Russia’s move to seize the Crimean Peninsula brought a warning from
Ukraine against further incursions. Ukraine’s premier said on Sunday
that the nation was on the “brink of disaster.”
President Obama has said that there will be costs for using force, but
history has shown that Russia is willing to absorb any fallout.
SIMFEROPOL,
Ukraine — Ukraine put its military on high alert Sunday in response to
Russia’s move to seize control of the Crimean Peninsula, and it
threatened war against Moscow if the Kremlin made further incursions
into Ukrainian territory as Western powers scrambled to find a response
to the crisis.
“This
is the red alert, this is not a threat, this is actually a declaration
of war to my country,” Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk,
told reporters in English, a day after Russia’s parliament approved the
deployment of troops to any part of Ukraine where Moscow deems Russians
are in danger. He warned that Ukraine was on the “brink of disaster” and
appealed to the international community to stand by Kiev.
As
Ukrainians gathered in central Kiev for a large patriotic rally,
Russian troops without badges and pro-Russian “self-defense” forces
surrounded some Ukrainian military bases in Crimea, urging the soldiers
and sailors to defect to the new authorities not recognized by Kiev.
There was tension and discussion, but no violence from either side.
The
new government in Kiev, hastily installed last week, wants to influence
the thinking of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, an effort
expected to continue later on Sunday when NATO holds an emergency
meeting on Ukraine and British Foreign Secretary William Hague visits
Kiev in a sign of Western support.
Secretary
of State John Kerry on Sunday called Russia’s action as “an act of
aggression that is completely trumped up,” suggesting that Russia was
“possibly trying to annex Crimea.”
But
while saying that Russia was “in direct, overt violation of
international law,” Mr. Kerry, in an appearance on the NBC program “Meet
the Press,” tempered his vigorous denunciation by saying that “the last
thing anybody wants is a military option in this kind of a situation.”
Russia,
Mr. Kerry said in one of three Sunday television appearances on the
crisis, could pay “a huge price” for its behavior, including the
possible cancellation of the Group of Eight meeting slated for June in
Sochi. If this continues, he said, Mr. Putin “is not going to have a
Sochi G8, he may not even remain in the G8.”
Before
the NATO meeting, its secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told
Russia to stop its military activity and threats against a sovereign
Ukraine. “What Russia is doing now in Ukraine violates the principles of
the United Nations Charter,” he said. “It threatens peace and security
in Europe. Russia must stop its military activities and its threats.”
What
began three months ago as a protest against the Ukrainian government
has now turned into a big-power confrontation reminiscent of the Cold
War and a significant challenge to international agreements on the
sanctity of the borders of the post-Soviet nations.
In
Crimea, the situation was calm but hardly placid on Sunday morning,
with fewer soldiers visible on the streets. Some heavily armed soldiers
without insignia had taken up positions around small Ukrainian military
bases, but did not try to enter them.
At
Perevalnoye, a small Ukrainian base some 15 miles south of Simferopol
on the road to Yalta, hundreds of soldiers with masks, helmets and
goggles, in unmarked uniforms, surrounded the base, using vehicles with
Russian plates. Inside about two dozen Ukrainian soldiers could be seen,
equipped with an old BMP, a combination of a light tank and armored
personnel carrier.
The
Ukrainian commander, Col. Sergei Starozhenko, 38, told reporters the
unmarked troops had arrived about 5 a.m. and “they want to block the
base.” He said he expected them to bring reinforcements and call for
talks. Asked how many men he has at his command, he said simply,
“Enough.” After 15 minutes of conversation with what appeared to be a
Russian officer, he said, “There won’t be war,” and returned inside,
while the standoff continued.
In
Sevastopol, pro-Russian “self-defense” forces blocked the entrances of
the main Ukrainian naval headquarters. There was no sign of Russian
troops, Ukrainian officers were at work inside and armed Ukrainians
guards were on patrol behind the closed gates.
Pro-Russia
demonstrators put up a banner reading: “Sevastopol without Fascism,”
and urged Ukrainian officers to come over to their side rather than
serve the “illegal fascist regime” in Kiev. The demonstrators shoved
packs of cigarettes, candy and bottles of water through the gate for the
Ukrainian guards.
“They
have to make a choice -- they either obey the fascists in Kiev or the
people,” said Sergei Seryogin, a pro-Russia activist outside. Kiev, he
said, “is illegal power” and should be ignored by all military and civil
officials.
At
the Balaklava offices of the Ukrainian coast guard and border police,
the Russian troop trucks that effectively besieged it on Saturday were
gone. A member of the Sevastopol Council, Sergei Nepran, said that there
had been an agreement with the Russians that the Ukrainians would
remain in the office and not put out to sea. Mr. Nepran claimed that the
Sevastopol police “have come over to the people” and are now under
control of a new pro-Russian mayor, Anatoly Chaly. Mr Chaly, he said,
had replaced a Kiev-appointed mayor who was forced to resign.
