You're reading: West slaps on sanctions as Ukraine’s politicians fail

With each escalation of government violence in the EuroMaidan demonstrations, the West has threatened sanctions. This week, with at least 75 people killed in clashes between police and anti-government protesters, the European Union and United States followed through on those threats as Ukraine’s politicians failed to end the nation’s crisis.

Three European foreign ministers shuttled between President Viktor Yanukovych, who was barricaded in his office behind walls of concrete blocks, and the political opposition in an attempt to broker a political deal to stop the violence and set up early elections in Ukraine.

The EU on the same day gave the ministers additional ammunition in their talks by introducing sanctions against an unspecified number of Ukrainian officials, including travel bans, asset freezes and other financial penalties. Earlier, the United States approved similar sanctions against 20 Ukrainian officials blamed for ordering the violence.

The ministers from Germany, France and Poland said they were in for a night of “tough negotiations” in Ukraine as they went into the president’s office for the second time late in the evening. Their first meeting lasted for five hours, they said, and was interrupted by Yanukovych, who had telephone conversations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Although few details are available, European diplomats said a road map was discussed and drafted for exiting the crisis that involves a power-sharing agreement. Early elections were also on the agenda, and Reuters quoted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as saying the president agreed to hold them at the end of this year.

Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said that “we tried to consider various options for stopping violence, in particular formation of the new government and holding an election… We hope to find a solution to this situation, but now the situation is very difficult,” Fabius said.

But leaders of the opposition were not happy with Yanukovych’s stance. “When we have a result – we will tell them about it,” said Vitali Klitschko, leader of Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform. “So far, there is no result.”

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski tweeted before going into the second meeting with the president: “After talks with the opposition, on the way back to the president to help negotiations. Progress made but important differences remain.” In the meantime, at an emergency meeting in Brussels, foreign ministers decided to impose visa bans and asset freezes on those responsible for violence, and halt export of riot gear.”

Member of parliament and millionaire businessman Petro Poroshenko, one of the opposition leaders and a former Ukrainian foreign minister, hailed the decision on sanctions.

“I had no doubt that Europe will find strength to give a sign that criminals will be punished,” Poroshenko said in Ukraine’s parliament, which convened to approve a memorandum to condemn violence and order law enforcers to pull the troops from the streets.

The memorandum is yet to be signed by Verkhovna Rada speaker Volodymyr Rybak and Yanukovych and has little legal force. But the cross-party vote of 236 parliament members, including 34 members of the pro-presidential Party of Regions, indicated that a new fragile majority may be emerging in the Rada that could pose a challenge to the president.

The Kremlin criticized EU and US sanctions as blackmail that would not help solve the crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin also sent an envoy to Kyiv.

But one European diplomat suggested that the EU’s sanctions may have been helpful in negotiations with Yanukovych.

“One of the arguments might be that there is no list of people who fall under sanctions per se, so one of the arguments the ministers may be using is that some people close to the president, such as his elder son Oleksandr, might end up on the list,” the diplomat said.

Others doubted, however, that sanctions would have any positive effect on Ukraine’s top government officials, saying many of them no longer keep money in Western banks. If the destination of private jets flying out of Kyiv’s Zhuliany airport on Feb. 20 is anything to go by, those skeptics may be right.

Anna Babinets, an investigative journalist, said that 20 private planes left the airport this day. “They are flying to Donetsk, Moscow, Bilbek (a military airport in Sevastopol). They are taking out families and a lot of money,” she said, adding that her information came from an airport worker.

Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected].