During a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Kiev should withdraw its military units from the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine.
However, the administration of US President Barack Obama says Russia’s call for withdrawal of Ukrainian troops is “preposterous.”
“That was a rather remarkable statement by a senior Russian government official ... who called on Ukraine to remove its forces from its country, which is preposterous, if you think about it,” said Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney.
Carney, who made the remarks prior to Obama’s meeting with Merkel in Washington on Friday, also brushed off reports of differences between Washington and its European allies on how to handle the crisis in Ukraine.
The Obama administration has so far announced three rounds of sanctions against Russian officials and businesses and has threatened Moscow that the US could impose sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy.
However, reports show reluctance from some European countries, which have closer trade ties with Russia than does the US, on whether to fall in line with Washington over imposing sanctions against Russia’s economy has frustrated US officials.
“We expect to continue a path that sees an international coalition escalating the costs that Russia will have to endure and pay if Russia refuses to keep its commitments,” Carney said.
Tensions between Russia and the West heightened after Ukraine's former Black Sea peninsula of Crimea joined the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16.
On March 17, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of Russia following the referendum, in which nearly 97 percent of the participants voted in favor of the move.
Meanwhile, pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine have seized government buildings in over a dozen cities.
On Wednesday, Ukraine's Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov admitted that police and security forces are helpless in quelling the ongoing pro-Russian protests in the east.
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