West threatens further sanctions on Russia if Ukraine elections fail

Germany and France are ready to agree to more extensive sanctions against Russia if a planned presidential election in Ukraine on May 25 is foiled, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande said Saturday. 

In the election, voters will choose a successor to President Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president of Ukraine toppled by unrelenting protests earlier this year. Following his downfall, Russia seized and annexed Ukraine's Russian-majority Crimea region in March, citing threats from what it called far-right extremists in the new Kiev government.

In a joint statement, Hollande and Merkel agreed to support tougher potential sanctions against Russia — affecting areas such as energy, defense, financial services and engineering — than European Union leaders had outlined at a meeting in Brussels on March 6.

"We would be ready to take further sanctions against Russia if the May 25 elections in Ukraine fail," Merkel said at a joint news conference with Hollande in the Baltic port of Stralsund, although sanctions would not be "an end in themselves.”

Germany, which relies on Russia for 40 percent of its natural gas supplies, has been seen as hesitant to ratchet up and broaden sanctions, which are opposed by most Germans, whose economy is now one of the strongest in Europe. 

Stern magazine reported German growth could be cut by 0.9 percentage points this year if tougher sanctions are imposed.

After Russia's first encroachment into Crimea, Western countries, including the United States, responded by imposing limited sanctions against Moscow targeting some Russian political and business leaders and interests seen as involved in the Ukraine crisis or closely tied to Putin. 

But pro-Russian separatists have since stirred turmoil in eastern Ukraine, declaring autonomous republics in what the West sees as an attempt by Moscow to cement Russian domination there, much as occurred in Crimea, and thwart a nationwide election.

Merkel and Hollande called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to personally intervene to ensure that the election takes place across the whole of Ukraine. Merkel said Putin had taken encouraging steps by appealing to pro-Russian militants to suspend a planned autonomy referendum on Sunday.

"But the Russian president has to send more signals of de-escalation," Merkel said.

Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov told eastern regions gripped by the uprising that they would be courting catastrophe if they voted "yes" in a separatist referendum to take place Sunday.

The vote, organized on an ad hoc basis with no clear control of authenticity of ballot papers or voter lists, could determine if the Western-backed Kyiv government and pro-Russian eastern regions find a compromise, or whether Ukraine slides into civil war.

Violence has grown along with the bitter rhetoric in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Referendum polling stations in Donetsk and Luhansk are staffed by masked volunteer gunmen, who wield pistols and rifles. A tense atmosphere prevails in the port city of Mariupol, where between seven and 20 people were killed Friday when Ukrainian forces entered and fought with local gunmen for control of police headquarters.

Turchynov said on his website on Saturday that a “dreadful terror” had descended on many in the country. 

"It is a complex problem when a population deceived by [Russian] propaganda support terrorists."

A breakaway by Donetsk and Luhansk — the coal and steel belt which accounts for 16 percent of Ukraine's economic output — would deal a second crushing blow to Kyiv.

In Slavyansk, the most strongly defended redoubt of separatists, streets were blocked by barricades of tires, furniture and scrap metal.

"Everyone here is voting, and voting for the republic," said Larissa Ivanovna, who runs the cloakroom at Slavyansk's central market. "We can't live in a country together with murderers like Turchynov."

Slavyansk's pro-Russian mayor Vyacheslav Ponomaryov told a news conference he expected a 100 percent turnout in the election. He described Turchynov and his government as a "junta.”

Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan contributed reporting from Donetsk, with Reuters.