Ukraine: Mogherini calls for “strong and unified EU response” – and “new and positive” moves by Moscow

The downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane “changes the picture of the Ukrainian crisis”, which is not longer only Ukrainian and European, but “has become global, and new and positive moves by Moscow are necessary”, according to Minister Federica Mogherini’s summary of the common reflection by the EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels. The head of Italian diplomacy underscored that it was now up to Russia to “send a clear and concrete signal to the separatists”, adding, that in the absence of such a signal, the European Council or an extraordinary EU summit could move on to a phase of operational measures.

A strong and unified response

Minister Mogherini said that the Council’s had been a strong and unified response. “We are all concentrated on this; on a very concrete approach, a tight timetable for decisions, while simultaneously giving priority, as suggested by my Dutch colleague, to the task of recovering the bodies and gaining access to the site” of the flight MH17 disaster.