EU delays decision on whether to impose more Ukraine sanctions

With the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine
due to hold negotiations in Minsk, Belarus, tomorrow, the EU has held off placing asset freezes
and travel bans on 19 more individuals, including five Russians, for their actions in eastern Ukraine.

“The principle of the sanctions is maintained but the application will depend on what happens on the ground,” said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius. “We will see if the meeting has taken place, what kind of results there are. And then we will be able to draw conclusions.”

The EU foreign ministers are throwing their weight behind fresh diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, rejecting calls by some US politicians to provide lethal defensive weapons to Kiev. But German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier cautioned that the Minsk meeting is not set in stone yet. He said diplomats from all sides were meeting behind closed doors in Berlin to try to pave the way.

“We hope that the outstanding issues can be resolved to a point that a Minsk meeting would hold some promise and can produce the first steps towards defusing the situation and a ceasefire,” he said in Brussels, adding “(but) it’s not yet certain”.

As the debate continued in Washington on whether to send weapons to the embattled Ukrainian military, most EU ministers said now was not the time to risk escalating tensions.

“We do not see this as progress. It would be easy for the Russians to immediately compensate for that,” said Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders. Britain, also agreed to hold off for now.

“The UK is not intending to supply lethal weaponry to Ukraine at this point in time,” Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.

Mr Fabius said political advisers would meet in Minsk today to “hopefully” set up talks for the following day between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.