U.S. Keeps Tough Line On Russia Despite Ukraine Truce

Nuland was speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 8, as the cease-fire agreed in Minsk in February has been widely upheld in the past month. The conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists has killed around 9,000 people since April 2014. Nuland also said that sanctions imposed on Russia after it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 would remain in place until the Kremlin agrees to withdraw Russian forces. "We will judge Russia and the separatists by their actions, not their words," she said.