WASHINGTON, August 2 (RIA Novosti) - The United States advocate for a diplomatic resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, the country's President Barack Obama said Friday.
“I spoke to Mr Putin this morning and I indicated to him just as we’ll do what we’ll say we’ll do in terms of sanctions, we’ll also do what we’ll say we’ll do in terms of resolving this issue diplomatically. If he takes a different position, if he respects and honors the right of Ukrainians to determine their own destiny, then it’s possible to make sure Russian interests are addressed that are legitimate, and that Ukrainians are ready to make their own decisions, and we can resolve this conflict and end some of the bloodshed,” Obama said.
The Kremlin said earlier on Friday that both the Russian and the US leaders voiced satisfaction with the results of a recent Minsk meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on the Ukrainian crisis. Russia's President Vladimir Putin, however, said that continuing US sanctions on Moscow were counterproductive and were seriously harming Russia-US relations.
Obama repeated his accusations of Russia arming independence supporters in Ukraine's east, which Moscow denies.
“We can’t control how Mr Putin thinks but what we can do is say to Mr Putin, 'If you continue on the path of arming separatists with heavy armaments that evidence suggests may have resulted in 300 innocent people on a jet dying – and that violates international law and violates sovereign integrity of Ukraine – then you are going to face consequences that will hurt your country,'” Obama said.
He said sanctions, which the United States has been imposing on Russia since March, with the heaviest sectoral restrictions introduced on Tuesday, were already hurting Russian energy, defense and financial sectors.
The new economic sanctions target three major banks — VTB Group, Bank of Moscow and Russian Agricultural Bank, or Rosselkhozbank.
The sanctions came after the Malaysia Airlines plane crash in eastern Ukraine, which is largely controlled by independence supporters, on July 17. The European Union and the United States both claim Russian responsibility in supplying the militia with the weapons used to shoot down the airliner with 298 people on board. Moscow denies having sent arms to the militia forces.
