Ukraine crisis: EU leaders to hold emergency talks

EU leaders are to begin an emergency summit to
decide how strongly they should respond to
Russia’s troop deployment in Ukraine’s Crimea
region.
Some members, particularly from Eastern Europe,
are pressing for tough sanctions, but others – led
by Germany – put more stress on mediation.
The Brussels summit comes a day after high-level
talks with Russia in Paris ended without significant
progress.
Pro-Russian forces are in de facto control of
Crimea.
A tense stand-off continued overnight across the
southern region, where Ukrainian troops remain
blockaded in their bases.
The leaders of the 28-member EU block are
expected to open the emergency meeting at 10:30
GMT.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is hoping that
in alliance with Sweden, Poland and other Eastern
European countries he can persuade their
colleagues of the need for Russian President
Vladimir Putin to pay a price for the occupation of
Crimea, the BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson
reports.
They will push not just for the suspension of EU-
wide agreements with Russia on visa free travel and
energy, but also the explicit threat – though not the
implementation – of targeted sanctions, he adds.
However, other countries – led by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel – are believed to be
pushing for mediation as the best way out of the
escalating crisis.
Ms Merkel is said to be worried that tough steps
may undermine attempts to start a dialogue
between Russia and Ukraine and distract from the
need to support the new government in Kiev both
economically and politically, our editor says.
Ukraine’s new interim Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk will also be present in Brussels.
The EU summit will probably impose some fairly
symbolic sanctions, like halting talks on visa or
trade liberalisation, the BBC’s Chris Morris in
Brussels reports.
But more substantive measures – including travel
bans or asset freezes against senior Russian
officials – are unlikely, our correspondent says. The
idea is to offer strong support to Ukraine and simply
try to keep talking to Russia.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry
described his Paris meeting with his Russian
counterpart Sergei Lavrov over Ukraine as “tough”,
but promised to continue talking.
Kerry said he was committed to working with
Moscow to ease the crisis.
However, he stressed afterwards that that Russia’s
violation of Ukrainian sovereignty “would not go
unanswered”.
The talks were also attended by foreign ministers
from the UK, Germany and France, but Mr Lavrov
refused to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy
Deshchytsia, whose government Moscow does not
recognise.
Deshchytsia is part of the new regime in Kiev,
which came to power after pro-Russian President
Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia.
Moscow regards the new government as
illegitimate, and says that Mr Yanukovych is still the
rightful leader.