WASHINGTON, Sha'ban 28, 1435, Jun 26, 2014, SPA -- Russia’s move to rescind authority to invade Ukraine is welcome but is not enough to head off possible new European and U.S. economic sanctions, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday. The upper house of Russia’s parliament voted Wednesday to revoke invasion powers it had granted President Vladimir Putin on March 1. Putin had requested the move a day earlier, saying he wanted to help support Ukraine’s fledgling peace process by reducing tensions. “That’s important. It’s a great step,” Kerry said after NATO meetings here. “But it could be reversed in 10 minutes, and everybody knows that.” Kerry said that Russia must stop the flow of weapons and fighters across the border with Ukraine and that Putin should publicly call for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine to lay down arms. Russian forces and equipment should retreat from the border, he added, and Russia should use its influence to gain the release of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe taken hostage by rebels in eastern Ukraine. “Unless Russia fully makes that kind of commitment to the peace process and to the stability of Ukraine, the United States and Europe are compelled to continue to prepare greater costs, including tough economic sanctions, with the hopes that they will not have to be used,” Kerry said. “That is dependent on the choices that Russia and its president make in the next days and weeks.” --SPA 10:26 LOCAL TIME 07:26 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w