Pentagon, Kremlin trade accusations on Ukraine

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2. EU, Ukraine Ties Fray as Crisis Lingers On

Senior European Union officials travel to Kiev on Monday for their first formal Ukraine summit since the crisis with Russia broke last spring. The top priority for the talks has been unspoken: stemming an erosion of trust between Kiev and its Western neighbors.

While Ukraine and the EU have deepened ties over the past year in the face of what both consider to be Russian aggression in Ukraine’s east, tensions that already lay under the surface have grown more prominent since February’s cease-fire agreement in Minsk, known as Minsk 2, which has at least for now quieted Kiev’s fighting with pro-Moscow separatists.

On the European side, there are sharpened concerns that Ukraine’s commitments to internal change—economic and political—haven’t been followed through. They fear this will, over time, intensify Kiev’s economic woes and possibly stoke tensions with Russia again.

Ukrainian officials are clear about their frustrations with the 28-nation bloc. The failure to advance toward visa-free access, open divisions within the EU over maintaining its sanctions on Russia and uncertainties about the EU’s determination to forge ahead with a bilateral trade pact in the face of Russian opposition are creating doubts about Europe’s commitment to Kiev.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-ukraine-ties-fray-as-crisis-lingers-on-1429823349?tesla=y