The EU has
broken its taboo on referring to Russian forces in east #Ukraine in its official
documents.
It said in its
Official Journal on Monday (16 February) that Russian deputy defence minister
Anatoly Antonov is being added to its blacklist because he is “involved in
supporting the deployment of Russian troops in
Ukraine”.
It listed first deputy defence minister Arkady Bakhin
for the same reason.
It also listed Andrei Kartapolov, a senior Russian
military commander, for being “involved in shaping and implementing the
military campaign of the Russian forces in Ukraine”.
The text in the legal gazette is signed by EU foreign
relations chief Federica Mogherini.
EU leaders did, in an informal declaration in August
last year, mention "aggression by Russian armed forces on Ukrainian
soil".
Individual EU officials, such as Council chief Donald
Tusk, have also made hawkish remarks.
Meanwhile, Ukraine, the US, and Nato have spoken of
Russian forces in Ukraine since last July. Nato and the US also published
satellite images to back it up.
But Mogherini
has, since coming to office, and with the exception of Russia-annexed Crimea,
avoided any reference to the Russian military in Ukraine.
The last time
EU foreign ministers published a statement, on 29 January, they also
circumlocutions, speaking of: “evidence of continued and growing support given
to the separatists by Russia, which underlines Russia's responsibility”.
They urged
“foreign armed groups” to leave Ukrainian territory.
The old EU
taboo went above minister level.
When French,
German, Russian, and Ukrainian leaders agreed a ceasefire in Minsk last week,
they also bowed to Russia’s claim its soldiers aren’t in Ukraine by calling for
withdrawal of “foreign armed formations”.
When leaders
of the G7 wealthy nations spoke out last week they, likewise, referred to
“Russian-backed separatist militias” only.
No accident
For her part,
Mogherini’s spokeswoman, Maja Kocijancic, told EUobserver the new language in
the Official Journal is not an accident.
She said it
reflects “mounting evidence, underlining Russia’s responsibility” for the
conflict.
One piece of
evidence is a classified report on Russian activity in Ukraine compiled by
Mogherini’s intelligence-sharing branch, IntCen, and circulated to capitals
ahead of 29 January.
An EU
diplomat, who asked not to be named, noted: "This new form of Russian
warfare - using tanks and soldiers without insignia - is something we haven't
seen before. We're still trying to work out how to respond to it".
A second EU
diplomat added: “It [the latest Official Journal text] is a clear and
understandable message against Russian propaganda and all the lies about
non-Russian engagement in the military conflict”.
Russia’s claim
it isn’t involved in east Ukraine is central to its propaganda message: that
the conflict is a “civil war” between Ukrainian nationalists and Russian
“separatists”.
Novorossiya
The 16
February Official Journal, which also listed nine entities, highlighted the
manufactured nature of the “separatism”.
Most of the
entities are battalions of Russia’s irregular fighters in Ukraine.
But one of
them is “Novorossiya”, a Russian “public movement” named after the Kremlin
concept that east and south-east Ukraine, or “New Russia”, belong to Russia on
ancestral grounds.
The Official
Journal noted that Novorossiya is run by Igor Strelkov, who is already
EU-blacklisted for organising an insurgency in Donetsk, east Ukraine, last
March.
The EU gazette
says he is a “Russian officer … identified as a staff member of the Main
Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the
Russian Federation (GRU)”.
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