US calls on Russia to honor cease-fire with Ukraine

By M. Bilal Kenasari and Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

Russia is subverting a modern global order by supporting ongoing separatist attacks despite a cease-fire with Ukraine, the State Department said Friday.

“Russia's continued support of ongoing separatist attacks in violation of the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine is undermining international diplomacy and multilateral institutions -- the foundations of our modern global order,” said department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

She demanded Russia "honor its commitments immediately with decisive action before we see more cities decimated and more lives lost in eastern Ukraine."

Psaki said that while Ukraine has adhered to the cease-fire, and responded to fire only when it was attacked by Russian-backed separatists, Russia continues to bring arms into eastern Ukraine.

During Friday phone calls with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and President Petro Poroshenko, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that the rebel offensive on the formerly contested rail hub of Debeltseve in eastern Ukraine "was directly supported by Russian regular troops operating inside Ukraine."  

Rebels seized the strategic town from government forces this week after intense clashes led to the withdrawal of Kiev's forces. 

"The vice president agreed with both leaders that Russia cannot continue to hide behind the false claim that these latest military operations are solely the work of local separatists," the White House said in a readout of the calls. 

Russia has consistently denied it supplies the separatists.

The U.S. embassy in Russia posted a series of satellite images following the signing of a Feb. 12 peace agreement that allegedly showed Russian military equipment in Ukraine. 

The Minsk agreement stipulated that both sides withdraw heavy weapons from eastern Ukraine beginning Feb. 17.

At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said Russia and the Ukrainian rebels "have acted in direct contravention" of the peace accord, increasing the likelihood of additional sanctions.

"As we see Russia fail to live up to those commitments, and President Putin in particular fail to live up to those commitments, it does put them at risk of facing even higher costs," he told reporters. 

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, which monitors the fighting in the region, said Thursday that it had not seen either side complying with those terms of the cease-fire.

More than 5,300 people have been killed and 12,200 others injured in eastern Ukraine since last April in the ongoing conflict, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.