BONN, Germany (AP) – Ukraine’s president is warning against any “appeasement” of Russia, arguing that cutting a deal with Moscow on his country would make the situation worse.
Many in Europe are concerned about the U.S. stance toward Russia under President Donald Trump. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told the Munich Security Conference on Friday he had been reassured of Western unity on the matter by new U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Poroshenko says “I hear increasingly obsessive calls for at least some degree of appeasement toward Russia’s appetite. To move in that direction would be naive, wrong and dangerous.”
More than 9,800 people have died since April 2014 in fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists. Fighting escalated earlier this month, the worst outbreak since a 2015 peace deal.