As clashes broke out on Sunday in a series of Ukrainian cities, it appears that, on the diplomatic front, Vladimir Putin’s letter to 18 European countries, sent on Thursday 10 April, has worried the capitals.
The EU is taking seriously President in which he warned that Ukraine’s debt crisis could affect gas transit from Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. "There are many reasons to seriously take into account this message […] and for Europe to deliver a joint European response,”Merkel said on Friday in Athens.
She added that the issue would be discussed in a meeting between European Union foreign ministers Monday.
Speaking in Athens on Friday, Merkel stressed that the price on natural gas should be negotiated. She also said that EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger and representatives of European states should talk to Russia’s biggest gas producer, Gazprom.
“When we take all these steps, we can be sure that we have reached a joined response for the countries that face this problem because they are getting gas from Gazprom,” Merkel said, adding European states "would like to be good clients but we would also like to be sure Russian gas supplies are not interrupted.”
On Thursday, Putin wrote a letter to the leaders of 18 European countries, major consumers of Russian gas such as Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland and Romania, warning that Ukraine’s debt crisis reached a “critical” level and could threaten transit to Europe.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov says security forces have launched an "anti-terrorist operation" in the eastern city of Slovyansk. One Ukrainian state security officer was killed and five others were wounded on the side of government forces in an "anti-terrorist" operation on Sunday against pro-Russian separatist militants in a city in the east, the interior minister said.
On the side of the separatists there had been an "unidentifiable number" of casualties during the operation in the town of Slovyansk, the minister, Arsen Avakov, said on his Facebook page. "There were dead and wounded on both sides," Avakov said. About 1,000 people were giving support to the separatists, he added.
Ukrainian media also reported that pro-Russia separatists have seized the mayor's office in the city of Mariupol. The reports say the building was seized by the separatists after a peaceful rally by some 1,000 pro-Russia protesters.
The White House says U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Ukraine on April 22 to meet with government leaders and civil society groups, where he will "underscore the United States' strong support for a united, democratic Ukraine."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a phone call that Russia would suffer "additional consequences" if it did not act to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine and pull its troops back from the border.
Lavrov in turn told Kerry that any armed action by Ukrainian authorities in eastern Ukraine would put planned talks at risk. He said that any use of force against ethnic Russians in the east of Ukraine "would undermine the potential for cooperation ... including the holding of planned four-party talks in Geneva" on April 17.
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