Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday demanded that Kiev call a truce in the zone where a Malaysian airliner crashed, while the European Union (EU) imposed more sanctions on Russia due to Moscow’s stance on the Ukrainian crisis.
From this capital, Rutte demanded that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stop the military offensive in the region where a Boeing 777 plane carrying 298 people, including 193 Dutch citizens, crashed on July 17.
The military actions by the Ukrainian army, using the aviation and reactive artillery, resulted in 31 civilians killed on Tuesday, while more than 1,000 have been killed since April 2014 in southeastern Ukraine.
Over the past few days, the Ukrainian forces have stepped up their attacks to take over control of the zones near the site where the Malaysian Airlines plane crashed. The zone is in the hands of the federalist militias that favor a greater status for the Russian language and more autonomy.
However, the EU is blaming Russia of being the cause of the Ukrainian crisis, so it approved more sanctions that will affect Moscow’s access to financial markets and investments in the oil, gas and mineral sectors.
They also ban exports of high-technology products for the power sector in the case of Crimea and the port city of Sebastopol, which joined the Russian Federation after a referendum held there in March.
The sanctions have increased to 87 the names of Russian people, including the chiefs of the Security Service, Foreign Intelligence, the president of Chechnya and ministers, among others, who cannot visit the EU and whose bank accounts in Europe were frozen. (PL)