Russia accuses US of fueling Ukrainian crisis

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MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s foreign minister on Saturday accused the United States of encouraging Ukraine to
challenge Moscow and heavily weighing in on the European Union.
Speaking in televised remarks Saturday, Sergey Lavrov said that "our American colleagues still
prefer to push the Ukrainian leadership toward a confrontational path."
He added that chances for settling the Ukrainian crisis would have been higher if it only depended on
Russia and Europe.
Lavrov spoke after Friday’s European Union summit, which decided not to immediately impose new sanctions
on Russia for destabilizing eastern Ukraine, but gave the Russian government and pro-Russian insurgents
there until Monday to take steps to improve the situation.
Ukraine on Friday signed a free-trade pact with the EU, the very deal that angered Russia and triggered
the bloodshed and political convulsions of the past seven months that brought Russia-West relations to
their lowest point since the Cold War times.
In November, under pressure from Moscow, a former Ukrainian president dumped the EU pact, fueling huge
protests that eventually drove him from power. Moscow responded by annexing the mainly Russian-speaking
Crimean Peninsula in March, and pro-Russian separatists soon rose up in Ukraine’s eastern provinces.
The U.S. and the EU slapped travel bans and asset freezes on members of Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s inner circle and threatened to impose more crippling sanctions against entire sectors of
Russia’s economy if the Kremlin fails to de-escalate the crisis.
The EU leaders on Friday said Russia and the rebels should take steps to ease the violence, including
releasing all captives, retreating from border checkpoints, agreeing on a way to verify the cease-fire
and launching "substantial negotiations" on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s peace plan.

The weeklong cease-fire, which both sides have been accused of violating, expired at 10 p.m. local time
(1900 GMT), but Poroshenko quickly declared its extension until 10 p.m. local time Monday.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying Saturday that
the situation in the east was largely quiet overnight and there were no casualties among Ukrainian
troops despite sporadic shooting. Rebels claimed that Ukrainian troops tried to capture one of the
checkpoints on the Russian border, which they control, but were rebuffed.
As part of his peace plan, Poroshenko this week also submitted a set of constitutional amendments that
would give broader powers to the regions and allow local authorities to have more say on such issues as
language and culture. In an address to the nation Saturday, he voiced hope that the move would
strengthen the country’s unity.
Lavrov acknowledged that Russia has some leverage with the rebels, pointing at their move this week to
release four observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe after weeks of
captivity, but claimed that Moscow’s influence is limited.
"There are reasons to believe that they hear us on other aspects of Russian position regarding the
crisis in Ukraine, but that doesn’t mean that they immediately move to heed our calls," he said.

Four other OSCE observers are still being held, but a leader of the insurgents promised Friday to free
them "in the nearest days."
Following talks with a troika including a former Ukrainian president who represented the Kiev government,
the Russian ambassador and an OSCE envoy, rebel leader Alexander Borodai also promised to abide by the
extended cease-fire.
He rejected the EU leaders’ demand to retreat from three checkpoints on the border with Russia captured
by the rebels, but invited OSCE to send its monitors to the border crossings and any other areas in the
east.

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