The United States urged the Vatican on Wednesday to criticize Russia's involvement in the Ukraine conflict more forcefully, hours before Pope Francis was due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"It does seem that Russia is supporting the insurgents and does seem that there are Russian troops inside Ukraine," said Ken Hackett, the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

"Maybe this is an opportunity where the Holy Father can privately raise concerns. Certainly Pope Francis has been told about the situations that are happening in eastern Ukraine ... so is he is not unaware," Hackett said.

Last February, when the pope referred to the conflict in the Ukraine as a "war between Christians" without criticizing Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church praised it as a balanced approach.

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-urges-pope-francis-to-get-tough-with-putin-on-ukraine/2815589.html

Publics of key member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) blame Russia for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Many also see Russia as a military threat to other neighboring states. But few support sending arms to Ukraine. Moreover, at least half of Germans, French and Italians say their country should not use military force to defend a NATO ally if attacked by Russia.

A median of 39% among NATO publics say Russia is the main culprit in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. The pro-Russian separatists in Luhans’k and Donets’k (18%) are a distant second. Half say Russia is a major military threat to other neighboring nations. In response to the crisis, 70% among allied countries say Western countries should send economic aid to Ukraine. A majority (57%) also supports Ukraine becoming a member of NATO.

http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/06/10/nato-publics-blame-russia-for-ukrainian-crisis-but-reluctant-to-provide-military-aid/

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First of all, the categorization of the Ukraine crisis as a civil war with Russia-backed separatists is deeply flawed. The rebels are not just some farmers who learned to use the Buk missile system; to believe that they are is ridiculous. The missile systems and tanks now being used in the conflict are sophisticated weapons that require delicate mathematical calculations and professional military training to operate, things that are far beyond the capabilities of farmers and miners.

Secondly, the rebel arms used in the conflict are not weapons produced for export. They are only used by Russian armed forces. Despite all of this, the G7 didn't mention Russian forces, but consistently referred to rebels backed by Russia, basically signaling détente toward Russia.

There is also some significant disagreement as far as sanctions are concerned. The United States is in favor of sending arms to the Ukrainian government on a lend-lease basis. Both the U.S. and the United Kingdom also already have military trainers on the ground to train the Ukrainian army. But Germany and France are opposed to sending arms to Ukraine, as they think it will escalate the conflict. Angela Merkel was in contact with Vladimir Putin during the early days of the conflict, and she still maintains a back channel of communication with him, but Germany's stance has hardened considerably since MH17 was shot down over Ukraine with heavy European casualties, the majority of whom were Dutch.

There will be considerable internal dispute within the EU if Russia decides to escalate the conflict in Ukraine and further sanctions are called for to counter such a move. Countries like the Czech Republic, Greece and Hungary are against further sanctions on Russia, and the EU cannot authorize sanctions unless there is a unanimous vote. Russia knows that in order to stop sanctions, it only needs to have the backing of one EU country. It just might do that, testing the Union's resolve, signaling the rebels to escalate the conflict.

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2015-06/10/content_35788083_2.htm

US President Barack Obama’s anti-Moscow calls on G7 are to avoid the risks of war with Russia, says a senior analyst Foreign Policy in Focus.

During a Tuesday phone interview with Press TV, Ian Williams made the remarks while commenting on the US president’s call on the industrial countries to stand up against “Russian aggression” in Ukraine.

“In the great tradition of Western politicians, he wants to be seen to be doing something,” Williams said, undermining Obama’s Monday remarks at the summit in the Bavarian Alps, Germany.

“Asking the G7 is equivalent of referring it to a committee almost,” said the analyst, calling Obama's move an attempt to “satisfy his hawkish critics” in both the Democratic and Republican parties.

http://www.iran-daily.com/News/119767.html?catid=10&title=Obama-evading-risk-of-war-with-Russia

while waving the Big Stick? He sort of got it backwards, imho.

