Servicemen of the Azov battalion in Kharkiv mark the founding of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a paramilitary partisan movement formed in 1943 to battle for independence against Polish, Soviet and German forces in western Ukraine.
Reuters
President Vladimir Putin warned Washington that a spat between nuclear powers over the Ukraine crisis could threaten global stability and said in remarks published yesterday that Russia would not be “blackmailed” by sanctions.
Taking a tough line on the eve of talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Milan, Putin said the sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union over Moscow’s role in the crisis were hindering peace moves.
“We hope that our partners will realise the recklessness of attempts to blackmail Russia, will remember the risks that a spat between major nuclear powers incurs for strategic stability,” he told the Serbian newspaper Politika before a brief visit to Belgrade on Thursday.
“For our part, we are ready to develop constructive cooperation on the principles of equality and real consideration of mutual interests.”
Putin, who has stepped up anti-Western rhetoric during the crisis, said in August Russia’s armed forces, backed by its nuclear arsenal, were ready to meet any aggression and that foreign powers should not “mess with us”.
Relations between Moscow and Washington are at a post-Cold War low over Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, though Moscow denies sending troops and weapons to back them.
Russia says the West was behind the removal of a pro-Russian president in Ukraine in February and that the takeover of Crimea was justified after it voted overwhelmingly to join Russia.
The sanctions have aggravated Russia’s economic problems, with inflation running at an annual rate of almost 8%, the rouble falling sharply this year and capital flight topping $75bn in the first half of 2014.
“Attempts to pressure Russia by means of one-sided, illegitimate restrictive measures are not bringing us towards a resolution, and are complicating dialogue,” Putin said.
“How can one talk about striving for de-escalation in Ukraine if new sets of sanctions are being introduced almost at the same time as agreements to promote the peace process are reached?”
The European Union introduced new sanctions shortly after a ceasefire deal was reached last month, although it gave Moscow several days to implement the agreement.
The ceasefire has been violated repeatedly and Western powers say the deal agreed at talks involving Russia, Ukraine, the separatists and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe watchdog is not being fully implemented.
Russian natural gas transit through Ukraine to Europe is still problematic and alternative supply routes, such as the planned South Stream pipeline, should be used to solve the issue, president Vladimir Putin said in an interview.
Moscow halted gas supplies to Ukraine in June over unpaid debts and pricing disagreement.
This has sparked concerns about the possible disruption of Russian gas supplies which transit Ukraine en route to Europe, something which has occurred twice in the past decade.
“As for the future of Russian gas exports to Europe, the problem of transit across the Ukrainian territory remains. One of the more obvious solutions might be to diversify the delivery routes,” Putin told the Serbian daily Politika, ahead of a visit.
Putin is set to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko this week in an attempt to resolve a crisis over Ukraine, where an armed conflict between pro-Moscow rebels and government forces has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people.
Natural gas supplies will also be discussed.
To avoid supplies disruption and bypass Ukraine, Russia has built the Nord Stream gas pipeline directly to Germany across the Baltic Sea. The planned South Stream pipeline would cross the Black Sea to southern Europe with plans to start supplies next year.
That project has irked the European Union, which is trying to reduce reliance on energy from Russia which meets a third of the EU’s gas demand.
EU regulations have also limited Nord Stream’s ability to pump gas at full capacity, something that would require full access to an inland OPAL pipeline from Germany to the Czech Republic.
EU authorities, citing tension in Ukraine, have asked for a delay until at least the end of October on whether to allow Russia greater access to that pipeline.
“We hope that the European Commission will finally make a decision in the nearest future about the use of the Opal gas pipeline at full capacity,” Putin said.
He also said that South Stream would significantly contribute to the integrated energy security in Europe.
“It will benefit everybody, Russia as well as European consumers, including Serbia,” he said.
A “rogue” band of pro-Russian rebels was surrounding more than 100 Ukrainian troops in the eastern Lugansk region yesterday, the local governor said.
Several injured soldiers have been captured by the fighters, who do not answer to the main separatist leadership in Lugansk, the pro-Kiev governor Gennadiy Moskal said in a statement on his website.
“Battles are ongoing at Bakhmutka” on a road that lies west of separatist-controlled Lugansk where Ukrainian forces have several checkpoints, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists.
He denied that the Ukrainian forces were surrounded.
However, Moskal said: “We know this morning that 112 soldiers and National Guard fighters have been surrounded.
“Several injured soldiers have been captured... the situation can be characterised as critical,” he added.
Moskal said attempts by representatives of the pan-European security group the OSCE to try to agree with leaders of the self-declared Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) about ceasing fire have not brought any result.
“The attackers are fighters of the so-called Donskoy army which does not obey the LNR,” he said.
