Ukraine Day 1076: LIVE UPDATES BELOW.
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An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
A much-anticipated phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin took place today, RFE/RL reported.
Prior to the phone call with Putin, Trump had a phone discussion with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who conveyed the EU position that it is too soon to lift sanctions on Russia over the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of the Donbass, where Russia-backed troops continue shelling Ukrainian positions.
Ukrainians were relieved to see that no lifting of sanctions was discussed in this meeting, or any conditions for lifting them, as can be seen from media headlines.
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman confirmed that there was no discussion of sanctions.
“Both President Trump and President Putin are hopeful that after today’s call the two sides can move quickly to tackle terrorism and other important issues of mutual concern,” the White House statement said.
It does not appear that the White House statement was on the press release page of whitehouse.gov.
However, copies were available from the office of the press secretary.
What stands out for us is the difference between the White House read-out on the phone call, and the Kremlin read-out.
The Kremlin read-out is longer, and says (translated by The Interpreter):
Current international problems were discussed thoroughly, including the war on terrorism, the state of affairs in the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the sphere of strategic stability and non-proliferation, the situation around the Iranian nuclear problem and the Korean peninsula. The basic aspects of the crisis in Ukraine were touched upon. It was agreed to establish partner cooperation on all these and other lines.
The White House read-out doesn’t contain any mention of Ukraine.
That’s of concern, because it means either the problem of the wear in Ukraine was thought not to warrant mention, or there was reluctance to include it and have to explain what was said.
Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
One Ukrainian soldier was wounded, according to the ATO late in the day.
This brings to 4 the number wounded in the last 24 hours, as Col. Motuzyanyk, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman said at his briefing earlier in the day that there were 3 wounded.