US warns Russia of more sanctions over Ukraine

Geneva, March 2

US Secretary of State John Kerry today warned Russia that it will inevitably face further economic sanctions if it failed to implement agreements on a ceasefire deal and steps toward peace in eastern Ukraine.

Kerry, who met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for about 80 minutes on the sidelines of a UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva, said he hopes the ceasefire will be implemented fully “in the next hours, certainly not more than days.”

He said that if that did not happen, there will “inevitably be further consequences that will place added strain on Russia’s already troubled economy.”

Debaltseve saw intensified fighting between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian rebels after the Minsk II agreement was signed on February 12.

“There has been a cherry picking, a kind of piecemeal selectivity of the application of the Minsk agreement. People have still been killed in the last few days so there is not yet a full ceasefire. Its extremely difficult for the full measure of Minsk Agreement which includes a political component to begin to be implemented until you have the full measure of security that comes with an actual ceasefire,” Kerry said. — PTI