Ukraine is showing signs of backsliding on reforms and
a cease-fire agreement with Russian-backed separatist forces in the
east as Europe weighs in June whether to continue sanctions against Russia
for its role in the conflict.
Martin Jaeger, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry told
Reuters on Friday that his government would back the gradual lifting of
sanctions against Russia if it makes progress on implementing the
cease-fire agreement. “Sanctions are no end in
themselves," Jaeger said.
Germany, which has provided support to Ukraine since its conflict with
Russia began in 2014, wants Ukraine's government to implement a law
governing elections in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk,
which were seized in April 2014 by militants allegedly supplied and backed by
Russian forces. Russia has denied involvement.
Ukraine wants cease-fire violations by the militants to end before it
passes the election law, Peter Wittig, Germany's ambassador to
Washington, told USA TODAY. For the government in Kiev to lag behind on
its obligations under the cease-fire “would give additional weight to those
voices who want the lifting of sanctions,” Wittig said.
Both Italy and Hungary, which seek to resume trade with Russia, have said
the renewal of sanctions would not be automatic when the European
Commissionconsiders them at the end of June.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this week that
Ukraine has failed to implement its obligations under the agreement signed by
the two countries and separatist leaders in Sept. 5 in the Belarus capital
Minsk.
This week, separatist forces launched an artillery attack that caused the
most Ukrainian national casualties in a year. Seven soldiers were killed and
nine were wounded in a 24-hour period that ended Tuesday, according to
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
On May 9, which Russia celebrates as Victory day against the Nazis in World
War II, a military parade in Donetsk included tanks and rocket launchers
that shouldn’t have been there under the Minsk agreement because of the city’s
proximity to the front line, according to media reports and photographs.
Other recent developments in Ukraine cast a shadow on the
government's commitment to fight corruption and honor a free
press, changes that its citizens clamored for when a popular uprising
ousted the Russian-backed government of President Viktor Yanukovych in
February 2014.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, a chocolate tycoon who rules a
country ranked by Transparency International as the most corrupt in
Europe, this month oversaw the appointment of a political crony as
prosecutor general in charge of fighting corruption. Ukraine’s parliament approved
the appointment Yuriy Lutsenko, head of Poroshenko’s party in
parliament.
Also, the Security Service of Ukraine announced it has opened an
espionage investigation of journalists whose names appeared on a separatist
database made public by activists linked to Ukraine’s interior
ministry. Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who
is now at the Brookings Institution, said, “Anything that suggests
the Ukrainians are moving in a way that would infringe on the freedom of media
would be a bad sign.”
The Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, which has been
monitoring the cease-fire in Ukraine, called for an investigation of attacks
on at least five journalists or media offices in Ukraine since the list was
published.
France , together with Germany, agrees that the accord should be
implemented in full, said French Ambassador to Washington Gérard Araud.
Yet, "there is a growing pressure in Europe for the lifting of sanctions,
because as you know it's costly also for us," Araud said.
The pending election law for the militant-controlled east would
determine who is eligible to vote and ensure the elections are fair. If
the elections produce a legitimate representative for the breakaway
regions, “then some things would be a lot easier,” German Ambassador
Wittig said.
After elections, Ukraine’s government is expected to proceed
on constitutional changes to provide self-rule in the separatist
region and amnesty to pro-Russian militant leaders.
Pifer said Russia argues that neither side has fully complied with the
cease-fire terms. But the European Union is united in the belief
that Russia bears primary blame for the conflict, and Russian support for the
rebels might have been greater without the sanctions, Pifer said.
But Europe is fairly united in the opinion that "Russian behavior
might have been even worse without the sanctions,” he said.
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