to news that US senators had passed a bill calling for
fresh sanctions against Moscow and the supply of
lethal military aid to Ukraine. "Undoubtedly, we will not be able to leave this without
a response," deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov
told Interfax news agency ahead of a meeting
between the Russian and US foreign ministers. The Senate bill -- dubbed the Ukraine Freedom Support
Act -- must still be approved by the White House,
which has so far been reluctant to provide direct
military assistance to Ukraine for fear of being drawn
into a proxy war with Russia. Ryabkov blamed "anti-Russian moods" in the United
States for the bill passed on Friday, which calls for
additional sanctions against Russia and the delivery of
up to $350 million (280 million euros') worth of US
military hardware to Ukraine. The eight-month conflict between government forces
and pro-Russian separatists has left at least 4,634
dead and 10,243 wounded, while displacing more
than 1.1 million people, according to new figures
released by the United Nations. It also threatens fresh sanctions against Russia,
whose economy is crumbling under previous rounds
of Western sanctions and a collapse in oil prices. Kiev lawmakers have hailed the bill as a "historic
decision". They have long been pressing the West to
provide military support to their beleaguered army,
but have so far received only non-lethal equipment. The controversy is likely to come up Sunday when US
Secretary of State John Kerry meets Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov in Rome. However, Ryabkov
said that "the main focus at their 17th meeting this
year would be on the Middle East." A State Department official confirmed to AFP that the
meeting would be Sunday after Washington had
initially said it was set for Monday. - Tentative ceasefire - A tentative ceasefire has been in place along the
frontline in eastern Ukraine since Tuesday, and
fighting has been greatly reduced despite occasional
breaches. The Ukrainian army on Saturday reported 11 attacks
on its positions in the past 24 hours but no one was
killed or wounded. It also said a drone was spotted over Mariupol, the
last major town in the southeast under its control. Ukraine has been worried for months that the Russia-
backed separatists will launch an offensive on
Mariupol in a bid to build a corridor between the
Russian border and the Crimean peninsula, a Ukrainian
region which was annexed by Moscow in March. Around the airport in Donetsk -- site of some of the
fiercest fighting in recent months -- "the night was
rough", Maxim, a volunteer soldier with the right-wing
Pravy Sektor group, told AFP. "Snipers fired on us and explosions were coming from
the airport. But everything is calm this morning," he
said. Ukraine announced Friday it would bolster its army
next year by conscripting another 40,000 soldiers,
training 10,500 new professionals and doubling its
military budget. - 'Provocative farce' - Meanwhile in Kiev, efforts by the artistic community to
rise above the international conflict fell flat when the
ballet school rejected charity money raised by
Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre, it emerged Saturday. Prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova organised a
special gala at the Bolshoi last week to raise money
for her old school in Kiev, but the cash was turned
down when the Kiev State Ballet School learned that
she had supported Russia's annexation of Crimea. "The Ukrainian artists who participated in the concert
appear to not be aware that the Russian dancer S.
Zakharova signed a letter supporting the politics of
(Russian President) Vladimir Putin in Crimea," wrote
the school's director Ivan Doroshenko in a letter
published on the culture ministry's website. "Otherwise, they would never have agreed to take
part in this provocative farce." The Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia in
March after a referendum that was heavily criticised
by Ukraine and the West.
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