US Vice President Joe Biden yesterday condemned Russia’s behaviour in Ukraine as “unacceptable” and urged Moscow to abide by a September peace deal and pull its military forces out of the country.
Addressing himself rhetorically to Russian leader Vladimir Putin after holding talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Biden said: “Do what you agreed to do, Mr Putin.”
The high-level US visit to Kiev took place with diplomatic efforts stalled on ways of restarting the peace deal signed by Ukraine, Russia and pro-Moscow separatists fighting in the east.
Ukraine and Western powers have accused Russia of backing the separatists and sending in its own troops – allegations rejected by Moscow.
Both sides have also accused each other of violating the ceasefire and Ukraine said yesterday that its territory had come under cross-border artillery fire from inside Russia for the first time since the truce came into force.
Ukraine territory has come under cross-border artillery fire from inside Russia”
Biden’s visit to Kiev took place on the first anniversary of a decision by the government of Ukraine’s then-president Viktor Yanukovych to ditch a political and trade pact with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia.
The move provoked protests from tens of thousands of Ukrainians and led to the ousting of the Moscow-backed Yanukovych. It triggered the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War after Russia annexed Crimea in March and backed the eastern separatists. Thousands gathered on Kiev’s Independence Square on Friday in remembrance of the start of the protests, holding a candle-lit minute’s silence, many decked out in the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag.
Poroshenko, a former confectionary magnate who was elected president in May, said his country’s future remained at risk.
“More than ever we need national unity or else the conflict within the country will destroy us,” he said in a statement to the nation posted on his website.
Tensions still simmering in Ukraine’s war-racked society came to the surface when Poroshenko went to pay tribute to the 100 or so protesters who were killed in February by police snipers before Yanukovych fled into exile in Russia.
Relatives of those killed, frustrated by the government’s failure to bring officials of the Yanukovich government to book, shouted, “Where are their killers?” and “Down with Poroshenko!” and also attacked him for failing to keep a promise to confer the title of national hero on the victims.
Poroshenko later returned to the scene to pledge that he would sign a decree to officially designate the victims as national heroes as promised.
Biden, appearing alongside Poroshenko, condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea and backing for the separatists and said Washington would always support a democratic, reformist Ukraine.
However he made no mention of fresh military aid which Kiev has appealed for.
Meanwhile Russia’s former finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, warned President Vladimir Putin yesterday that 'excessive conservatism' could restrict economic and political freedoms and added that populist policies would weaken Russia.
Kudrin, a liberal economist and long-time Putin ally, also said it would take years to woo foreign investors back to Russia and restore trust in the rouble, hit by an economic downturn aggravated by Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
Putin's popularity has soared in Russia since Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula during the conflict in Ukraine, but Kudrin made clear he saw pitfalls ahead.
'If the President relies only on populist approaches, the country will continue to weaken, and will lose economic growth opportunities,' Kudrin wrote in a commentary published by the Vedomosti business newspaper.