European Commissioner Sees Sanction Intensification Against Russia
A European official said that Europe will help Kiev in its attempt to push Russian armed forces away from Ukraine through a mix of measures, financially supporting the country and increasing sanctions against Russia.
“Our approach is three-fold: first, we continue to give our full and active support for a sustainable political solution. Second, we are maintaining pressure on Russia through a gradual increase of individual and economic sanctions to try to make it alter its course of action and move towards a solution. And third, we continue our support for Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and to help it overcome the difficulties it faces,” Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, commented during the European Parliament plenary session.
Füle also said that Russian armed forces are using the ceasefire to redeploy and resupply.
On 5 September 2014, the EU agreed to build on the existing package of measures, coming up with new measures that came into force on 12 September 2014.
The measures fall in three main areas: i. financial sanctions against 5 Russian banks and their subsidiaries, 3 defence companies and 3 entities in the oil sector; ii. arm embargo on dual purpose technologies; iii. restrictions on export of high tech goods and services for deep water oil, arctic and shale projects.
NEW AGREEMENT, UKRAINE RATIFIES, MOSCOW EXPLAINS DETAILS
Meanwhile, Ukraine is ratifying the Association Agreement with the European Union.
”Voting for the ratification of the Agreement with the EU is a global choice of Ukraine. We are to correct the mistake made 350 years ago. Ukraine is Europe. This was said and done by the Ukrainian people," Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk commented on Tuesday.
At the same time, Russia released the details of the compromise reached on Friday with EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin.
According to Alexei Ulyukayev, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the implementation of the agreement will not begin for 15, or before 31 December 2015.
Ulyukayev also reported that Ukraine will continue receiving unilateral preferences from the European Union and, during that period, will maintain the preferential trade agreement between Russia within the framework of the CIS free trade area.
“The Russian Federation’s concerns about a number of issues are recognised. Let me remind you that we are talking about five positions – tariff liberalisation, technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary monitoring, customs administration, and energy. These concerns are recognised, and the parties commit to continuing the search for ways to address these concerns in this trilateral format,” Ulyukayev added in a separate note released on Monday evening.