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

US President Barack Obama urged NATO to send an "unmistakable message of support" to Ukraine ahead of a summit in Wales.
Mr Obama also called on members of the military alliance to "step up" to their responsibilities.

He made the comments in a speech to university students in Estonia's capital Tallinn as part of a visit to Baltic states.

Separately, at least 87 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after being surrounded by pro-Russian rebels in the eastern town of Ilovaysk, a top local official said.
The deputy army recruiting commander of Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhia region, which has not been affected by the fighting, said the soldiers' bodies had been delivered to a local morgue in the past two days.

• Meanwhile, France said "conditions" were not in place to deliver the first of two Mistral-class warships to Russia, a move planned later this year that has sparked controversy given the crisis in Ukraine.

"The President of the Republic declared that, despite the prospect of a ceasefire which still remains to be confirmed and implemented, the conditions for France to deliver the first warship are not to date in place," Francois Hollande's office said in a statement...............................http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0903/641077-ukraine/
3/9/14
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Related:

• Russia announces mass drills ahead of NATO summit 

• Ukraine beginning 'Wall' project to build 'actual border' with Russia - (Yatsenyuk)

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

• Obama Arrives in Estonia to Reassure Baltic States (VOA News)

• Remarks by President Obama to the People of Estonia

Nordea Concert Hall
Tallinn, Estonia

4:00 P.M. EST
PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Hello, Estonia!  Tere Eesti!  Thank you, Oskar, for your wonderful introduction and for representing the talent and the energy and the optimism of today’s Estonia, especially its young people.  And Oskar is sitting next to his father, and his father and I agree that we’re getting gray, so we have to make sure that somebody is coming up behind us.  Please give Oskar a big round of applause for the great job that he did.  (Applause.)
To President Ilves and distinguished guests, to the people of Estonia -- it is a great pleasure to be with you in this historic city, in this beautiful land.  I thank you for the incredible hospitality that you’ve shown me today.  I understand the weather is always like this.  (Laughter.)  My only regret is that I missed this summer’s Laulupidu.  And I’ll try to come back next time and catch it.  I bring with me the friendship of the American people, and I am honored to be the first President of the United States to deliver an address like this to the people of Estonia. 
I just had the opportunity to meet once again with the presidents of all the Baltic states, and I thank the presidents of Latvia and Lithuania for being here.  We’re joined by friends from throughout the region.  And I want to say a special welcome to everyone watching this out in Freedom Square.  And I’m especially pleased to see so many young people here today.  Because, like Oskar, you are fulfilling the dream that your parents and grandparents struggled for but could only imagine -- and that is living your lives in free and independent and democratic Baltic nations. 
That dream of freedom endured through centuries of occupation and oppression.  It blossomed into independence, only to have it stolen by foreign pacts and secret protocols.  It survived the mass deportations that ripped parents from their children.  It was defended by Forest Brothers in their resistance and sustained by poets and authors who kept alive your languages and cultures.  And here in Estonia, it was a dream that found its most eloquent expression in your voices -- on a grassy field not far from here, when Estonians found the courage to stand up against an empire and sing “land of my fathers, land that I love.”  And Heinz Valk, who is here today, spoke for the entire Singing Revolution when he said, “One day, no matter what, we will win!”  (Applause.)......................................http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/03/remarks-president-obama-people-estonia
3/9/14