Ukraine puts forces on combat alert, warns of war
As two Russian anti-submarine warships arrived in Crimea, Former Ukrainian leader Yulia Tymoshenko urged calm ahead of her Monday meeting with Putin, raising hopes for compromise
Ukraine put its armed forces on full combat alert on Saturday and warned Russia that any military intervention in the country would lead to war as two Russian anti-submarine warships appeared off the coast of Ukraine's Crimea region.
The move is a violation of an agreement on Moscow's lease of a naval base, Interfax news agency quoted a Ukrainian military source as saying and came after a more than three-hour meeting with security and defense chiefs in which Acting Ukrainian President Oleksander Turchinov said there was no justification for what he called Russian aggression against his country.
Related stories:
- UN Security Council holding urgent meeting on Ukraine crisis
- Russian troop movements in Crimea may destabilize Ukraine
- Russian parliament authorizes Putin's request to use military in Ukraine
Standing beside Turchinov, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said he had urged Russia to return its troops to base in the Crimea region during a phone call with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and called for talks.
"Military intervention would be the beginning of war and the end of any relations between Ukraine and Russia," Yatseniuk told reporters.
On Saturday the Ukraine asked the United States and other key members of the UN Security Council to help safeguard its territorial integrity."We can stop the expansion of this aggression," Ukraine's UN Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev told reporters after addressing a closed-door UN Security Council meeting on the crisis in his country.
Russian troops took over Crimea as the parliament in Moscow gave President Vladimir Putin a green light Saturday to use the military to protect Russian interests in Ukraine. The newly installed government in Kiev was powerless to react to the action by Russian troops based in the strategic region and more flown in, aided by pro-Russian Ukrainian groups.
Despite Putin's sharp move, there were possible signs Saturday that the Russian leader could soften his approach. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was freed a week ago after more than 2 ½ years in prison, was reported to be heading to Moscow for a meeting with Putin on Monday. Putin has had good ties with Tymoshenko in the past, and he may look to her for a possible compromise.
In a statement posted on her party's web site, Tymoshenko urged the UN Security Council to meet in Kiev and asked the EU leaders to convene a meeting in Crimea. She urged the West to help protect Ukraine's territorial integrity, asked Ukrainians to remain calm and voiced hope that diplomacy will succeed.
In a note of restraint, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said the motion doesn't mean the president would immediately send additional troops to Ukraine. "There is no talk about it yet," he said.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, also said in televised remarks that while the president "got the entire arsenal of means necessary for settling this situation," he hadn't yet decided whether to use the Russian military in Ukraine or recall the ambassador from Washington as lawmakers suggested.
Putin's motion loosely refers to the "territory of Ukraine" rather than specifically to Crimea, raising the possibility that Moscow could use military force in other Russian-speaking areas in eastern and southern Ukraine, where many detest the new authorities in Kiev.
Putin sought and quickly got his parliament's approval to use its military to protect Russia's interests across Ukraine. But while sometimes-violent pro-Russian protests broke out Saturday in a number of Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine, Moscow's immediate focus appeared to be Crimea.
Ignoring President Barack Obama's warning Friday that "there will be costs" if Russia intervenes militarily, Putin sharply raised the stakes in the conflict over Ukraine's future evoking memories of Cold War brinkmanship.
"Russia and the West find themselves on the brink of a confrontation far worse than in 2008 over Georgia," Dmitri Trenin, the director of Carnegie Moscow Center, said in a commentary posted on its website. In Georgia, the Russian troops quickly routed the Georgian military after they tried to regain control over the separatist province of South Ossetia that has close ties with Moscow.
The latest moves followed days of scripted, bloodless turmoil on the peninsula, the scene of centuries of wars and seen by Moscow as a crown jewel of the Russian and Soviet empires. What began Thursday with the early-morning takeover of the regional parliament building by mysterious troops continued Saturday afternoon as dozens of those soldiers – almost certainly Russian – moved into the streets around the parliamentary complex and seized control of regional airports, amid street protests by pro-Russian Crimeans calling for Moscow's protection from the new government in Kiev.
That government came to power last week in the wake of months of pro-democracy protests against the now-fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, and his decision to turn Ukraine toward Russia, its longtime patron, instead of the European Union. Despite the calls for Moscow's help, there has been no sign of ethnic Russians facing attacks in Crimea or elsewhere in Ukraine.
Obama on Friday called on Russia to respect the independence and territory of Ukraine and not try to take advantage of its neighbor's political upheaval.
He said such action by Russia would represent a "profound interference" in matters he said should be decided by the Ukrainian people. He has not said, however, how the US could pressure Moscow to step back from its intervention.
The Russian parliament urged that Moscow recall its ambassador in Washington in response to Obama's speech.
On Friday, Ukraine accused Russia of a "military invasion and occupation" in the Crimea, where Russia's Black Sea fleet is based. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk called on Moscow "to recall their forces, and to return them to their stations," according to the Interfax news agency. "Russian partners, stop provoking civil and military resistance in Ukraine."