On
Saturday, Russia took effective control of Crimea. Russian troops
without identifying insignia but using military vehicles bearing the
license plates of Russia’s Black Sea force encircled government
buildings, closed the main airport and seized communication hubs,
solidifying what began on Friday as a covert effort to control the
largely pro-Russian region.
According to Kiev, Russia then flew in 6,000 more troops to a military airport. The civilian airports are now open again.
In
Moscow, Mr. Putin on Saturday convened the upper house of Parliament to
grant him authority to use force to protect Russian citizens and
soldiers not only in Crimea but throughout Ukraine. Both actions —
military and parliamentary — were a direct rebuff to President Obama,
who on Friday pointedly warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s territorial
integrity.
Mr.
Obama accused Russia on Saturday of a “breach of international law” and
condemned the country’s military intervention, calling it a “clear
violation” of Ukrainian sovereignty.Russia kept up its propaganda
campaign on Sunday in defense of the takeover, citing undefined threats
to Russian citizens and proclaiming “massive defections” of Ukrainian
forces in Crimea, which Western reporters said appeared to be unfounded.
Photo
Launch media viewer
Ukrainian commanders approached to conduct negotiations with the unidentified troops outside the blocked military base.Credit
Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
The
state-owned Itar-Tass news agency cited the Russian border guard agency
claiming that 675,000 Ukrainians had fled to Russia in January and
February and that there were signs of a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
Russia
insists that its intervention is only to protect its citizens and
interests from chaos and disorder following the still unexplained
departure from Kiev of it president, Viktor F. Yanukovych.
“If
‘revolutionary chaos’ in Ukraine continues, hundreds of thousands of
refugees will flow into bordering Russian regions,” the border service
said, according to Tass, providing another unsubstantiated justification
for Russian military intervention.
Late
Saturday, Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, said he
had ordered Ukraine’s armed forces to full readiness because of the
threat of “potential aggression.”
He also said he had ordered stepped-up security at nuclear power plants, airports and other strategic infrastructure.
Mr.
Yatsenyuk, the prime minister, said he was “convinced” Russia would not
intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine, “since this would be the
beginning of war and the end of all relations between Ukraine and
Russia.”
Mr.
Obama, who had warned Russia on Friday that “there will be costs” if it
violated Ukraine’s sovereignty, spoke with Mr. Putin for 90 minutes on
Saturday, according to the White House, and urged him to withdraw his
forces back to their bases in Crimea and to stop “any interference” in
other parts of Ukraine.
In
a statement afterward, the White House said the United States would
suspend participation in preparatory meetings for the G-8 economic
conference to be held in Sochi, Russia, in June, and warned of “greater
political and economic isolation” for Russia.
The
Kremlin offered its own description of the call, in which it said Mr.
Putin spoke of “a real threat to the lives and health of Russian
citizens” in Ukraine, and warned that “in case of any further spread of
violence to Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, Russia retains the right to
protect its interests and the Russian-speaking population of those
areas.”
In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron said that “there can be no excuse for outside military intervention” in Ukraine.
Canada
said it was recalling its ambassador from Moscow and, like the United
States, suspending preparations for the G-8 meeting.
At
the United Nations, the Security Council on Saturday held an emergency
meeting on Ukraine for the second time in two days. The American
ambassador, Samantha Power, called for an international observer
mission, urged Russia to “stand down” and took a dig at the Russian
ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, on the issue of state sovereignty, which
the Kremlin frequently invokes in criticizing the West over its handling
of Syria and other disputes.
“Russian actions in Ukraine are violating the sovereignty of Ukraine and pose a threat to peace and security,” she said.
The
secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, also spoke with Mr. Putin on Saturday
and described himself as “gravely concerned” and urged Mr. Putin to
negotiate with officials in Kiev.
Mr.
Yanukovych’s refusal, under Russian pressure, to sign new political and
free trade agreements with the European Union last fall set off the
civil unrest that last month led to the deaths of more than 80 people,
and ultimately unraveled his presidency. The country’s new interim
government has said it will revive those accords.
Sergey
Tigipko, a former deputy prime minister of Ukraine and one-time ally of
Mr. Yanukovych, said he flew to Moscow on Saturday in hopes of
brokering a truce.
For
the new government in Kiev, the tensions in Crimea created an even more
dire and immediate emergency than the looming financial disaster that
they had intended to focus on in their first days in office.
A
$15 billion bailout that Mr. Yanukovych secured from Russia has been
suspended because of the political upheaval, and Ukraine is in desperate
need of financial assistance. Mr. Yatsenyuk, the acting prime minister,
had said that the government’s first responsibility was to begin
negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and start to put in
place the economic reforms and painful austerity measures that the fund
requested in exchange for help.
Alison Smale
reported from Simferopol, and Steven Erlanger from Kiev, Ukraine.
Reporting was contributed by David M. Herszenhorn from Kiev, Noah
Sneider and Patrick Reevell from Simferopol; Andrew Higgins from
Sevastopol, Ukraine; Andrew Roth from Moscow; Somini Sengupta from the
United Nations; and Michael R. Gordon, Michael D. Shear and Brian
Knowlton from Washingto/
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