WASHINGTON, January 15 (RIA Novosti) – The United States is open to imposing sanctions and visa restrictions should Ukrainian authorities violently quash antigovernment protests in the ex-Soviet nation, a senior US diplomat said Wednesday.
Testifying at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, State Department official Victoria Nuland was asked by the committee’s chairman, Senator Bob Menendez, whether the US administration “remains open” to sanctions and visa restrictions in response to violence against peaceful protesters in Ukraine.
“All tools of government are on the table, including those,” Nuland, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, responded.
Mass street protests in central Kiev have been ongoing since Ukraine stunned the European Union on November 21 by halting a long-expected association agreement to strengthen political and trade ties with the bloc. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych opted instead for stronger ties with Moscow.
The protests took a more radical turn after riot police violently cleared downtown Kiev’s Independence Square on November 30.
The United States and its EU allies have accused the Yanukovych government of going against the will of the Ukrainian people with the shift toward Russia, which provided Ukraine with a $15 billion bailout package last month to stabilize Kiev’s finances.
In testimony prepared for Wednesday’s hearing, Nuland said the Ukrainian protesters “want to live in a country where their government truly represents the wishes of the people and where they can safely exercise their rights without the fear of oppression.”
She also criticized acts of violence carried out by protesters, but said Washington has told Ukraine’s government publicly and privately that the United States will “consider a broad range of tools” if “those in positions of authority in Ukraine employ or encourage violence against their own citizens.”
Russia has repeatedly criticized what it describes as outside interference in the standoff between Ukrainian authorities and protesters.
Officials in Europe and the United States, meanwhile, have accused Moscow of using economic levers to pressure Kiev into closer integration with its ex-Soviet neighbor – a charge Russian officials have denied.
