US and EU united in support of Ukraine, Kerry says after Ashton meeting

“If Russian elements continue to sabotage the democratic process and prevent Ukraine from holding a free and fair election 19 days from now on the 25th, then we stand ready to implement additional sanctions,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said on 6 May after a meeting in Washington with EU High Representative Catherine Ashton. “And the ‘we’ is Europe and the United States together.” In Senate testimony the same day, Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland said that “Putin’s formula is simple: intervention abroad, repression at home.”

“It is imperative for Russia’s own welfare that it cease its assault on its neighbors’ sovereignty,” US Ambassador to the EU Anthony Luzzatto Gardner writes in a related blog on the Ukraine crisis and U.S.-EU co-operation. “It would be wiser for Russia’s leadership to recognize the value of being a responsible actor and stop using energy exports as a means to intimidate its neighbors...Banging the nationalist drum may bear short-term fruits; but the reality of the economic situation will eventually dawn on the Russian electorate.” (Blog in French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish).

Secretary Kerry will travel to London next week to meet his European counterparts and discuss the next steps. “The United States, the EU, and our allies have made our choice very, very clear: We are going to stand together united not just in support of Ukraine, but united in support of de-escalating; united in support of a peaceful, diplomatic solution,” he said. “There are historic and cultural and other ties between Russia and Ukraine, but the way to assert them is at the diplomatic negotiating table, not at the end of a gun.”

More information

-Recent U.S. Statements on Ukraine
-Website of U.S. Embassy Kyiv

 Find U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gardner on Twitter and the U.S. Mission to the EU on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, our Blog and our Website

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