European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Saturday:
- The EU was prepared to toughen sanctions against Russia
- But it wanted a political deal to end the confrontation
- Described any tightening of sanctions as intended not to escalate the crisis but to push Moscow to negotiate
- Stressed that the EU did not want confrontation
At a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Barroso said:
- “We are ready to take very strong and clear measures but we are keeping our doors open to a political solution”
- “it makes no sense to have … a new Cold War” …. that would be “detrimental to all of Europe”
More weekend news re Ukraine:
EU may urgently prepare more options for Russia sanctions
Ukrainian Antonov-12 plane crashed on Saturday – 6 Ukrainians and one Russian on board
and Finnish PM says Russia is trying to irritate Finland by its repeated violations of Finnish airspace
