Kremlin plan fails to calm Ukraine as Nato backs Kiev. (Western states have backed Kiev with words and economic sanctions but...)

NEWPORT, Wales/DONETSK: Ukraine's president heard words of support from Western leaders at a Nato summit on Thursday, but a Kremlin peace offer failed to halt fighting in the east where dramatic advances by pro-Russian rebels have tipped the balance of power against Kiev.

The west believes a rebel advance since last week is the result of an assault by heavily armed Russian troops sent across the border, and has been scrambling to find a response to the biggest confrontation with Moscow since the Berlin Wall fell.

Western states have backed Kiev with words and economic sanctions on Moscow, but have also made clear that they will not fight to protect Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels rose up in two provinces after Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula in March.

• Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko was invited to meet US President Barack Obama, Germany's Angela Merkel, France's Francois Hollande and other Western leaders at a summit of Nato in Wales hosted by Britain's David Cameron.

"To the east, Russia has ripped up the rule book with its illegal, self-declared annexation of Crimea and its troops on Ukrainian soil threatening and undermining a sovereign nation state," Obama and Cameron wrote in a joint newspaper editorial.

Hollande brought the biggest surprise on the eve of the summit: postponing the delivery of a helicopter carrier warship to Russia, a measure he had long resisted. Moscow accused him of caving in to US political pressure.

"France's reputation as a reliable partner that carries out its contractual obligations has been thrown into the furnace of American political ambitions," Russian Foreign Ministry deputy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook.........................http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Kremlin-plan-fails-to-calm-Ukraine-as-Nato-backs-Kiev/articleshow/41709303.cms
4/9/14
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Related:

• Kremlin warns Ukraine against joining NATO / Calls for Ukraine’s joining NATO aimed to derail peace process (Lavrov)

• Ukraine PM rejects Putin ceasefire plan as bid to deceive West.

• Obama urges NATO to send message of support to Ukraine / France halts Mistral delivery to Russia

• Kiev: Poroshenko Announces Permanent Ceasefire in East Ukraine After Conversation With Putin