Vienna, Dec 7 (AFP) The United States warned Russia todaythat its ties with the West can never recover until it pullsits forces out of Ukraine, as OSCE foreign ministers met inVienna.
Diplomats had hoped that meetings on the sidelines of the57-nation body would make progress on agreeing terms for a UNpeacekeeping force for war-torn Ukraine.
But the major powers in the dispute are still far apart,and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson went so far as to declarethat the stand-off over Ukraine was the single most importantobstacle to warmer US relations with Moscow.
Tillerson was to meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovlater in the day, but there appeared little room forcompromise after the veteran Moscow envoy branded the idea ofa robust UN mission a bid to resolve the conflict "by force".
At a news conference with OSCE host Austria's ForeignMinister Sebastian Kurz, Tillerson recalled that US PresidentDonald Trump had been clear during his campaign last year thathe wanted better relations with Russia.
"But the issue that stands in the way is Ukraine," hestressed, after a morning ministerial meeting at which he andLavrov had expressed starkly different views.
"We can have difference in other arenas ... but when onecountry invades another that is a difference that is hard tolook past or to reconcile," he warned.
"And we've made this clear to Russia from the verybeginning: That we must address Ukraine, it stands as thesingle most difficult obstacle to us renormalizing relations."In principle, both Moscow and Washington have nowexpressed support for the idea of a UN peacekeeping mission toend the war between Kiev's government forces and Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country.
But Russia envisions a limited force to simply protectthe existing 600-strong group of unarmed OSCE observers, whoare struggling to monitor a shaky ceasefire in a conflict thathas already left 10,000 dead since 2014.
Washington, in contrast, has in mind a much more robustUN mission that would police ceasefire lines and investigateceasefire breaches across eastern Ukraine, building theconditions for lasting peace.
"We've reached an absolute low point regarding confidencebetween the main players," Thomas Greminger, the Organizationfor Security and Co-operation in Europe's secretary general,admitted as talks began.
Western powers fear that a limited United Nations missionwould serve to create a frozen conflict that would lock inRussian gains from its intervention in Ukraine.
But Lavrov, in his opening remarks to the OSCEministerial council, argued that the bigger mission idea couldbecome "an occupational administration" and be tantamount toattempting "to solve this problem by force".
Tillerson did not directly address the peacekeeping issuein his remarks but was strident in his condemnation of thethreat he said Russia poses to the existing unarmed mission.
"Of all the challenges confronting the OSCE today, noneis more challenging nor vexing than the situation in Ukraine,"he warned, stressing the US will never lift sanctions untilRussia returns control of Crimea and the disputed Donbassregion to Ukraine.
Tillerson noted that more civilians were killed this yearin eastern Ukraine than in 2016, and that ceasefire violationsare up 60 percent.
"We should be clear about the source of this violence.
Russia is arming, leading, training and fighting alongsideanti-government forces," he said.
"We call on Russia and its proxies to end the harassment,intimidation and its attacks on the OSCE special monitoringmission," he demanded. (AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.