World Leaders Warn Kremlin as Ukraine Standoff Continues
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Amid anxiety about Russian aims in eastern Ukraine, the British foreign
secretary visited Kiev on Monday and warned of “significant costs” for
Russia, echoing other leaders’ stern words.
West Scrambles on Ukraine as Russia Tightens Grip in Crimea
A Tense Standoff in Ukraine
Credit Uriel Sinai for The New York Times
KIEV,
Ukraine — Western nations sought a political and economic response to
the crisis in Ukraine on Monday as Russia strengthened its hold on
Crimea and more pro-Russian demonstrations were taking place in the big
cities of Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
There
were unconfirmed reports that the commander of Russia’s Black Sea
Fleet, headquartered in the Crimea port of Sevastopol, had ordered
Ukrainian forces in Crimea to surrender by 5 a.m. Tuesday local time —
10 p.m. Monday Eastern time — or face assault by Russian forces. But
Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a conflicting statement, saying the
Black Sea Fleet was not involved.
European
Union foreign ministers met in emergency session in Brussels to discuss
possible punitive steps against Russia unless it pulled its troops back
to its own bases in Crimea, including suspension of talks with Moscow
on visa liberalization. But France and Germany said that sanctions were
not on the table, urging dialogue with Russia first.
The
German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said that “crisis
diplomacy is not a weakness but it will be more important than ever to
not fall into the abyss of military escalation,” an indication that the
Europeans would not agree on significant action. Dutch Foreign Minister
Frans Timmermans told reporters that “sanctions are not in order today
but sanctions will become inevitable” if there is no change in Russia’s
position.
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Visiting
the new government in Kiev, British Foreign Secretary William Hague
urged Russia to pull back its forces in Crimea or face “significant
costs,” echoing comments made by President Obama and Secretary of State
John Kerry, who was due here on Tuesday.
Mr.
Hague also emphasized diplomacy. “The world cannot just allow this to
happen,” he told the BBC. “The world cannot say it’s O.K. in effect to
violate the sovereignty of another nation in this way.”
The
Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, responded that Russia was
only protecting its interests and those of Russian citizens in Ukraine.
In a Geneva speech, Mr. Lavrov broke from his text to say: “Those who
try to interpret the situation as an act of aggression, threaten us with
sanctions and boycotts, are the same partners who have been
consistently and vigorously encouraging the political powers close to
them to declare ultimatums and renounce dialogue, to ignore the concerns
of the south and east of Ukraine, and consequently to the polarization
of the Ukrainian society.”
The
use of Russian troops is necessary “until the normalization of the
political situation” in Ukraine, Mr. Lavrov said at an opening of a
monthlong session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“We are talking here about protection of our citizens and compatriots,
about protection of the most fundamental of the human rights — the right
to live, and nothing more.” But he did not specify what threats Russian
citizens faced from Ukraine.
With
the new Kiev government confronted with the loss of Crimea and a
worsening economic situation, a team from the International Monetary
Fund was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday for a 10-day investigation of
the true state of Ukraine’s finances. The government has said that it is
prepared to take difficult economic reform measures if necessary to
secure a stabilization loan from the fund.
Moscow suspended its offer of bond purchases when President Viktor F. Yanukovych was ousted more than a week ago.
Crimea
was relatively calm, with Russian forces continuing their military
standoffs around Ukrainian bases to neutralize them and seek their
surrender. The Ukrainian military personnel were effectively hostages,
hemmed in by Russian troops.
In
Donetsk, however, in eastern Ukraine, Mr. Yanukovych’s native region, a
large pro-Russian demonstration led to some violence. About 1,000
pro-Russian demonstrators occupied the first floor of the regional
government building that has already been flying the Russian flag for
several days. The protesters, waving Russian flags and shouting, “Putin,
come!”, were unable to go higher because lifts were disabled and
stairwell doors shut. They had entered through a side door after
confronting police, who were guarding the front entrance.
The
rally seemed the latest in a series in eastern cities that Kiev says
are encouraged or even organized by Russia. Most people in the region
are ethnic Ukrainians who speak Russian as their native language.
The
Donetsk protest leader, Pavel Gubarev, demanded that the parliament in
Kiev be declared illegitimate, a pro-Russian governor be accepted in
Donetsk and all security forces be put under regional command, much as
has happened already in Crimea.
In
Sevastopol, at the headquarters of Ukraine’s naval forces, six heavily
armed men in unmarked uniforms and masks stood outside, cheered on by
about 100 locals waving Russian flags and loudly proclaiming their
loyalties. The armed men seemed torn; they turned away from cameras, or
lowered their gaze.
