Anti-government protesters protect themselves with shields during clashes with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square on Feb. 19, 2014. Obama condemns Ukraine violence

President Barack Obama denounced the escalating bloodshed in Ukraine Wednesday, urging that country’s military to stay out of the conflict and warning of unspecified “consequences” for those involved in violence surrounding ongoing protests against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the violence that’s taking place,” Obama said during a summit meeting in Toluca, Mexico.


“We hold the Ukrainian government primarily responsible for making sure that it is dealing with peaceful protesters in an appropriate way, that the Ukrainian people are able to assemble and speak freely about their interests without fear of repression,” Obama said, flanked by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. “We’ve also said we expect peaceful protestors to remain peaceful and we’ll be monitoring very closely the situation, recognizing that with our European partners and the international community there will be consequences if people step over the line.”

( PHOTOS: Ukraine protests)

More than 25 people were reportedly killed in the past day as protesters opposed to Yanukovych clashed with security forces in Kyiv.

Late Wednesday, Yanukovych’s office issued a statement saying he and opposition leaders had agreed to a truce, the Associated Press reported. Details of the agreement were not immediately disclosed.

The State Department announced Wednesday afternoon that it has banned the issuance of U.S. visas to 20 Ukrainians deemed involved in human rights abuses related to political repression.

“These individuals represent the full chain of command that we consider responsible for ordering security forces to move against protesters on the Maidan yesterday,” a senior State Department official told reporters, referring to the central square in Kyiv where the most deadly violence took place.

( Also on POLITICO: Senators call for Ukraine sanctions)

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. law prohibiting naming those affected by the ban, but said some of those affected were “senior members of the Ukrainian government.”

Earlier in the day, state news services in Ukraine reported that Yanukovych removed the chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. Some analysts said the move could indicate that the military was about to join in the crackdown on protesters.

In his statement during his day-trip to Mexico, Obama seemed eager to head off any such development. The U.S. and European stance “includes making sure the Ukrainian military does not step into what should be a set of issues that can be resolved by civilians,” the president said.

U.S. officials believed they had a good relationship with Ukrainian military leaders, but have not been able to reach them in recent days, the State Department official said.

“Nobody’s picking up the phone on the Ukrainian side, which is worrying,” the American official said.

( Also on POLITICO: Joe Biden urges restraint in Ukraine)

While Obama’s public remarks were driven by the fiery scenes from Kiev playing out on TV screens around the world, they also reflect the president’s longstanding tension with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has urged the embattled Yanukovych to take a hard line against demonstrators.

The tensions between Putin and Obama have been on high-profile display in recent months, after Russia granted asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden in August and Obama canceled a planned summit meeting with Putin in Moscow the following month.

Obama’s decision to also skip the Olympics in Russia this month conveyed an additional message of U.S. displeasure with Putin’s policies, including his backing for Ukraine’s leaders.

Ukraine is widely viewed as a client state of sorts for Moscow. Putin seems eager to see the demonstrations decisively quelled, in part because they serve as reminders of the chaotic events that led to the disintegration of the old Soviet Union and which could encourage other restive parts of Russia to attempt to break away.

“We consider this idea of spheres of influence to be a wildly outmoded notion,” the senior State Department official said Wednesday.

The Ukrainian protests also have their roots in a proposed trade agreement with Europe that Yanukovych rejected in favor of closer ties with Moscow. Most of the demonstrators favor the deal with the West.

Obama alluded to that aspect of the protests Wednesday, even as he avoided explicitly endorsing the anti-government movement.

“We believe a large majority of Ukrainians are interested in an integration with Europe and the commerce and cultural exchanges that are possible for them to expand opportunity and prosperity,” the president said. “But regardless of how the Ukrainian people determine their own future, it is important the people themselves make those decisions and that’s what the United States will continue to strive to achieve.”

Obama’s vague warning about “consequences” for those who “step over the line” in Ukraine evoked a controversy the president dealt with last year after he warned publicly in 2012 about a “red line” regarding use of chemical weapons in Syria. The United States initially balked at taking significant action in response to reports chemical weapons were used in isolated cases, but Obama endorsed such action last August after broader use was confirmed.

Implementing sanctions in coordination with the Europeans against Ukrainian officials could prove much easier. However, many analysts say the Ukrainian government probably expects such actions and is unlikely to change course for that reason alone.

The White House’s desire to have Obama quickly address the latest violence in Ukraine also recalled other outbreaks of protest abroad where Obama was faulted for allegedly being too slow to speak out for pro-democracy campaigners.

In 2009, Obama faced criticism for a sluggish response to election-related protests in Iran. Foreign policy experts said the White House was reluctant to derail efforts Obama was making to thaw the long-chilly U.S. relationship with Tehran.

And in 2011, as protests broke out in Egypt, Obama was faulted for being too slow to distance himself from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Within days, Obama had parted company with the longtime Egyptian leader. The U.S. president then came under criticism from other Arab leaders and some in Israel for giving up too quickly on a loyal U.S. ally.

In both cases, the president’s aides said he feared sending messages that protesters might interpret as pledges of U.S. support or possible intervention when such action had essentially been ruled out.

Until now, the U.S. government’s public response to the Ukraine crisis has come primarily from Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry.

“All of us are deeply disturbed by the scenes of the violence, by the level of abuse that the citizens in the streets have felt over the course of the last days. And our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine for what has been happening,” Kerry said Wednesday during a meeting in Paris with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

“President Yanukovych has the opportunity to make a choice. The choice is between protecting the people that he serves, all of the people, and a choice for a compromise and dialogue versus violence and mayhem. We believe the choice is clear, and we are talking about the possibility of sanctions or other steps with our friends in Europe and elsewhere in order to try to create the environment for compromise,” Kerry added.

Joining Obama aboard Air Force One en route to Mexico Wednesday, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said the United States was in discussions with European Union officials about the possibility of imposing new sanctions in response to the violence.

“We have made it clear we would consider taking action against individuals who are responsible for acts of violence within Ukraine,” Rhodes said. “We have a toolkit for doing that that includes sanctions.”

Asked what could prompt the United States to move forward with sanctions after months of discussions on the subject, Rhodes said: “I think the events that we saw yesterday are certainly heightening our focus on this issue and I think we’ll be reviewing this, as we have been, on a near daily basis.”

Rhodes said officials hope the threat of sanctions prompt Ukrainian officials to moderate their response to the protests.

“Events like what we saw yesterday are clearly going to impact our decision making,” Rhodes said. If, on the other hand, the government pulls back, releases prisoners and pursues dialogue with the opposition, “that would obviously factor into our calculus as well,” he added.

Last month, the United States cancelled visas belonging to some Ukrainian officials linked to violence last fall against anti-government protesters on the streets of Kyiv. The step the State Department took Wednesday was different because it amounted to a ban on issuance of visas to certain individuals, not just revocation of existing visas, an official said.

However, the official underscored that the moves were “reversible” if the Ukrainian government showed greater restraint.

The bipartisan duo of Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) followed Obama’s statement on Ukraine by divulging their plans to craft a Ukraine sanctions bill that would not target the entire country, but instead target those “who must be held accountable for violating human rights and undermining democracy.”

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Wednesday against greater involvement by the West in the Ukrainian crisis.

“We warn against attempts to impose mediation. Our European partners have already overmediated there,” Lavrov said in comments his ministry posted on Twitter. “The blame for this also rests with many western countries that interfered in the events by courting the protesters.”

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.

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