Putin wants to 'eliminate' my country, Ukraine's PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk says
Arseniy Yatsenyuk says the Russian leader can't be trusted as accusations fly over conflict
PUBLISHED : Monday, 15 September, 2014, 4:55am
UPDATED : Monday, 15 September, 2014, 6:29am
Agence France-Presse in Kiev
A Ukrainian paratrooper near Zhdanivka. Photo: Reuters
Tensions over Ukraine festered after Kiev accused the Kremlin of seeking to "eliminate" the pro-Western former Soviet nation while Moscow charged Washington with orchestrating the crisis.
The bitter exchange on Saturday in the wake of the toughest Western sanctions yet on Russia came with a fragile nine-day truce once again tested by an hours-long battle for control of an eastern Ukrainian airport.
Russia further stoked tensions by sending a 220-truck convoy into rebel-held territory which it said carried aid but was not checked by European monitors or Ukrainian soldiers.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called on world leaders not to trust Russian President Vladimir Putin despite his decision to sign Moscow up to a truce aimed at ending a five-month war that has claimed more than 2,700 lives.
Yatsenyuk accused the increasingly isolated Kremlin chief of deliberately keeping Ukraine in a state of war to create a "frozen conflict" in Russia's backyard.
"His goal is to take the entire Ukraine ... He wants to eliminate Ukraine as an independent country," Yatsenyuk told a forum in Kiev. "He wants to restore the Soviet Union."
The European-mediated peace deal that Kiev signed with Moscow and two rebel leaders has helped calm fighting across the economically vital but devastated industrial rustbelt that hugs Russia's border with Ukraine.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called on world leaders not to trust Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Bloomberg
But both the United States and Europe remain deeply suspicious of Putin's intentions and are still waiting for him to pull back 1,000 paratroopers they claim have helped insurgents claw back territory in the days preceding the truce.
Moscow not only denies backing the fighters but also accuses Washington of fomenting the February protests that ousted a pro-Kremlin leader and brought in a new team that struck a historic EU alliance and is now seeking Nato membership.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took particular exception to measures that tighten US sanctions and for the first time target two private oil companies and gas giant Gazprom.
Lavrov accused Washington of "trying to use the crisis in Ukraine to break economic ties between the EU and Russia and force Europe to buy US gas at much higher prices".
Russia supplies about a third of Europe's natural gas - a reliance that forced Brussels to shield Gazprom from its other sanctions on state energy firms.
But the US added Gazprom to energy firms denied access to advanced exploration equipment.
Top Russian banks and energy companies have also been barred from borrowing from both US and European capital markets for longer than a month.
"These sanctions will get Putin's attention," the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group said.
