According to Bloomberg News, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine to withdraw forces from its easternmost regions. According to a Kremlin statement, Putin demanded an end to violence gripping cities in southeastern Ukraine, during a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The International Monetary Fund has warned that extra financing might be needed if control of the industrial heartland is lost.
According to White House spokesman Jay Carney “We expect to continue a path that sees an international coalition escalating the costs that Russia will have to endure” if it “continues to destabilize the situation in eastern Ukraine and southern Ukraine, or even goes further and uses its forces to cross the border,” Jay Carney told reporters According to Bloomberg News.
“Putin emphasized that it was imperative today to withdraw all military units from the southeastern regions, stop the violence and immediately launch a broad national dialogue as part of the constitutional reform process involving all regions and political forces,” the Russian government said in a statement according to the New York Times.
The Interfax news service reported that in the city of Slovyansk, pro-Russian rebels said they had begun talks to swap international monitors abducted last week. The city’s self-appointed mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, said he’s in discussions with the government in Kiev to swap the OSCE monitors for his captured allies, according to the Interfax News Agency.
Antonio Spilimbergo, the IMF’s mission chief for Russia, has reported that, Russia is suffering from the crisis. Its economy is in a recession and may only expand 0.2 percent this year. The ruble is down 7.6 percent against the dollar this year, the second-worst among 24 emerging-market currencies reported by Bloomberg.
According to Reuters, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki noted that the United States was prepared to impose sanctions on individuals and entities in the financial services, energy, metals, mining, engineering and defense sectors.
Image credit: www.newstangle.com