MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti) - US President Barack Obama and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte discussed in a telephone call additional sanctions against Russia, a White House statement said Wednesday.
"The president welcomed the action taken today by the European Union's Foreign Affairs Council strongly condemning the actions leading to this tragedy and preparing additional sanctions against those destabilizing Ukraine," the statement said.
Obama and Rutte also discussed Russia’s alleged assistance to independence supporters in the east of Ukraine.
“The president and prime minister noted their concerns about further evidence that Russia is continuing to send weapons and fighters across the border to support the separatists, while continuing to mass its own forces,” the statement said.
Following Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the European Union imposed sanctions against two companies and 61 officials, while the US list includes 19 companies and 45 individuals connected with the events in Ukraine.
On July 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed near the town of Torez in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region killing all 298 people on board. Washington blamed the crash on independence supporters and has been pushing the EU to implement further sanctions against Moscow.
The European Commission will present new sanctions on July 24 targeting Russia’s financial and defense sectors. Russia’s envoy to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov after attending a European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on July 22 called the sanctions “a road to nowhere.”
