WASHINGTON–The U.S. and Europe imposed their harshest sanctions yet against Moscow on Tuesday, spurred by what world leaders denounced as continued Russian intervention in Ukraine and the Kremlin’s refusal to help with an international investigation of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
While the new Western measures against Russia were being instituted, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, was visiting Washington. At the end of an eventful three days, he met with The Wall Street Journal for an interview to discuss the developments. Here are excerpts:
On Tuesday’s sanctions:
“The U.S. and Europe speaking with one voice is an extremely important development…The message that sanctions are imposed in parallel, in coordinated action, is as effective as the sanctions themselves.”
On seeking U.S. military assistance and a closer alliance with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization:
“It’s one of the options…The situation in Ukraine and the region is a unique one. We need to come up with unique ideas in our bilateral cooperation and our interaction with NATO. Within the frame of the NATO summit at the beginning of the September in South Wales, there will also be a Ukraine-NATO summit. We should come up with new ideas how to address the security shortcomings.”
On international loans and the potential need for more financing:
“We have to pay for these developments [fighting in Eastern Ukraine] but we also have to pay for destroyed infrastructure in Donetsk and Luhansk, water, gas infrastructure networks. We lost considerable revenues from in Donetsk and Luhansk, not to mention the occupation and annexation of Crimea. So for us, it’s important to take a look at how these problems should be addressed, also in the sense of additional financial assistance.”
On Moscow’s charges Tuesday that Ukraine forces fired into Russia:
“It’s actually the other way around. We have a number of cases of shelling from Russian territory into Ukraine. According to the U.N. charter, it’s an act of aggression against Ukraine…Our forces have been exercising restraint and we never fired back on Russia and we will never fire back on Russia. Why? We are not going to provoke a response, and we are fully committed to international law.”