Ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine will be a factor when the European Union decides in January whether to continue economic sanctions against Russia for its role in the conflict.
Fighting between Ukraine's military and separatist forces in the east has escalated with scant notice this fall as world attention is focused on increased terrorism and a refugee crisis caused by the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
Fighting that dropped off in September after Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists agreed to a new cease-fire plan picked up again in November, causing multiple deaths and injuries to Ukrainian troops, according to Ukrainian military spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko.
Vice President Biden, who announced a $190 million aid package for Ukraine during a visit to the capital, Kiev, on Monday, said Russia holds the key to peace. “The United States continues to stand with the people of Ukraine in the face of continued ... aggression from Russia and Russian-backed separatists,” Biden said.
The fighting and a failure by Russia-backed separatists to implement measures of the cease-fire agreement reached in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, make it unlikely the two sides will meet a self-imposed year-end deadline to end the conflict, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Philip Breedlove said last week.
NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned of renewed war after a meeting about Ukraine with foreign ministers of the U.S.-led alliance last week. “Russian-backed separatists have not yet withdrawn their troops and equipment. Illegal groups in eastern Ukraine have not been disarmed. And Ukraine has not been able to re-establish control over its border,” Stoltenberg said.
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