UKRAINE-CRISIS/USA-POWER U.N. to continue pressure on Russia over Ukrainian crisis - Samantha Power

Record ID: 150828

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/USA-POWER U.N. to continue pressure on Russia over Ukrainian crisis - Samantha Power
  • Date: 11th June 2015
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (JUNE 10, 2015) (REUTERS) 'HEAVENLY HUNDRED' MEMORIAL SAMANTHA POWER AND DELEGATION MEMBERS WALKING TOWARDS MEMORIAL POWER IN FRONT OF MEMORIAL PHOTOS OF PEOPLE KILLED IN PROTESTS POWER PUTTING CANDLE AT MEMORIAL RIBBONS IN COLOURS OF UKRAINIAN NATIONAL FLAG WAVING POWER WALKING IN STREET PEOPLE ON BRIDGE POWER PUTTING CANDLE AT THE INDEPENDENCE SQUARE MEMORI
  • Embargoed: 26th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA63GKIFC63AMVCWXL1G74R2EJL
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The United Nations will continue putting pressure on Russia until the implementation of the Minsk agreements, said the United States ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power on Wednesday (June 10) after meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
    Ukraine's president said that his country did its best to stick to the conditions of the truce.
    "Now, our main expectation for defending Minsk agreements, for supporting the peace process, many of these initiatives are connected with the (United Nations) Security Council. I spoke about that with Ban Ki-moon given his visit, it was eight of May, and we try to do our best, at least to launch some process for the peacekeeping," Poroshenko said.
    The U.S. envoy said the organisation is sticking to the plans to create a support office in Ukraine.
    "I come both as the U.N. ambassador and look forward to thinking more about the support office and what more we can do to push on that," Power said, adding that she also wanted to find out how the implementation progresses on the side of Kiev.
    Later Power visited the memorial of the victims of the uprising in February 2014 that toppled the president, Viktor Yanukovich.
    More than 100 protesters were gunned down in the Maidan uprising. The victims are now known as "the Heavenly Hundred."
    Power put a candle at the memorial at the Independence square in the centre of the capital that became a site of the standoff between the police and the protesters.
    The U.S. ambassador said the United Nations would prolong sanctions against Russia over Ukrainian crisis.
    "I then met with president Poroshenko and we discussed, of course, the critical importance of the implementation, full implementation of the Minsk agreements and I underscored the very important message out of G7 over the last few days that the sanctions will remain in place against Russia unless and until the Minsk agreements are implemented. And of course the major challenges with that, that we need to continue to put pressure on Russia to ensure, that the process, that has moved too slowly, picks up steam," she said.
    "The world is rooting for Ukraine and the United States has the backs of the Ukrainian people, and I want to make sure that when I go back to Washington and talk to president Obama, I have a fresh sense of what we can do to support the efforts here," Power added.
    Eight Ukrainian servicemen have been killed - seven of them in a single land mine blast - in the past 24 hours in eastern Ukraine where government forces are battling pro-Russian separatists, Kiev's military spokesman said on Tuesday (June 9).
    A ceasefire between the two sides brokered in February by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France remains technically in force, but regular skirmishes are claiming lives almost daily on both sides.
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