| CNN | - |
Simferopol,
Ukraine (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia of
making up reasons for intervention in Ukraine, saying Tuesday that "not a
single piece of credible evidence supports any one of these claims.
Kerry condemns Russian moves in Crimea while Putin stays defiant
updated 12:14 PM EST, Tue March 4, 2014
U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry, wearing a blue scarf, visits a shrine Tuesday, March 4, for the
people who were killed during anti-government protests in Kiev, Ukraine,
last month.
HIDE CAPTION
Crisis in Ukraine
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Russia made up reasons to intervene
- Russia declines invitation for diplomatic talks with Ukraine, U.S. official says
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits shrine to protesters killed in Kiev
- President Vladimir Putin says Russia has the right to "take all measures" in Ukraine
"Russia has talked about Russian-speaking citizens being under siege. They're not," he said while on a visit to Kiev.
He condemned what he called Russia's aggression in Crimea and urged the country to withdraw its troops.
"We would like to see
this de-escalated. We're not looking for some major confrontation," he
said, while still promising sanctions on Russia if it refuses to step
back.
Kerry's comments came a
few hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin defiantly defended his
country's right to intervene in Ukraine.
Squeezing Russia economically
24 hours of tension in Ukraine
Russians are "very much in control"
Putin said what had
happened in Ukraine was an "anti-constitutional coup and armed seizure
of power," and insisted that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor
Yanukovych is the legitimate leader of the nation.
He also insisted that if
Russian-speaking citizens in the east of Ukraine ask for Russia's help,
Russia has the right "to take all measures to protect the rights of
those people."
The parliament in Ukraine is "partly legitimate," he said, but the country's acting President is not.
Appearing at ease as he
addressed a handful of reporters in Moscow, Putin said only the people
of Crimea, a Russian-dominated autonomous region, could determine their
future.
He also continued to
deny that Russian forces were in the country, saying that the troops
currently blockading Ukrainian forces in their bases and controlling key
institutions were local "self-defense teams."
The troops in question
-- who appeared in Crimea late last week -- are wearing uniforms without
identifying insignia. But some have told CNN teams on the ground that
they are indeed from Russia, and they are making use of military
vehicles with Russian registration plates.
Putin said that there
had been no need for the use of Russia's military so far, with not a
shot fired, and that any use of military force would be the last resort.
He repeatedly cast any such intervention as a humanitarian mission.
Military action, he
said, would be "completely legitimate" because it was at the request of
Yanukovych and in line with Russia's duty to protect people with
historic ties to Russia, both cultural and economic.
"Firstly, we have a
request of the legitimate President Yanukovych to protect the welfare of
the local population. We have neo-Nazis and Nazis and anti-Semites in
parts of Ukraine, including Kiev," Putin said.
At the same time as he
appeared to use that request to justify a Russian intervention, Putin
said he saw no political future for Yanukovych, who resurfaced in Russia
last week after fleeing Kiev 10 days ago.
The Russian President
also pointed out what he sees as a double standard by leaders in the
United States and other Western countries, saying that the U.S. acted in
Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya without a U.N. resolution authorizing that
action or by "twisting" U.N. resolutions.
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And he warned that any
damage from sanctions imposed by the West against Russia over its
actions in Ukraine would be multilateral.
President Barack Obama
on Tuesday pushed back against what he said were suggestions that Russia
has been strategically clever in Ukraine.
"I actually think this
has not been a sign of strength, but rather is a reflection that
countries near Russia have deep concerns and suspicions about this kind
of meddling," he said.
Diplomatic moves, promises of aid
Shortly after Putin's
remarks, Kerry arrived in Kiev, bearing offers of much needed financial
help and showing his support for the fledgling Ukrainian government.
His first stop was a
somber one: Paying respects to the dozens killed in bloody clashes
between security forces and protesters in Kiev at a makeshift shrine in
the capital, piled high with flowers.
Next will come meetings
with Ukraine's acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, President
Oleksandr Turchynov and members of parliament.
A team from the
International Monetary Fund is also expected in Kiev on Tuesday to begin
a fact-finding mission that will look at possible financial help and
necessary reforms.
The White House said the
United States would give Ukraine a $1 billion loan guarantee to help
insulate the Ukrainian economy from the effects of reduced energy
subsidies from Russia. The loan guarantee will help Ukraine move forward
with an IMF assistance package, which calls for it to raise energy
prices.
The Ukrainian parliament
ratified an agreement Tuesday to receive loans from the European Union
worth 610 million euros, the equivalent of nearly $839 million. The
parliament is based in Kiev, where many emphasize ties to the West, as
opposed to people in eastern Ukraine, where loyalty to Russia runs deep.
Meanwhile, Turkey's
military scrambled eight F-16 fighter jets for "control and prevention
measures" after a Russian surveillance plane "flew parallel along our
Black Sea coast in international airspace," according to a Turkish
military website. There has been no immediate comment on this from
Russia.
In Brussels, Belgium,
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters Tuesday that
despite repeated calls by the international community, "Russia
continues to violate Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and
continues to violate its international commitments."
The developments represent serious implications for the security and stability for the Euro-Atlantic area, he said.
NATO did say its
representatives would meet with Russian officials Wednesday. That
announcement came as NATO allies huddled in emergency talks requested by
Poland, which considers itself to be under threat by the drama in
neighboring Ukraine.