Inside,
Rear Admiral Sergei A. Gaiduk, said he was acting commander of the
Ukrainian navy after the defection on Sunday of his predecessor and
declared loyalty to the country’s acting president, Oleksandr V.
Turchynov.
As
an almost summer sun warmed the blue and white buildings, Capt. A.
Ryzhenko, 45, who said he had worked closely with the Russians on
several projects involving all Black Sea nations, was clearly dazed by
the rapid divisions that now pit brother Slavs against one another. “We
are a little bit shocked,” he said. “We worked together, in adjacent
rooms, we studied together.”
How
long the Ukrainians inside could withstand what was effectively a
blockade was unclear. One young mother, who refused to talk to
reporters, was seen holding a baby at the fence for her husband to kiss.
She said she had also brought him food, “because they don’t feed them.”
Ukraine in Maps
A series of maps that help explain the crisis in Ukraine.
She
was loudly supported by two woman pensioners waving Russian flags.
“It’s the Olympic flag, the flag of friendship,” said Nina Butkeyeva,
60, injecting a surreal reminder that it is barely more than a week
since Russia welcomed the world to Sochi for the Winter Games.
The
uncertainty hit the Russian stock market and the ruble hard on Monday
morning. The Russian central bank raised its key lending rate 1.5
percentage points after the ruble fell 2.5 percent against the dollar at
the opening of exchange trading on Monday, while the MICEX index of
Moscow stocks sank 11 percent. Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, which
supplies Europe through Ukraine, was down more than 13 percent in early
trading.
The
situation in Crimea remained one of a tense standoff, with Russian
troops, wearing no badges on their uniforms, and pro-Russian
“self-defense” forces, surrounded Ukrainian bases, neutralizing and
essentially imprisoning the soldiers and sailors there. But there
continued to be no real violence.
Ukraine
said Russia was building up armored vehicles on its side of a narrow
stretch of water near Crimea, while Russian forces took over the
headquarters of the Ukrainian border control in Simferopol. Trucks
outside had no license plates but at least one car had Russian military
plates.
Ukraine’s
government worked to stem protests in the east, recruiting wealthy
eastern businessmen to become provincial governors in an effort to
dampen secessionist sentiment there.
In
Kharkiv, the eastern city that is the country’s second-largest, a
sprawling pro-Russian protest camp occupied the central square, and
Russian flags were on display. Many said they would even prefer that
Russian troops invade the city, just 20 miles from the border, instead
of submitting to Kiev’s rule.
“I
would welcome them with flowers,” said Aleksandr Sorokin, 55, a
pensioner walking by a phalanx of riot police officers guarding the
administration building in Kharkiv. “We do not want to spill blood, but
we are willing to do so.”
There
were reports that two pro-government supporters died from injuries
suffered on Saturday in Kharkiv, where there was a major pro-Russian
demonstration and effort to take over government buildin
Even
as Kiev’s pro-Western government called up its army reserves and vowed
to fight for its sovereignty, calling Russia’s invasion of Crimea a
“declaration of war,” it mustered a mostly political response to
demonstrations in the east.
The
office of President Oleksandr V. Turchynov announced the two
appointments on Sunday of two billionaires — Sergei Taruta in Donetsk
and Ihor Kolomoysky in Dnipropetrovsk — and more were reportedly under
consideration for positions in the eastern regions.
The
strategy is recognition that the oligarchs represent the country’s
industrial and business elite, and hold great influence over thousands
of workers in the east. Officials said the hope was that they could
dampen secessionist hopes in the east and keep violent outbreaks — like
fighting between pro-Western and pro-Russian protesters in Kharkiv that
put at least 100 people in the hospital on Saturday — from providing a
rationale for a Russian invasion in the name of protecting ethnic
Russians.
At
the same time, Ukrainian officials sought international help after a
rapid Russian invasion of Crimea over the weekend turned into a
celebration of pro-Kremlin sentiment in the streets there.
In
a video address on her website, the former prime minister, Yulia
Tymoshenko, said that by occupying Crimea, Russia has effectively
“declared war” on Britain and the United States, which had sought to
guarantee Ukraine’s security through a 1994 Budapest memorandum also
signed by Moscow.
“Vladimir
Putin is fully conscious that by declaring war, he is also declaring
war on the guarantors of our security, the United States and Britain,”
she said.
In
Kiev, Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, warned that the
country was on the “brink of disaster” after the Russian move into
Crimea. “This is the red alert — this is not a threat, this is actually a
declaration of war to my country,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said.
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