West to continue Russia sanctions

Western powers will go ahead with a fresh round of sanctions against Russia, despite talk of a possible ceasefire between the government in Ukraine and Moscow-backed separatist rebels, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said.

Mr Hammond said there was a “great deal of scepticism” among Nato leaders gathered for an alliance summit in Wales that any ceasefire would actually be implemented.

“If there is a ceasefire, if it is signed and if it is then implemented, we can then look at lifting sanctions. But there is a great degree of scepticism about whether this action will materialise, whether the ceasefire will be real,” he told BBC News.

“We can always take the sanctions off afterwards. I don’t think we want to be distracted from our determination to impose further sanctions in response to Russia’s major military adventure into Ukraine by these noises off about a possible ceasefire.”

The latest sanctions package, to be announced by the European Union in Brussels, will include measures targeting state-owned energy and defence companies as well as further travel bans and asset freezes against figures close to President Vladimir Putin.

It is expected to be accompanied by similar sanctions by the United States and Canada.

At the same time, Nato will set out its plans for a new high-readiness “spearhead” force capable of deploying thousands of troops within a matter of days, designed to counter the threat of Russian aggression.

The 28-member alliance is also preparing to “pre-position” supplies of fuel and ammunition in bases in eastern Europe so they are ready in place in the event of a fresh crisis while airfields and port facilities in the region will also be strengthened.

The plans will go ahead despite Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko – who is attending the summit as a Nato partner – expressing “careful optimism” that talks in Minsk in Belarus could see a ceasefire deal between the government in Kiev and pro-Russian separatist rebels in the east of the country.

The measures are in part intended to reassure former Soviet bloc countries such a Estonian, Latvia and Lithuania that the alliance will come to their defence if they are targeted by Moscow.

All three Baltic states are – unlike Ukraine – full Nato members and are entitled to expect that an attack on any one of them would be treated as an attack on the whole alliance.

Despite assurances from Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama of their commitment to collective defence, there are some who would have liked to have seen more Western troops stationed permanently in the region.

Mr Cameron and Mr Obama – as two of only Nato four leaders currently to meet the obligation on alliance members to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence – will be pressing for commitments from other leaders to raise their spending on their armed forces.

However there was embarrassment for Mr Cameron with a briefing paper by the Royal United Services Institute military think-tank suggesting that Britain’s defence budget could fall to 1.88% of GDP in 2015-16.

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/eu-unveil-russia-sanctions-020530154.html

West to continue Russia sanctions