in Russia at a competitive disadvantage.
At a news conference in Brazil, Putin said through a translator: “They are undermining the positions of their energy companies.”
Until now, the U.S. and Europe have limited their sanctions on Europe to travel bans and asset freezes aimed at individuals and entities, including some with close ties to Putin. But those measures have done little to change Putin’s strategy.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fomenting the insurgency by sending troops and weapons across its border with the former Soviet republic, something Moscow denies. The insurgency was sparked by Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine earlier this year.
While Obama has put a premium on responding to the provocations in coordination with Europe, the White House has grown increasingly frustrated with the continent’s reluctance to impose sanctions on Russian economic sectors.
EU leaders fear such penalties could have negative impacts on their own economies given their close financial relationships with Russia.
U.S. officials summoned European diplomats to the White House on Monday to warn that Obama was prepared to take unilateral action if the EU did not take stronger measures.
After meeting late into the night, the EU said it was asking the European Investment Bank to sign no new financing agreements with Moscow. The EU also agreed to suspend financing of the new European Bank for Reconstruction and Development operations in Russia.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, whose nation borders Russia, said the EU had to get tougher with Moscow “because if Putin’s aggressive policy isn’t stopped, he will go further.”
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