NATO spokeswoman Oana
Lungescu said the allies were united in solidarity with Poland.
"Obviously, this is a crisis which is very serious. It has an impact,
not just on Ukraine, and Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial
integrity, but also on instability in the whole region," she said.
Russia declined an
invitation to hold diplomatic talks with Ukraine's government, a senior
U.S. administration official told CNN on Tuesday. Russia had been
invited to a Wednesday meeting in Paris of signatory countries to the
1994 Budapest Memorandum, a pact of security assurances signed by the
United States, United Kingdom, Ukraine and Russia.
However, Cabinet
ministers from Ukraine and Russia have started inter-government
consultations, Yatsenyuk said live on Ukraine's Parliament TV on
Tuesday. The talks are going "rather slowly," he said. It's not
immediately clear where the talks are happening.
Former U.S. Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright told CNN's "New Day" that she did not believe
Putin's claims that he was protecting endangered Russian citizens.
"There is not this kind
of a crisis in terms of the way that the Russian-speaking people are in
some way being harmed. So this is all made up," she said.
"I think it's part of a
much longer-term plan that Putin has had, which is to try to re-create
some form of relationship between Ukraine and Moscow. I think that is
the tragedy that's going on. Putin is in many ways, I think, delusional
about it."
Ordered back
Earlier Tuesday, about
150,000 Russian troops taking part in military exercises near the
Ukrainian border were ordered back to their bases, but thousands of
others remain in control of much of Crimea.
Putin ordered the
troops' return after six days of snap exercises at Ukraine's doorstep.
He said the exercises, which began Wednesday, were long planned and had
nothing to do with events in Ukraine.
But Ukraine's new interim authorities are far from reassured.
Andriy Parubiy, head of
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told parliament that
Ukraine has doubled its security presence at checkpoints on the
northeastern and eastern borders of the country to prevent any
incursions by Russian "extremists."
At this stage, Ukraine border security officials are not seeing any cross-border activity, he said.
Sergey Astahov,
assistant to the head of the Ukraine Security Border Service, earlier
told CNN that Russian troops and vehicles remained near the country's
eastern border with Russia.
Meanwhile, an eerie standoff continued in Crimea, with no shots fired in anger on either side but tensions high.
The crisis has divided
many in the majority ethnic Russian region, which hosts a major Russian
naval base in the port of Sevastopol.
At least 700 Ukrainian
soldiers and officers defected Tuesday, announcing their readiness to
defend the population of Crimea, RIA Novosti said, citing a spokesman
for the newly installed Crimean authority.
But Ukraine's Defense Ministry dismissed the claim as "untruthful information."
Parubiy said personnel
at all of Ukraine's border security points in Crimea are being subjected
to "psychological attacks" by 100 armed men. He did not identify who
these armed men are.
The government is
sending food, water and other essentials to the military bases currently
blockaded by Russian forces, he added.
Ukraine: Warning shots fired by Russians
Anxieties have been
heightened by a confrontation between Ukrainian soldiers and Russian
forces at Belbek Air Base, near Sevastopol.
Russian forces are seen firing shots into the air, warning unarmed Ukrainian soldiers from approaching them.
The commander of the
Belbek base, Yuli Mamchun, told CNN his forces had received a demand to
put down their weapons by noon local time. They refused to comply, he
said, adding that it was the latest in long line of demands.
A wider ultimatum for Ukrainian forces to surrender to the Russian forces early Tuesday also passed without incident.
Earlier, Vladislav
Seleznyov, head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry press office in
Crimea, told CNN it had been largely quiet in Crimea overnight.
A group of pro-Russian
Cossacks in civilian dress attempted to attack the Ukrainian naval
headquarters in Sevastopol, Seleznyov said, but Ukrainian forces
repelled the attack and no shots were fired.
On Monday evening,
Russian troops also moved into the Russian side of a narrow sea channel
dividing Russia and Crimea, opposite the Ukrainian city of Kerch, he
added.
The military maneuvers are not just on land.
The flagship of the
Ukrainian navy's Black Sea Fleet, the frigate Hetman Saraidachny, is
headed back to the Black Sea via the Bosporus, the Ukrainian Consulate
in Istanbul said.
Earlier Tuesday, two Russian warships steamed up the Bosporus toward the Black Sea.
'Chaos and anarchy'
At an emergency U.N.
Security Council meeting Monday to discuss the unfolding crisis,
Ukraine's envoy asked for help, saying that Russia had used planes,
boats and helicopters to flood the Crimean Peninsula with 16,000 troops
in the past week.
"So far, Ukrainian armed
forces have exercised restraint and refrained from active resistance to
the aggression, but they are in full operational readiness," Ukrainian
Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev said.
However, Russian
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted his country's aims were preserving
democracy, protecting millions of Russians in Ukraine and stopping
radical extremists. He read a letter from Yanukovych at the U.N.
meeting, describing Ukraine as a country "on the brink of civil war,"
plagued by "chaos and anarchy."
U.S. Ambassador Samantha
Power said Russia's claims about the situation in Ukraine are untrue
and warned that sending military forces "could be devastating."
U.S. President Barack
Obama said the United States is examining a series of economic and
diplomatic steps to "isolate Russia," and he called on Congress to work
with his administration on an economic assistance package for Ukraine.
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