US secretary of state condemns Russia’s ‘extraordinarily craven behaviour’ after ceasefire left in tatters despite prisoner exchange

The US has warned it could level “serious sanctions” on Russia within days over breaches of Ukraine’s truce, which is in tatters despite pro-Moscow rebels and government forces exchanging scores of prisoners.

A separatist official said 139 Ukrainian troops and 52 rebels had been exchanged at a remote frontline location near the village of Zholobok, 12 miles west of the rebel-held city Luhansk.

Some of the released soldiers were wounded. A few had to walk on crutches through a landscape scarred and cratered by months of fighting.

The insurgents said the prisoners included some troops seized this week when they overran the strategic town of Debaltseve, located between Luhansk and the other rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

That bloody offensive – which killed 179 soldiers over the past month, according to one Ukrainian presidential aide – was the most egregious breach of the UN-backed ceasefire. About 2,500 Ukrainian troops had to flee Debaltseve under heavy rebel fire, and at least 112 were taken prisoner.

The Debaltseve assault and more than 250 ceasefire violations attributed to pro-Moscow fighters prompted a furious reaction from the US, which blames Russia for the 10-month conflict.

“If this failure continues, make no mistake, there will be further consequences including consequences that will place added strains on Russia’s already troubled economy,” John Kery, the US secretary of state, told a press conference in London.

He said Barack Obama would “in the next few days” decide what “additional steps will be taken in response to the breach of this ceasefire”. Kerry foresaw “serious sanctions” being imposed.

Kerry, who had been in talks with Philip Hammond, the UK foreign secretary, described Russia’s conduct as “simply unacceptable”.

“Russia has engaged in an absolutely brazen and cynical process over these last days,” he said. “We know to a certainty what Russia has been providing to the separatists, how Russia is involved with the separatists.

“We’re not going to sit there and be part of this kind of extraordinarily craven behaviour at the expense of the sovereignty and integrity of a nation.”



Hammond condemned the way in which the ceasefire agreement signed in Minsk had been “systematically breached”.

“We are going to talk about how we can maintain European unity and US-European alignment in response to those breaches,” he said.



This follows warnings from the Ukrainian military that it is bracing for a rebel attack on the port city of Mariupol – the largest city still under government control in the two rebellious eastern provinces.

Kiev military accused Russia on Friday of sending more tanks and troops towards the rebel-held town of Novoazovsk, further east along the Sea of Azov coast from Mariupol, expanding their presence on what it fears could be the next battlefront.



An attack on Mariupol would kill off a European-brokered ceasefire.

“The adversary is carrying out a build-up of military equipment, weapons and fighters in the Mariupol area with the aim of a possible offensive on it,” military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

“They are sending out small sabotage groups out almost every night. We can see the activities of the enemy around Novoazovsk where military hardware, fighters and ammunition are being amassed.”

Germany and France, which brokered the Ukraine truce, admit they “don’t have any illusions” about the difficulty in getting the agreement to take hold, but say it is the only hope of calming the conflict enough to find a lasting solution.

The UN estimates 5,700 people have died in the 10 months of war.

Under the truce, both sides are meant to observe a ceasefire, withdraw heavy weapons from the frontline by 3 March and carry out a prisoner exchange.

If those steps are met, they are then to conduct negotiations on greater autonomy in rebel-held areas, and eventually restore Ukraine’s control over all of its border with Russia.

But Kiev and the rebels continue to trade accusations of shelling, mortar rounds and rocket strikes targeting their positions.

Ukrainian defence officials allege Russia has deployed 20 tanks towards the port city of Mariupol and said a dozen enemy reconnaissance drones have been shot down.

The rebels claim to have already pulled back weapons in some areas, but there was no confirmation from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring the truce.

OSCE observers have been barred from entering Debaltseve to assess the situation, but the rebels promised they would finally be allowed in on Sunday.

Russia's debt downgraded to junk by Moody's Read more

Moscow is already labouring under several rounds of US and EU sanctions over the crisis. But while they have accelerated Russia’s slide towards recession, they have thus far failed to change Vladimir Putin’s stance.

In one sign of the effects on Russia’s economy, rating agency Moody’s cut Moscow’s debt note by one notch into “junk” territory, just a month after its last downgrade.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s former pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych, whose overthrow early last year led to the insurgency raging in east Ukraine, said in a Russian TV interview excerpt released Saturday: “I’ll be back.”

The ex-leader has little support left in his home country, however, after it was discovered following his escape to Russia that he had been living lavishly, in a sumptuous palace with a private zoo, a replica pirate ship and pure gold fittings, while the country sank further into debt.





The most senior British military officer in Nato warned on Friday that Russian expansionist ambitions could quickly become “an obvious existential threat to our whole being”.

General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, appointed last year as Nato’s deputy commander of forces in Europe, said the alliance needed to develop both fast-reacting conventional forces and capacities to counter Russian efforts at coercion and propaganda, as seen in Ukraine.

Talking of “an era of constant competition with Russia”, Bradshaw told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute on Friday that Nato had to maintain a cohesive system of deterrence on its eastern borders, something that would require help from the EU.







