Obama meets Ukraine’s new president in show of support
Poroshenko faces the steep uphill task of keeping the country from slipping into an all-out civil war on the back of a fierce pro-Russia insurgency in the east, which Washington has blamed Moscow for orchestrating.
Obama told reporters after his meeting with Poroshenko in Warsaw, “What Ukrainians said in the elections is that they reject that path. They reject violence.”
“That’s the hope that President Poroshenko represents,” Obama said.
He said they had discussed Poroshenko’s plans for restoring peace and order in Ukraine and reducing its dependence on Russia for energy.
Speaking after their talks, Poroshenko said he was ready to present a plan for “the peaceful resolution of the situation in the east” very soon after his inauguration on Saturday. He gave no details but he has backed a military crackdown on the rebels.
The White House said in a statement that Obama had approved an additional $23 million in defence assistance to Ukraine since early March, including $5 million for “the provision of body armour, night vision goggles, and additional communications equipment”.
No talks with Putin in Normandy
The talks, on day two of his European tour, come after the president met central and eastern European leaders in Warsaw and before he heads to a G7 summit in Belgium which is designed to cement Western policy towards Russia.
On Friday, Obama will attend 70th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, which Russia's President Vladimir Putin will also attend. There are no plans for the two presidents to hold one-on-one talks.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany, however, have all announced their intentions of holding such talks with Putin.
These latest developments come as a seven-week pro-Russian insurgency in Ukraine's eastern region grows only more violent after Poroshenko swept to power in a May 25 presidential ballot.
Hundreds of separatist gunmen on Monday attacked a Ukrainian border guard service camp in the region of Lugansk on the border with Russia.
Obama said Tuesday that US commitment to eastern European security was absolute.
Security in Europe is key
"Our commitment to Poland's security as well as the security of our allies in central and eastern Europe is a cornerstone of our own security and it is sacrosanct," Obama said after inspecting a joint unit of Polish and US F-16 pilots. He proposed a "European Reassurance Initiative" of up to $1 billion to finance extra US troop and military deployments to "new allies" in Europe.
“Our contingency plans are not just pieces of paper on a shelf,” Obama said, adding that the US must and does have the ability to put those plans into effect if needed.
Obama will meet Poroshenko as the confectionery tycoon faces the unenviable task of keeping his economically ravaged country from slipping into an all-out civil war that Washington blames Moscow for orchestrating.
"Events in Ukraine have unfortunately unleashed forces that we had all hoped had been put away, were behind us," US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Warsaw.
In eastern Ukraine, rebels pelted the border guard camp with mortar fire and deployed snipers on rooftops surrounding the base in a day-long battle that marked one of their most brazen offensives of the campaign.
Ukraine's military reported no fatalities but said they had killed five rebels.
A defence spokesman said two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 42 wounded in new violence that swept the neighbouring coal mining province of Donetsk on Tuesday.
New sanctions loom
Washington's commitment to Ukraine will be reinforced when US Vice President Joe Biden travels to Kiev on Saturday to attend Poroshenko's swearing-in as the country's fifth post-Soviet president.
Kiev has refused to invite Putin to the inauguration because of his failure to formally recognise the May 25 vote's outcome or rein in the separatist campaign.
Ukraine and its eastern European allies such as Poland have been pushing the West to unleash painful economic sanctions against entire sectors of Russia's economy in response to the Kremlin's perceived support of the rebels.
Obama addressed those calls directly by telling a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski that Russia faced further punitive measures unless it put restraints on the separatists.
"Further Russian provocation will be met with further costs for Russia including, if necessary, additional sanctions," Obama said.
The US leader has spent months trying to isolate his rival and punish the Kremlin's inner circle with sanctions that have cut it off from access to US and many Western banks.
Obama on Tuesday called on Putin to accept Poroshenko's invitation to hold his first talks in Normandy with a Ukrainian leader since the February ouster of Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovich set Kiev on its new westward course.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
