“I am very alarmed at the information,” said British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, who now participates in a meeting of foreign ministers of the European Union in Brussels, to discuss, among subjects, the crisis in Iraq.
“If there are military or Russian vehicles in Ukraine it must withdraw immediately or the consequences will be very serious,” he stressed.
The Ukrainian authorities today confirmed the British press that a small number of Russian armored vehicles had entered the Ukraine, not far from where a column of aid from Moscow tried to reach the pro-Russian separatists.
“We are deeply concerned about Russia’s behavior in recent months, but in the last hours,” said the Danish Foreign Minister, Martin Lidegaard.
“We think that the Russian authorities should be aware that both the European Union and the United States are strongly committed to respond to any new aggression from Russia,” he said.
The Foreign Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt, considered, in turn, that aa raid was “a flagrant violation of international law”, adding that the situation in eastern Ukraine is “disastrous”.
Bildt expressed regret for the “banditry” increasingly committed by pro-Russian separatists.
“The so-called People’s Republic of Donetsk and Lugansk have more people,” lamented the Swedish minister, alluding to acts of pro-Russian separatists.
Germany, for its part, remained cautious about reports of the raid, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to remember the “repeated difficulties” that emerged in the last hour.
Steinmeier also expressed satisfaction with the news that Russia would allow inspection of the truck convoy of humanitarian aid.
The European Union and the United States are concerned about the Russian humanitarian aid, because some people think it can serve to strengthen the position of the separatists, and put Russian military forces on the ground.
“We are primarily concerned with the convoy, but actually, the next step is much bigger: it’s about what can be done so that the guns are silent,” Steinmeier stressed.
In nearly four months of fighting more than 2,000 people died and nearly 285,000 have fled their homes.
TAGS: Popular Donetsk, Sweden Carl Bildt, Ukraine,
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