The US has imposed sanctions against separatists in eastern Ukraine, as the crisis there shows no sign of easing.<\/p>\n
The sanctions include asset freezes against seven pro-Russian leaders.<\/p>\n
The move was announced as Western leaders threatened additional sanctions against Russia, which they accuse of stoking tension in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Both Russia and the separatists have dismissed a unilateral ceasefire called by Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko, the first step of his peace plan.<\/p>\n
‘Scalpel sanctions’<\/strong><\/p>\n The US and European Union (EU) leaders have previously imposed sanctions after Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in March.<\/p>\n On Friday, the US Treasury Department said it had blacklisted seven rebel leaders, including self-proclaimed mayors, governors and commanders in chief of cities under siege by Ukrainian forces.<\/p>\n Their assets in the US will be frozen and US firms will be banned from dealing with them.<\/p>\n US officials also said “scalpel” sanctions against Russia’s defence, finance and high-tech industries were being considered.<\/p>\n US President Barack Obama had spoken separately to French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a White House statement said.<\/p>\n The leaders had agreed the US and EU would “co-ordinate additional steps to impose costs on Russia” if Moscow did not try to “de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine”, the statement added.<\/p>\n The US says Russia is providing the separatists with military equipment, including tanks, and is building up troops on its border with Ukraine.<\/p>\n Moscow has denied sending tanks or backing pro-Russian militants.<\/p>\n Truce<\/strong><\/p>\n On Friday, Mr Poroshenko declared a week-long ceasefire to give rebels time to disarm.<\/p>\n He has also unveiled proposals for a peace plan involving decentralising power, holding early elections, and creating a 10km (six-mile) buffer zone on the Ukrainian-Russian border.<\/p>\n However, correspondents say pro-Russian insurgents show no sign of laying down their arms.<\/p>\n A senior rebel commander told Ukrainian news agencies the insurgents would not disarm until government troops had left the east.<\/p>\n The Kremlin dismissed the truce, saying it was “not an invitation to peace and negotiations but an ultimatum”.<\/p>\n Tensions in Ukraine rose after former President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign a trade agreement with the EU in November 2013.<\/p>\n The move sparked huge protests that led to Mr Yanukovych being ousted.<\/p>\n Russia reacted by annexing the Ukrainian region of Crimea, and separatists have occupied parts of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian sentiment is strong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The US has imposed sanctions against separatists in eastern Ukraine, as the crisis there shows no sign of easing. The sanctions include asset freezes against seven pro-Russian leaders. The move was announced as Western leaders threatened additional sanctions against Russia, which they accuse of stoking tension in Ukraine. Both Russia and the separatists have dismissed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":26435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-26434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}