EU gives Russia week for Ukraine pullback

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko talks Saturday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a European People’s Party meeting before the European Union summit in Brussels.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko talks Saturday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a European People’s Party meeting before the European Union summit in Brussels.

BRUSSELS -- The European Union warned Saturday that the apparent incursion of Russian troops on Ukrainian soil pushes the conflict closer to a point of no return, with new economic sanctions being drawn up to make Moscow reconsider its position.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who spoke at a summit of the 28-nation EU's leaders in Brussels, said a strong response was needed to the "military aggression and terror" facing his country.

"Thousands of the foreign troops and hundreds of the foreign tanks are now on the territory of Ukraine," Poroshenko told reporters in English. "There is a very high risk not only for peace and stability for Ukraine, but for the whole ... of Europe."

At the summit, the EU decided to give Russia a one-week ultimatum to scale back its intervention in Ukraine or face additional economic sanctions.

EU summit chairman Herman Van Rompuy said early today that EU leaders ordered its executive body to "urgently undertake preparatory work for consideration within a week."

The decision on new sanctions will depend on the evolution of the situation but "everybody is fully aware that we have to act quickly," he added. The EU leaders called on Russia to "immediately withdraw all its military assets and forces from Ukraine," they said in a joint statement.

Some European leaders, particularly those from former communist nations in eastern Europe, called for direct military assistance to Ukraine's badly stretched armed forces, which are battling pro-Russia rebels on three fronts in eastern Ukraine.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite insisted Russia's meddling in Ukraine, which seeks closer ties with the EU, amounts to a direct confrontation that requires stronger sanctions.

Russia, she said, was "in a state of war against Ukraine and that means that it is in a state of war against countries that want to be closer to the European Union and that means practically that Russia is in a state of war against Europe. That means we have to help Ukraine battle back, to defend its territory and its people, to help militarily."

NATO estimates that at least 1,000 Russian soldiers are in Ukraine even though Russia denies any military involvement in the fighting that has so far claimed 2,600 lives, according to U.N. figures. The Ukrainian authorities also released videos Tuesday of captured Russian troops, and Moscow did concede that some of its soldiers had crossed into Ukraine but said they had done so "by accident."

Russia's evasions and denials in response to mounting evidence of its direct involvement in supporting pro-Russia separatists has left even Europe's more cautious leaders, notably Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, ready to endorse further sanctions. Merkel said Thursday that Germany still favored a diplomatic solution. However, she said, "we have to note that the situation in the last few days has become more difficult, and worsened."

British Prime Minister David Cameron also warned Saturday that Europe can't be complacent about Russian troops on Ukrainian soil.

"Countries in Europe shouldn't have to think long before realizing just how unacceptable that is," he said. "We know that from our history. So consequences must follow."

But EU officials said a decision on military aid would be left to individual countries.

Saturday's meeting of European leaders was originally called to discuss appointments to senior jobs, but the crisis in Ukraine overshadowed the elaborate trading for positions among the members.

Poroshenko told reporters that he believed efforts to halt the violence were "very close to a point of no return," warning that failure could lead to a "full-scale war."

During the crisis in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken regularly by telephone with Merkel, who has had no success in curbing Russia's support for the rebels. The militants had been losing ground in face of a Ukrainian offensive, but now, reinvigorated by new arms and fighters from Russia, the rebels are expanding territory under their control.

Ukrainians pulling back

Conceding ground in the face of a reinvigorated rebel offensive, Ukraine said Saturday that it was abandoning a city where its forces have been surrounded by rebels for days. Government forces also were pulling back from another it had claimed to have taken control of two weeks earlier.

The statements by Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the national security council, indicate that Ukrainian forces face increasingly strong resistance from Russian-backed separatist rebels just weeks after racking up significant gains and forcing rebels out of much of the territory they had held.

Poroshenko, meanwhile, said Ukraine would welcome an EU decision to help with military equipment and further intelligence-sharing.

The office of the Donetsk mayor reported in a statement that at least two people died in an artillery attack on one of Donetsk's neighborhoods. Shelling was reported elsewhere in the city, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

Ukrainian forces had been surrounded for days by rebels in the town of Ilovaysk, about 15 miles east of Donetsk, the largest rebel-held city.

