Obama to urge ongoing pressure on Russia

President Barack Obama will press European leaders this week to keep up the pressure on Russia over its threatening moves in Ukraine, while seeking to assuage fears from Poland and other Nato allies that the West could slip back into a business-as-usual relationship with Moscow.

Obama’s four-day trip to Poland, Belgium and France comes against the backdrop of successful national elections in Ukraine and signs that Russia is moving most of its troops off its shared border with the former Soviet republic.

Yet violence continues to rage in eastern Ukrainian and there is deep uncertainty about whether Ukraine’s new president-elect can stabilise his country.