MARIUPOL: France and Germany yesterday threatened Russia with “consequences” if Moscow disrupts Ukrainian presidential elections later this month, stepping up diplomatic pressure on the eve of “illegal” referendums the West fears will split the country apart.
In a joint statement, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also urged Ukraine’s security forces to stop their offensive on rebel-held positions in the run-up to the planned May 25 presidential part. The warnings suggested the West might soon move to broaden its sanctions regime to include whole sections of the recession-threatened Russian economy.
Paris and Berlin said “proportionate” force should be used to protect people and buildings as Kiev battles to wrest back control of more than a dozen towns and cities in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian insurgents. The two leaders also called for a “visible” withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian border after Nato disputed Putin’s claims he had pulled back his estimated 40,000 servicemen.
Ukraine’s interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said that Kiev was “ready for negotiations” with representatives from the eastern region but “not terrorists whose mission is to destroy the country”. He said voting for independence would be a “step into the abyss” for these regions and lead to the “total destruction” of the economy there.
Meanwhile, preparations were in full swing for the disputed referendums in the two eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, home to 7.3 million of Ukraine’s total population of 46 million. Merkel and Hollande dismissed the referendums as “illegal”, amid Western fears they will hasten the break-up of Ukraine and could lead to all-out civil war on Europe’s fringes.
Voters in today’s referendums will be asked if they support the creation of two independent republics that many see as a prelude to joining Russia, as happened in Crimea. A poll released on Thursday by the Pew Research Centre in the United States suggested 70 percent of Ukrainians in the east want to stay in a united country, while only 18 percent back secession.
AFP
