Russia Invades Ukraine. NATO still No Action, Talk Only...

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...shed-back.html

Poroshenko Says Hundreds of Foreign Tanks in Eastern Ukraine By Volodymyr Verbyany, Daryna Krasnolutska and Patrick Donahue Aug 30, 2014 8:36 PM GMT+0800 248 Comments Email Print <a href="javascript<b></b>:void(0)">Speed

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Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Close

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.


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Open Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.







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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said hundreds of foreign tanks are operating in his country, pleading for help from the European Union as it moved to slap tougher sanctions on the Kremlin.
“Ukraine now is a subject of foreign military aggression and terror,” Poroshenko told reporters in Brussels before a summit later today with leaders of the 28 EU member states. “Thousands of foreign troops and hundreds of foreign tanks are now on the territory of Ukraine.”
EU leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande gather in Brussels to elect a new president and foreign-policy chief of the 28-nation bloc. They will meet Poroshenko, who held talks today with EU President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Barroso.
The summit comes as Ukraine’s armed forces are retreating in some areas after NATO said Russia has deployed troops and advanced equipment in Ukraine. The allegation was dismissed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said alliance satellite photos came from “computer games” and had been faked.
“We are in a very serious, I would say dramatic, situation,” Barroso said at a news conference with Poroshenko. “We may see a situation that has reached a point of no return.”
Photographer: Roman Pilipey/EPA Ukrainian army fires during fighting between militants and Ukrainian forces in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Aug. 29, 2014. Close

Ukrainian army fires during fighting between militants and Ukrainian forces in Donetsk... Read More


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Open Photographer: Roman Pilipey/EPA Ukrainian army fires during fighting between militants and Ukrainian forces in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Aug. 29, 2014.





Russia Sanctions

French President Francois Hollande said EU leaders will agree to impose more sanctions on Russia at their talks tonight.
“The sanctions will certainly be strengthened and it will be the European Commission’s task to raise their level,” Hollande told reporters today in Paris.
Steps could include banning syndicated loans to targeted Russian companies, tightening restrictions on debt-market financing and extending an arms embargo to existing military contracts, which would halt the sale of two French Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia for an estimated 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion), according to four European diplomats involved in the deliberations who requested anonymity to discuss them.
Banning Russia from the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, the messaging system for most international money transfers, isn’t under consideration at this point either, two of the European officials said. Yesterday, a British government official had said the U.K. will press EU leaders to consider blocking Russian access to the messaging system.
More Aid

Barroso said today that more than 1 billion euros in loans could be released to Ukraine in the coming months. This is part of the 11 billion euro package announced earlier.
“We are ready to consider further financial assistance should additional needs be identified by International Monetary Fund during its next review mission,” he said.
As fighting intensifies in easternmost Ukraine, 28 Ukrainian soldiers withdrew from a rebel encirclement near Ilovaysk and the troop pullout from the area is continuing, the Interior Ministry in Kiev and Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said today.
Government forces destroyed five separatist military vehicles and six Grad multiple rocket launchers. A Ukrainian Su-25 ground attack plane was shot down by a Russian missile, the Defense Ministry said in a Facebook posting.
Death Toll

The death toll in the conflict is almost 2,600, the United Nations said. A total of 765 Ukrainian troops have been killed in the fighting, the government said. Seventy-five rebels have been killed in the past 24 hours, Lysenko said.
“The effective rebel counteroffensive followed Russia’s injection of fresh muscle into the insurgency and looks set to lead to a further wave of U.S. and EU sanctions,” Christopher Granville, managing director of London-based research group Trusted Sources, said yesterday in an e-mailed note.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has called for parliament in Kiev to consider North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership to protect against Russia seizing more territory after its annexation of Crimea in April.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen yesterday reaffirmed a 2008 Bucharest summit pledge that “Ukraine will become a member of NATO” if it so wishes and provided it fulfills the necessary criteria.
The EU and the U.S. already have slapped visa bans and asset freezes on Russian individuals and companies, and since July have imposed steadily tougher sanctions targeting the country’s energy, finance and defense industries.
To contact the reporters on this story: Volodymyr Verbyany in Kiev at [email protected]; Daryna Krasnolutska in Brussels at [email protected]; Patrick Donahue in Brussels at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at [email protected]; Alan Crawford at [email protected] Leon Mangasarian, Patrick Henry


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