EU being 'tested' by rebels in Ukraine
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
16.07.2014 09:49
Poland's foreign minister has said after talks with Ukraine's PM and president in Kiev that millions of Ukrainians were effectively being held hostage by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the ex-Soviet state.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (r) talks with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski (R) during their meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, 15 July 2014. Sikorski has official visit to Kiev before European Council meeting on 16 July in Brussels, Belgium.: photo - EPA/ANDREW KRAVCHENKO
Before EU leaders meet in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the worsening crisis, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski was in the Ukrainian capital on Tuesday having talks with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and newly elected president Petro Poroshenko.
Sikorski said both leaders were hoping that the EU keeps its promise of support for Ukraine, which signed associate agreements with Brussels this summer.
Sikorski said that the “unprecedented” fighting in east Ukraine, which has “killed hundreds of soldiers with hundreds wounded”, and which has including pro-Russian rebels using “tanks and other heavy military equipment” is a “test of EU's credibility”.
Poland has been one of the member states in the EU calling for stiffer sanctions against Russia, which it believes is supplying the weapons to the separatists.
Since the start of the Kiev government's "anti-terrorist" operations three and a half months ago, a total of 258 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed, 922 injured and 45 are being held captive, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko is reported by Reuters as saying. (pg)