The U.S. and European Union are stepping up efforts to sway the outcome of the political crisis in Ukraine, putting together a short-term financial aid plan in a move to counter pressure from Moscow.
The prospective aid package, which top U.S. and EU diplomats discussed on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich over the weekend, would be the West’s most significant move to date to reopen the geopolitical struggle for Kiev since Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych turned his back on an EU economic pact and, instead, signed a deal with Russia for $15 billion in aid.
Wary of Mr. Yanukovych’s shake-up of his cabinet to placate protesters, Russia last week said it would suspend a tranche of that aid—a move that could present an opening for a renewed Western bid for influence.
At the weekend conference, U.S., Russian and European officials traded barbs over the crisis in Ukraine. A top Ukrainian protest leader, meanwhile, left the country after he said he was kidnapped and tortured by men who accused him of being a U.S. agent, The Wall Street Journal informs.
