Sanctions could ‘seriously hurt’ Russia – Hammond
Philip Hammond says Russia could face further sanctions as the country’s leaders hit back at the west for targeting individual citizens.
Russia is facing the threat of economic sanctions which could “seriously hurt” the country if Moscow orders any further intervention in Ukraine, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond warned.
US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov are set to hold talks in Paris to build on discussions between their countries’ leaders about ways to resolve the dispute.
Mr Hammond said he hoped a diplomatic solution could be found but maintained it is important to continue to pressure Moscow following its use of “very crude” tactics against Ukraine.
The Defence Secretary said there were concerns about Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, following the annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
He said UK forces were stepping up their involvement in military exercises in eastern Europe to provide reassurance for Nato members in the region that they would be defended in the event of any Russian attempts to violate their territory.
Diplomacy is the art of talking and reaching agreements
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “Everybody is concerned. We are concerned that there might be a further incursion in the territory of a sovereign nation.
“Whether there is or there isn’t, we all need to be concerned about the use of this very crude and blunt instrument to try to influence other countries and their behaviour.
“We thought we had seen the end of that kind of thing in Europe.”
“Certainly one of the things we are looking at is a greater participation in exercises in the Baltic States, the eastern European Nato member countries as a way of reassuring them about our commitment to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, the mutual guarantee.”
Article 5 of the Nato treaty means that an attack on one nation in the alliance is viewed as an act of aggression against them all.
Mr Hammond said: “We have already announced that we will be providing Typhoon aircraft, based probably in Estonia, to support the Polish-led Baltic air policing mission during the summer.
Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander told the Andrew Marr Show: “I think these talks are vital between the US and Russia but it’s equally vital we see talks between Russia and the Ukraine.
“That is the basis on which we can see a lowering of the temperature and a de-escalation of what remain some very serious risks on the eastern Ukrainian border.”
Revenge claim
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says sanctions imposed by the West, directed at people personally, look like “a revenge”.
He has claimed that if the West recognises the change of power in Kiev it should recognise the change of power in Crimea too.
“We know for a fact that diplomats from the European Union countries and from the US here in Moscow are instructed not to attend events where people from the sanctions list will appear.
“It totally contradicts the tasks that diplomacy needs to solve. Diplomacy is the art of talking and reaching agreements.”