EU Foreign Ministers discuss new sanctions against Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - European Union Foreign Ministers are discussing new sanctions against Russia, a day at least nine Ukrainians were killed in fresh clashes, BBC News reports.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said help to reform Ukraine would also be on the agenda.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin was criticized by Western leaders at the G20 summit in Australia. He told German TV both sides in Ukraine were to blame.

More than 4,000 people have died in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The latest were six soldiers and three policemen killed in separate incidents over a period of 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said.

In his interview with German TV station ARD, Putin said that "anyone waging a fight that they believe fair will find weapons". He said he believed there was a way out of the crisis, but Russia feared "a drift towards neo-Nazism" in Ukraine.

"It's a great nation with great people," he told the prime-time audience on Sunday, Nov 16. "But, you know, there's just one thing missing: an understanding that to be successful, stable and grow, everyone needs to have a feeling that this is their home no matter what language they speak - whether it's Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian or Polish."

Speaking ahead of the meeting of the EU ministers, Mogherini said sanctions would not work unless Ukraine reforms moved ahead.

She said the European Union would start a mission to assist the Ukrainian authorities "on restructuring the civilian security of the country". "We [will] also discuss about the relations with Russia and the dialogue with Russia to get to a solution of the crisis."

At the G20 meeting in Brisbane, U.S. President Barack Obama met European leaders to discuss a coordinated response to Russia.

Obama told reporters Putin was "violating international law, providing heavy arms to the separatists in Ukraine" and violating the Minsk agreement. He said the "economic isolation" of Russia would continue unless Putin changed course.