The death of an American near Lugansk reduces the chance to soften the Ukrainian policy of Washington

“The United States will not relieve sanctions from Russia until the Crimea is returned to Ukraine,” Tillerson Secretary of State Tillerson said in a telephone conversation with President Poroshenko. The President of Ukraine expressed condolences in connection with the death of the American paramedic of 36-year-old Joseph Stone, an employee of the company Global Rescue, who worked under an international mission of OSCE observers in the Donbass.

Official reaction

The death of an American medic is the first loss of an international mission in the Donbass in the performance of official duties in the conflict zone.

“This case of the death of an employee emphasizes the increasingly dangerous conditions in which these courageous observers work, including access restrictions, threats and injuries,” said the acting in Washington official representative of the State Department Mark Toner.

Since January 15, 2015, 183 incidents were recorded by the mission.

Although the “LPR” Ministry of State Security said that Ukrainian saboteurs were organized by blowing a car, they claim that the reconnaissance group was not sent, and separatists are guilty of the explosion. The Trump administration is in no hurry with the accusations and will wait for the results of the investigation of the OSCE mission. The State Department of the United States urged Russia to influence the separatists so that they allowed them to conduct a “complete, transparent and timely investigation” of the death of an American observer.

Unlike the White House, some congressmen, without waiting for the results of the investigation, tend to blame Moscow of the death of an American OSCE mission. The former chairman of the Helsinki Commission of the Congress, one of the Democrats leaders in the House of Representatives of Steni Hoyer, called the actions of the Trump administration "to the Putin regime, which carried out malicious interference in the affairs of Ukraine." Hoyer called on the president to “fairly condemn” the actions of the Kremlin. “This incident emphasizes how seriously the United States and our NATO allies should take a threat to Russian aggression and illegal activity in Ukraine, including the continuing occupation of Crimea,” Hoyer said in a statement.

The former US representative under the OSCE Daniel Bar believes that the death of Stone will not lead to a change in the situation: “The Russians and their proteges have repeatedly demonstrated that they did not want to fulfill the agreements, and at the same time did not allow them to be held accountable. If this death limits the actions of the mission of observers, then in the near future the Pro -Putinan forces will have even more opportunities to continue to nourish the conflict and resist the implementation of the Minsk agreements, ”the BuzzFeed publication quotes the former employee Obama.

In context

In a conversation with Rex Tillerson, President of Ukraine Poroshenko announced the need to introduce international peacekeepers into this region. According to the American media, the decision to send the “blue helmets” should be recorded by the UN Security Council resolution. Moscow can use the right of veto when voting.

In a telephone conversation, the American Secretary of State set out the results of working negotiations in Moscow to the Ukrainian president and reported his “signal to the Russian leadership”: the United States is interested in improving relations with Russia, but Russian actions in eastern Ukraine remain an obstacle, the State Department said.

“Secretary of State Tillerson again emphasized the firm commitment of the United States to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and confirmed that the sanctions will remain in force until Russia regains control of the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine and fully realizes its obligations in accordance with the Minsk agreements,” the statement says.

Once again, Donald Trump’s election words and a position occupied by the new administration, to put it mildly, “do not match”. The White House continues to debunk the mythical representation of the Russian politicalball cap, “armed” after Trump’s victory with American flags and champagne, as if the US president is “his boyfriend”, who calls the Russian president a “very smart and strong leader”. The local media do not get tired of reminding Trump that he promised to consider the issue of Crimea and think about lifting sanctions. The employees of his administration are an adviser to the national security (now former) General Michael Flynn and presidential lawyer Michael Cohen worked two months ago on the plan to remove or facilitate the sanctions regime, the American press claims.

The first 100 days of Trump's work are held against the background of ongoing investigations about Russia's intervention in the elections, which are in parallel of two intelligence committees in both chambers of the Congress. The FBI officially finds out the relations with Russia of the presidential environment. This is the real pressure on Trump, which in every possible way supports the “fourth power” - a press that does not reduce attention to the topic of possible relations of the US president with the Kremlin. As noted in the first public speech after leaving Barack Obama from the White House, “I am no longer in power, and what has changed ( in relations with Moscow . - A.P. )?”

In any case, the sanctions regime have not changed. The position of the Trump administration recently was confirmed by the Ministry of Finance, which devoted the application of the Exxonmobil oil company with a request to free it from sanctions measures restricting cooperation with Rosneft. “Having consulted President Donald Trump, the Ministry of Finance will not issue permission to American companies, including Exxonmobil, which would allow implementing drilling projects prohibited within the framework of existing sanctions against Russia,” the American treasury said. How can I not recall that the current US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former head of the Exxon Corporation, received the Order of Friendship from the hands of Vladimir Putin - for the development of economic interaction with Russia? And now - the ban on the White House to cooperate the former company of Tillerson and the corporation led by Igor Sechin.

As in such cases one TV presenter popular in the Kremlin says: “Coincidence? Don't think!"