German Chancellor Angela Merkel has threatened Russia with further measures from the EU if it continues to “destabilise the situation in Ukraine.”
“The territorial integrity of Ukraine cannot be called into question,” Merkel told the German Parliament on Thursday.
“If Russia continues its course of the last few weeks, it would not only be a catastrophe for Ukraine, we would not only see it, also as neighbours of Russia, as a threat. And it would not only change the European Union’s relationship with Russia. It would also cause massive damage to Russia, economically and politically, I am convinced of this.”
At a meeting on Wednesday with Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, US President Barack Obama also said Moscow would face “costs” from the US such as economic sanctions and that he hoped a diplomatic solution could be found to the situation in Crimea.
