At their informal meeting in Milan on Friday, foreign ministers from the European Union’s Member States called for more effective sanctions against Russia, urging Moscow to act responsibly.

At the beginning of the meeting, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that incursions over the Ukrainian-Russian border suggest that the situation is increasingly getting out of control. He said that the crisis in Eastern Ukraine has entered a “new dimension” and that direct military confrontation between Russian and Ukrainian forces must be avoided. Steinmeier called on the Russian leadership to let reason prevail, to lay its cards on the table and to begin negotiations with Kiev for a political settlement before it is too late.

Danish foreign minister Martin Lidegaard thought the EU should introduce additional sanctions in the short term, as it must not stand idly by as the conflict spreads. Sweden’s top diplomat Carl Bildt said that “Sanctions alone are not enough: he (Putin) is prepared to sacrifice his own people.” the Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders also said that “sanctions, up to now, have failed.”

According to Lithuania’s Linas Antanas Linkevičius, the EU should provide Kiev with material and financial support, and this should include military assistance. In response to this, Carl Bildt stressed that this question must be placed on the agenda of the NATO summit on 4 and 5 September, while the EU should limit itself to financial, humanitarian and political assistance. Like his other colleagues, the Danish minister of foreign affairs also declared that the EU should maintain a position of solidarity with Ukraine, and in the long term reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

The meeting – which was also attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Tibor Navracsics – was called in order to prepare proposals for the meeting of heads of state and government in Brussels on Saturday.

(MTI)