But I thought it was interesting bullshit.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk rejected criticisms from Russia on Wednesday that the embattled government in Kiev is failing to work toward reconciliation with separatist leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Using particularly blunt language, the Ukrainian leader said Russia’s calls for reconciliation are disingenuous and that pro-Moscow separatists were unfit for negotiations at this stage in the conflict. “My government will never talk to terrorists” until they are “behind bars or sitting in a prison cell,” he told a small group of reporters in Washington on Wednesday. “Russia wants us to establish a direct contact with the terrorists. We will never talk to terrorists.”

Yatsenyuk made the comments alongside Ukraine’s Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko. The two officials have met with a number of U.S. officials this week, including Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, in order to generate support for Ukraine’s cash-strapped government.

Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the ensuing violence in the country’s east badly set back Ukraine’s already troubled economy. Plagued by high inflation, the country has cut off subsidies and frozen popular social programs. Yatsenyuk and Jaresko are hoping to secure the next payout of International Monetary Fund money, which is part of the West’s $40 billion bailout program for the country.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/10/ukrainian-pm-blasts-russian-separatists-we-will-never-talk-to-terrorists/

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s intention to deploy air defense systems on the border with the self-proclaimed republic of Transdniestria clearly pursues the aim of dragging Russia into another regional conflict to which NATO might be a party, which should certainly ring the alarm bell for the EU countries, the president of the International Centre for Geo-Political Analysis, Leonid Ivashov, told TASS in an interview.

The Odessa-based Internet resource Timer says with reference to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry the S-300 air defense complexes are to protect the country in the south of the Odessa Region, on the border with the Transdniestrian republic."

In the meantime, the newly-appointed governor of the Odessa Region, Mikheil Saakashvili, said one of his priorities was to tighten security on the border with Transdniestria, which he described as source of weapons and narcotic drugs smuggling. There is a possibility the entire 450-kilometer-long border between Ukraine and Transdniestria may be closed. In fact, the Ukrainian authorities will then lay siege to a region with a population of half a million.

The Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic is a tiny land-locked self-proclaimed state in the Southeast of Europe, sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine. Transdniestria proclaimed independence from Moldova in 1990 against the backdrop of a process still remembered as "parade of sovereignties" and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. After the armed conflict of 1992 it broke away from Moldova. Under the agreement of 1992 a small peace-keeping contingent of three battalions - Russian, Transdniestrian and Moldovan - is present in Transdniestria on a permanent basis. Also, there is a Russian peace-keeping operative group of 1,000 troops is based in Transdniestria.

http://tass.ru/en/opinions/800352

The Novorossiya Humanitarian Battalion boasts on its website that it provided funds to buy a pair of binoculars used by rebels in eastern Ukraine to spot and destroy an armored vehicle. Another group, Save the Donbass, solicits donations using a photograph of a mortar shell inscribed with its web address and the names of donors. Yet another, Veche, states that its mission is to "create modern, combat-ready" military units fighting Ukraine's central government.

These organizations are part of an online campaign that is brazenly raising money for the war in eastern Ukraine, using common tactics that have at least tacit support from the government of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Although they often portray their mission as humanitarian, most of the groups explicitly endorse the armed insurgency and vow to help equip forces in the two regions at the center of the fighting, Donetsk and Luhansk. (Tweet This)

An examination by The New York Times of the groups' websites, social media postings and other records found more than a dozen groups in Russia that are raising money for the separatists, aiding a conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people and plunged Russia's relations with the West to depths not seen since the Cold War.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102752149

London (AFP) - Shell is considering exiting a major shale gas project in eastern Ukraine, a source said Thursday, almost a year after freezing exploration owing to fighting between government troops and pro-Russian rebels.

The Anglo-Dutch oil company signed a deal with the Ukrainian government in early 2013 to explore the Yuzivska field, an important agreement for Kiev as it seeks to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.

However Shell announced in July 2014 that it was prevented from working on the site, located in part in the rebel bastion of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, due to "force majeur" -- forces outside its control, namely the proximity to the fighting.

"Due to the said events, project implementation conditions have been materially changed," a Shell spokeswoman told AFP on Thursday.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/28417267/