Rein in separatists, or face sanctions
Ukraine's president yesterday appealed to Russia's Vladimir Putin and Washington threatened tougher measures should Moscow fail to rein in separatist fighters mounting a new offensive in the east of the ex-Soviet republic.
Petro Poroshenko's personal letter and US Secretary Jack Lew's warning to Putin came one day after European Union leaders unanimously backed pursuing more economic restrictions against Russia for its alleged meddling in Ukraine.
Western sanctions and a coinciding slide in the price of its vital oil exports have sent Russia into recession and seen Standard and Poor's slap a "junk" rating on Moscow's foreign currency debt.
The downgrade threatens to further alienate Western investors from Russia and assigns the economy with a failing grade not seen since the onset of Putin's 15-year rule.
Yet the pain appears to have done little to alter Putin's tough approach to his western neighbour or dent Russians' monumental trust in the Kremlin chief. A new eastern offensive has seen the separatists of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions try to link up their armies by taking over isolated pockets of land still controlled by government troops.
Poroshenko's office said the letter to Putin demanded that Moscow immediately rein in the rebel offensive and fulfil the terms of a long-ignored September peace plan it signed with Kiev and two top separatist leaders in Belarus. There was no immediate reply to Poroshenko's letter from the Kremlin.
Putin this week accused Nato of launching a proxy war in eastern Ukraine designed to weaken Russia and sever the two country's ancient relations
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