US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Russia to show ‘within hours’ that it is ‘working to disarm separatist militants’ in eastern Ukraine.
He was speaking to reporters in Paris a day before a ‘ceasefire’ was due to end.
‘It is critical for Russia to show in the next hours, literally, that they are moving to help disarm the separatists, to encourage them to disarm, to call on them to lay down their weapons and begin to become part of a legitimate political process,’ Kerry told reporters, after talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
The US and EU are threatening to impose further sanctions if Russia does not ‘do more to defuse the situation’.
However, during the ‘ceasefire’ the Peoples Republic of Donetsk and Lugansk reported that they were being continuously shelled with men, woman and children being killed at the hands of the Kiev coupists.
Russia denies it has let pro-Moscow separatists and heavy weaponry cross its border into eastern Ukraine.
• ‘For Ukraine, signing the economic agreement with the EU is suicide,’ Sergey Glazyev, an economic aide to Russian President Putin said, warning of a sharp currency devaluation, soaring inflation, and lower living standards for the Ukrainian people.
Kiev’s coupist ‘government’ will sign a free trade agreement with the EU today, June 27, after the people of the Ukraine rejected the agreement in November last year under the elected government of President Yanukovych.
‘There is no doubt that by signing this agreement it will result in an acute devaluation of the hryvnia, an inflation surge and in turn hyperinflation, and a drop in living standards,’ Glazyev said on Tuesday.
Glazyev, an outspoken opponent of Ukraine joining the EU’s orbit, echoed President Putin’s warning that Ukraine will no longer be able to import goods from Russia duty-free.
Glazyev calculated last year, before the dispute with Russia began, that flooding Ukraine’s economy with European goods could cost the country $4 billion, or two per cent of its GDP.
The Kiev coupists signed the political portion of the treaty in March, but the economic content is much more significant as it sets a path for Ukraine to end up in a similar situation as Greece.
Russian Finance Minister Aleksey Ulyukaev also sees little value in the trade deal, as it will turn Ukraine into a ‘second-rate EU state’, but without any of the benefits.
‘By signing the Association Agreement, the countries must restructure their laws to comply with European standards and open the markets. However, in return, they don’t receive any influence on European legislation or policy,’ Ulyukaev said.
He was referring to the cost of adopting 350 new laws and 200,000 pieces of legislation to ready the country for trade with Europe.