"We are surrendering this city," Ukraine's Lysenko told reporters. "Our task now is to evacuate our military with the least possible losses in order to regroup."

Lysenko said that regular units of the military had been ordered to retreat from Novosvitlivka and Khryashchuvate, two towns on the main road between the Russian border and Luhansk, the second-largest rebel-held city. Ukraine had claimed control of Novosvitlivka earlier in August.

The surrounding area has been scene of skirmishes and shelling attacks over the past week.

And after weeks of yielding ground, the separatists have gained renewed confidence after the string of seemingly effortless victories.

In Starobesheve, near Ilovaysk, the dozens of rebels milling about the otherwise deserted rural settlement were jubilant Saturday over having trapped a column of Ukrainian tanks and armored personnel carriers after a brief battle that morning. Standing in groups, some fighters shared jokes and battle stories, while one showed off pictures taken on his phone of insignia from troops in the trapped Ukrainian battalions.

"They wanted to take Starobesheve, but this operation failed," said one separatist fighter, who provided only his first name, Sergei. "Starobesheve remains under our control and their equipment is under our control."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian government forces are now facing the prospect of an onslaught from yet another front along the coast of the southeastern Azov Sea, in the port city of Mariupol.

Lysenko said Ukrainian military units and the civilian population were preparing Saturday to defend the city against any assault by the rebel militias.

Separately, Ukrainian forces said one of their Su-25 fighter jets was shot down Friday over eastern Ukraine by a missile from a Russian missile launcher. The pilot ejected and was uninjured, the military said in a brief statement.

Sanctions preparations

In Brussels, European leaders are unlikely to impose any immediate new sanctions but, officials say, will instruct the European Commission, the union's executive branch, to prepare the legal and other work needed for further restrictions on Russia's economic and financial relations with the union's 28 member states.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said "sanctions are not an end in themselves," but a means to dissuade Russia from further destabilizing Ukraine.

"We may see a situation where we reach the point of no return," Barroso warned. "If the escalation of the conflict continues, this point of no return can come."

He provided no specifics about which sanctions the heads of state and government might adopt to inflict more economic pain to nudge Russia toward a political solution but said European leaders in Brussels would endorse new, tougher measures in an effort to make Moscow "come to reason."

While not directly accusing Russia of sending soldiers into Ukraine, as Poroshenko and NATO have done, Barroso said Russian moves to feed fighting in eastern Ukraine were "simply not the way responsible, proud nations should behave in the 21st century."

The U.S. and the EU have so far imposed sanctions against dozens of Russian officials, several companies and the country's financial industry. Moscow has retaliated by banning food imports.

Lithuania's Grybauskaite said the EU should impose a full arms embargo, including the cancellation of already agreed contracts. France has so far staunchly opposed that proposal because it has a $1.6 billion contract to build Mistral helicopter carriers for Russia.

The EU's requirement for a unanimous agreement among the 28 nation has in the past blocked or softened decisions since some nations fear the economic fallout.

Russia is the EU's No. 3 trading partner and one of its biggest oil and gas suppliers. The EU, in turn, is Russia's biggest commercial partner, making any sanctions more biting than similar measures adopted by the U.S.

Moscow, meanwhile, is preparing to send a second convoy of humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Moscow has already received Kiev's preliminary approval and insisted that it would send aid in coordination with the Red Cross. Lavrov wouldn't say when the aid is likely to be sent, but said it could happen this week.

Russian state news channel Rossiya 24 on Saturday showed trucks from the previous convoy at the border being loaded with humanitarian aid that was taken to the area by train. It was unclear when the new convoy could start moving.

Barroso said that the EU -- a bloc encompassing 500 million people and stretching from Lisbon to the border with Ukraine -- stands ready to grant Kiev further humanitarian aid and financial assistance if needed. The bloc also will organize a donors' conference at the end of the year to help rebuild the country's east, he added.

Information for this article was contributed by Juergen Baetz, Jim Heintz, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Peter Leonard of The Associated Press and by Andrew Higgins, Neil MacFarquhar, James Kanter and Rick Lyman of The New York Times.

A Section on 08/31/2014

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