Hollande: Make peace quickly in Ukraine
After France helped hammer out an accord to stop the violent clashes in Ukraine between pro-democracy and government forces, President François Hollande urged both sides to fully implement the deal.
French President Francois Hollande on Friday called for Ukraine's government and opposition to implement fully and quickly a deal on ending the country's crisis.
"After the unacceptable, intolerable and unjustifiable violence that plunged Ukraine into mourning in recent days, the president calls for the full and timely implementation of the deal that has just been signed," Hollande said in a statement.
Three of the leaders of the opposition, which have been in increasingly bloody clashes with security forces in recent days, and Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych inked a deal that calls for new presidential elections and reduces Yanukovych's powers.
The preliminary deal between the opposition and the government was reached after difficult negotiations that included France, Poland and Germany. News of the accord came after another bloody day for pro-democracy activists who claimed 60 demonstrators were killed in fighting with police in Kiev on Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday that the European Union was preparing to impose targeted sanctions against those behind Ukraine's violence.
Live stream of the events in in Kiev's Independence Square. (Warning: The reports are not in English)
Speaking to Europe 1 radio from Ukraine before meeting with President Viktor Yanukovych, Fabius said he would present plans
for sanctions against certain officials, including visa bans and the freezing of assets.
"We need to hit people in the pocketbooks in these cases," said Fabius, who was joined in Ukraine for the talks by his German and Polish counterparts, ahead of a meeting of all EU foreign ministers later Thursday.
"I will tell him (Yanukovych) that he must stop the violence, which is obviously unacceptable, and that we are preparing this afternoon to take sanctions against those responsible for the violence," Fabius said.
He expressed doubts over the willingness of Ukraine's government to compromise.
"There is an enormous amount of work to do but we are confronted with the obvious unwillingness of the authorities, who for now are not budging."
Comments
See Also
French President Francois Hollande on Friday called for Ukraine's government and opposition to implement fully and quickly a deal on ending the country's crisis.
"After the unacceptable, intolerable and unjustifiable violence that plunged Ukraine into mourning in recent days, the president calls for the full and timely implementation of the deal that has just been signed," Hollande said in a statement.
Three of the leaders of the opposition, which have been in increasingly bloody clashes with security forces in recent days, and Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych inked a deal that calls for new presidential elections and reduces Yanukovych's powers.
The preliminary deal between the opposition and the government was reached after difficult negotiations that included France, Poland and Germany. News of the accord came after another bloody day for pro-democracy activists who claimed 60 demonstrators were killed in fighting with police in Kiev on Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday that the European Union was preparing to impose targeted sanctions against those behind Ukraine's violence.
Live stream of the events in in Kiev's Independence Square. (Warning: The reports are not in English)
Speaking to Europe 1 radio from Ukraine before meeting with President Viktor Yanukovych, Fabius said he would present plans for sanctions against certain officials, including visa bans and the freezing of assets.
"We need to hit people in the pocketbooks in these cases," said Fabius, who was joined in Ukraine for the talks by his German and Polish counterparts, ahead of a meeting of all EU foreign ministers later Thursday.
"I will tell him (Yanukovych) that he must stop the violence, which is obviously unacceptable, and that we are preparing this afternoon to take sanctions against those responsible for the violence," Fabius said.
He expressed doubts over the willingness of Ukraine's government to compromise.
"There is an enormous amount of work to do but we are confronted with the obvious unwillingness of the authorities, who for now are not budging."
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.