Barack Obama Tells Vladimir Putin to Accept Ukraine Peace Plan, Threatens More Sanctions

Barack Obama Tells Vladimir Putin to Accept Ukraine Peace Plan, Threatens More Sanctions
Mary Chastain

President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone about Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s peace plan for east Ukraine. Obama told Putin Russia would face more sanctions if it does not do its part to bring peace to Ukraine.

“The president spoke to President Putin and once again urged him to support peace instead of allowing the provision of arms and materiel across the border and continuing support for militants and separatists who are further destabilizing the situation in Ukraine,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. “Russia will face additional costs if we do not see concrete actions to de-escalate the situation.”

Here is the readout of Obama’s call to Putin:

“The president called upon President Putin to press the separatists to recognize and abide by the ceasefire and to halt the flow of weapons and materiel across its border into Ukraine,” the White House said in a released statement. “The president emphasized that words must be accompanied by actions and that the United States remains prepared to impose additional sanctions should circumstances warrant, in coordination with our allies and partners.”

Ukraine supplied evidence that Russia is helping the pro-Russian forces in the east. On June 12, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow sends the rebels “humanitarian aid,” but did not specify what is in the aid. One militia leader admitted the aid contains military equipment. Ukraine’s government said three Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine and NATO released satellite images to support the claim.

There are also no details on what type of sanctions Russia will face. So far the United States imposed four rounds of sanctions against Russia and the latest one included Rosneft CEO and President Igor Sechin. Rosneft is Russia’s largest petroleum company and holds lucrative contracts with ExxonMobil and British Petroleum. 

However, despite the sanctions, the US Treasury Department told ExxonMobil it can continue to work with Rosneft.

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