Russia must act in 'hours,' Kerry says

PARIS -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that Russia needed to take steps over the coming "hours" to pressure armed separatists in eastern Ukraine to give up the fight, or Russia would face the prospect of toughened sanctions.

The European Union is to meet today in Belgium to consider the imposition of additional economic sanctions.

"We are in full agreement that 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 said after meeting in Paris with Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister.

Making a similar point, Fabius said "commitments" had been made on "de-escalation" of the crisis in a lengthy four-way call Wednesday with President Vladimir Putin of Russia and the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine. Fabius said France hoped these promises would be fulfilled "today and in the coming days."

Western nations and Ukraine have accused Russia of providing political support and weapons to separatists in eastern Ukraine, which Russia has denied.

The nations have demanded that Russia use its influence to get the separatists to lay down their arms. They also have demanded that it support efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully and pull back Russian forces from the Ukrainian border.

In recent weeks and days, Putin has consulted with the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, on the details of a peace plan, supporting Poroshenko's call for a temporary cease-fire as well as an extension of that measure. Russia also has revoked a parliamentary order authorizing the use of Russian military force in Ukraine.

Despite those moves, the State Department has accused the Kremlin of continuing to aid the separatists covertly and of sending tanks and other armored vehicles and weaponry over its border with Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Kerry drew attention to the military support the West says Russia is providing to Ukrainian separatists, an accusation the Kremlin has denied. In a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Kerry said the separatists had shot down a Ukrainian military helicopter, killing nine Ukrainian soldiers, "with a Russian weapon."

While President Barack Obama's administration and its European allies have long threatened to impose tougher economic measures if Putin does not cooperate, they have been slow to follow through.

After Kerry said Russia needed to act within "hours," a Western official said it was not absolutely certain the EU would impose measures today if Putin failed to take major steps to defuse the crisis. In the long negotiations over Ukraine, Putin has often managed to deflect tougher sanctions by taking partial steps toward peace while not fully resolving the conflict.

In his comments Thursday, Kerry referred to the EU meeting and noted that it would concern "their component of the sanctions."

"We all agree that they need to be ready," Kerry said of the sanctions under discussion. "But our preference is not to have to be into a sanctions mode. We would like to see a cooperative effort between the United States, Europe and Russia and the Ukrainians. And we are going to try to encourage that as much as we can."

U.S. officials have sometimes referred to the measures under discussion as "sector sanctions," which has led some observers to conclude that they would apply to entire areas of the Russian economy.

But officials said the measures that have been considered in recent weeks were less sweeping and would involve the imposition of specific sanctions within individual economic sectors. That approach would spread the economic pain among Western nations that have economic dealings with Russia, they said.

A Section on 06/27/2014

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