(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The White House reiterated Tuesday it looks "very closely" at Russian's actions, saying it has concerns over "the support for armed militants, separatists" in eastern Ukraine and elsewhere.
White House Spokesman Jay Carney told reporters "the presence of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine continues to concern us." "Despite statements by Russian government officials, we have not seen a pullback of Russian military units from the Ukrainian border, so these are matters that continue to be of great concern," he stressed.
He added, "we have worked very closely with all of our European partners, including France, Germany, the UK and others, as well as our G-7 partners, including Japan, on the matter of acting in a coordinated fashion when it comes to imposing sanctions in the Ukraine situation." He affirmed that "we have been speaking with a great deal of unanimity in terms of our view of the need to ratchet up the costs for Russia, should Russia continue to engage in transgressions." Carney noted "obviously, we remain hopeful, skeptical, but hopeful, that Russia will, instead of ratcheting up activity that destabilizes Ukraine and attempts to disrupt the elections, would instead support the dialogue that the Ukrainian government supports and that would be facilitated by the OSCE when it comes to constitutional reform and national unity and would support a process that has been affirmed by the international community through the OSCE, which is being implemented to allow for free and fair democratic elections to president on May 25."
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