(updates previous)
It is not yet time to launch
a third set of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis,
Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said Monday.
"No, I don't think so," Mogherni told reporters when asked
about the widely mooted sanctions to help curb alleged Russian
ambitions as pro-Moscow activists defy Ukraine authorities in
the east of the country.
But the escalation of the conflict, with deadly clashes
between Ukraine soldiers and pro-Russia activists two weeks
after the annexation of Crimea, "is a situation that worries us
very much in the evolution of these hours and days," she said on
the sidelines of a European Union foreign ministers' meeting.
"Italy, along with the EU, will do everything possible so
that there is responsible behavior in these hours both inside
and outside the Ukraine.
"Italy has insisted on the path of dialogue from the
beginning. We will continue to think that it is the only path
possible, just as the situation on the ground appears to be
degenerating. This is our commitment and our work for today".
An "anti-terrorist" regime was declared earlier Monday by
the Kiev-appointed Donetsk governor Serghiei Taruta when an
ultimatum to pro-Russian demonstrators occupying public
buildings in eastern Ukraine expired, reported Interfax.
British Premier David Cameron and French President Francois
Hollande on Monday called for dialogue and condemned the ongoing
violence in eastern Ukraine, while Belgian Foreign Minister
Didier Reynders called for new EU sanctions as he arrived at the
Foreign Council meeting in Luxembourg.
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