Archbishop predicts escalation of conflict

The head of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church has accused the G7 countries of failing to honour an international agreement, promising his country security for giving up nuclear weapons, and predicted an escalation of the current fighting, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

“The G7 know the conflict in Ukraine isn’t a local problem but a challenge for the whole international community,” said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych. “But we heard nothing at the G7 summit last week [in Bavaria] about the obligations arising from the Budapest Memorandum on security guarantees, signed in 1994, under which the US, Britain and Russia pledged to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and refrain from threats of force.”

The 45-year-old archbishop was speaking in Warsaw following the Pope’s 50-minute Vatican meeting on Wednesday last week with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. He told Poland’s Catholic Information Agency (KAI) he welcomed a decision by G7 governments at their early June summit to be ready to tighten sanctions against Russia for backing separatist violence in eastern Ukraine.

The crisis in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels have been battling government forces for the past year, was the main topic of the Pope’s 10 June talks with Mr Putin, who has repeatedly denied direct Russian involvement in the fighting.
(See James Roberts, page 14.)