VIENNA \u2014 U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that Ukraine was the sole sticking point keeping the United States and Russia from forging a closer relationship, suggesting that all other disputes were secondary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe issue that stands in the way is Ukraine,\u201d Tillerson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The assessment from America\u2019s top diplomat notably played down other areas of dispute, particularly Russia\u2019s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and FBI, have concluded the Kremlin interfered in the election in an effort to help now-President Donald Trump and hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on that finding, and a special counsel is investigating whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian effort. He has said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s personal denials that Moscow meddled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Tillerson hasn\u2019t shied away from accusing the Kremlin of election interference. One of the Trump team\u2019s toughest voices on Russia, he said in a speech last week that there was \u201cclear evidence of Russia meddling in democratic elections in the U.S. and Europe,\u201d and he called it part of an \u201cactive threat of a recently resurgent Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tillerson\u2019s focus on Ukraine came as he met with European diplomats at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, established during the Cold War to serve as a bridge between East and West. Tillerson insisted the U.S. could never overlook Russia\u2019s \u201cattempted annexation\u201d of Crimea or Moscow\u2019s military intrusion in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe should be clear about the source of this violence,\u201d Tillerson said. \u201cRussia is arming, leading, training and fighting alongside anti-government forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump campaigned on the need to improve ties with Russia, Tillerson said, adding that \u201cnormalizing\u201d relations between the nuclear powers was something the U.S. still \u201cbadly would like to do.\u201d He said that from the start, the Trump administration had told Moscow that addressing Ukraine was essential to warmer ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can have differences in other arenas, in Syria. We can have differences in other areas,\u201d Tillerson said. \u201cBut when one country invades another, that is a difference that is hard to look past or to reconcile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sharp rebuke of Russia came just before Tillerson met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Seated around a large table with their aides, the two said nothing of substance when journalists were allowed in for a few seconds to witness the start of their meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tillerson met later with OSCE special monitors who track the security situation in Ukraine \u2014 including one injured by a hand grenade. The secretary of state said he\u2019d made progress with the Russian diplomat, though he declined to tell reporters what it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe get dialogue, we get cooperation. We don\u2019t have it solved,\u201d Tillerson said. \u201cYou don\u2019t solve it in one meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strained ties between the two countries were also palpable in Moscow\u2019s description of the meeting. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov had told Tillerson that aggressive U.S. military rhetoric about North Korea is \u201cimpermissible.\u201d The Russian statement also included an unusual allegation: that the United States is trying to recruit Russian journalists in the U.S. as spies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier, in remarks at the OSCE conference, Lavrov acknowledged no fault in his country\u2019s actions in Ukraine. He said Kiev was dragging its heels regarding proposals for U.N. peacekeepers, as well as obstructing several international channels set up to try to reduce violence and move toward a resolution to the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe whole responsibility for it lies with the Ukrainian authorities,\u201d Lavrov said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although he didn\u2019t bring up election concerns Thursday, Tillerson did briefly mention long-standing U.S. tensions with Russia over Syria. The Kremlin has propped up Syrian President Bashar Assad while the U.S. has aligned itself with opposition groups seeking his ouster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Washington and Moscow have worked to ensure their militaries, both active in Syria in recent years, don\u2019t accidentally end up in confrontation. Yet there are growing U.S. concerns that Russia\u2019s significant influence in Syria will make it harder to resolve the war there and to limit Iranian influence in the country now that the Islamic State group in Syria is near defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that Ukraine was the sole sticking point keeping the United States and Russia from forging a closer relationship, suggesting that all other disputes were secondary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":93499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,8,12,25,68],"tags":[],"coauthors":[795],"class_list":["post-58371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"GOR5C2O6GRAL5ISKALRSG4AZQQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2017\/12\/08\/tillerson-says-ukraine-key-sticking-point-in-us-russia-ties\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n