Marie Harf, acting spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State, during the Daily Press Briefing announced Russian military forces continue to operate in Eastern Ukraine, and to violate the Minsk agreements (February 12, 2015):
“No amount of propaganda can make true what is not. I think we know as of early April that Russian military forces continue to operate in eastern Ukraine. This isn’t just our word for it; there are pictures, there is evidence out there for everyone to see about this. Despite public pronouncements about the complete withdrawal of heavy weapons, pro-Russian separatists maintain heavy weapons near the frontlines in violation of Minsk. Russia has command and control elements in eastern Ukraine to coordinate military operations there. Russia has established training areas in eastern Ukraine to train separatist fighters in gunnery and artillery firing. So all of the evidence points to the contrary and that’s, of course, what we’ve said for many, many months now,” states Marie Harf.
The U.S. Department of State reports that sanctions against Russia provided because of its invading in Ukraine “are having an impact” on Russia’s economy.
“The IMF’s latest projections released this week forecast that Russia’s real GDP will contract by 3.8 percent in 2015 and 1.1 percent in 2016. That’s just one measure. There’s other measures we’ve talked about as well beyond just the currency measure. There have been many other measures we’ve talked about as well, including their ratings and such.” – spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State.
