Biden casts doubt on Putin’s peace commitment in Ukraine

World Today

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, participates in a media conference with European Council President Donald Tusk at the EU Council building in Brussels on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015. Photo: AP

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is questioning the willingness of Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek peace in Ukraine as the leaders of Germany and France are seeking such a deal in Moscow.

Putin “continues to call for new peace plans as his troops roll through the Ukrainian countryside and he absolutely ignores every agreement that his country has signed in the past,” Biden said Friday at the European Union headquarters in Brussels.

Biden insisted the 28-nation EU and the United States need to stand together and support the government of Ukraine with financial and political aid.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande were heading to Moscow on Friday to press for peace in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels were fighting government troops.

The United States has been reconsidering whether to provide Ukraine defensive weapons and other lethal aid since the recent spike in violence between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

This story is compiled with information from The Associated Press.