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STRAIGHT-FACED US President Barack Obama slammed Russia yesterday for its vision of a world “in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another.”
Speaking to the UN general assembly, he accused Moscow of sending arms to those who resisted domination by Kiev, refusing to allow access to the site of a downed civilian airliner and then moving its own troops across the border with Ukraine.
He ignored US and European Union politicians’ role in encouraging the violent fascist-led overthrow of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, concentrating on post Kiev coup developments.
“This is a vision of the world in which might makes right, a world in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another and civilised people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed,” the US president declared.
“America stands for something different,” he added.
While the Obama administration has expressed scepticism about a ceasefire signed earlier this month, the president recognised yesterday that the agreement “offers an opening” for peace.
But the fragile ceasefire was threatened yesterday morning when a block of flats in the pro-Russian stronghold of Donetsk was damaged by mortar fire, with two civilian deaths reported.
This followed initial progress by both sides in fulfilling an agreement to pull back heavy artillery weapons from the front line.
While withdrawals are under way in some villages in the region, the Kiev-held airport and other areas have remained hot spots.
Nato military spokesman Lt Col Jay Janzen claimed yesterday to have witnessed “a significant pullback of Russian conventional forces from inside Ukraine.”
However, he added that “some Russian troops still remain,” although he insisted that it was difficult to say how many were still in Ukraine because they were moving across the border that is largely controlled by separatist forces.
Mr Obama’s offer to lift economic sanctions against Russia if Moscow capitulated to the deal drew no reaction from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who sat through Mr Obama’s speech without looking up from his papers.
