| CNN | - |
(CNN)
-- Tensions smoldered in Ukraine, and in capitals around the world on
Monday, as Russian troops consolidated their hold on the Ukrainian
peninsula of Crimea, global stocks slipped on fears things could get
worse and diplomats grasped for a way to ...
Russia tightens grip on Crimea as world grasps for solution to crisis
updated 2:11 PM EST, Mon March 3, 2014
Standoff at Ukraine base in Crimea
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: U.S. sanctions on Russia likely, State Department spokeswoman says
- Russian moves are a "clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty," EU council says
- Russian foreign minister tells critics to put aside "geopolitical calculations"
- Former Ukraine PM asks "all the world" for help in stopping Ukraine from losing Crimea
British Foreign Secretary
William Hague called the situation Europe's most serious crisis of the
still-young 21st century. An emergency U.N. Security Council meeting was
scheduled for later in the day.
In Crimea, more Russian
troops arrived, surrounding military posts and other facilities and
taking effective control of the continent from Ukrainian authorities.
What they planned to do next remained unclear. In one ominous incident, a
Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman said the commander of Russia's
Black Sea fleet boarded a blocked Ukrainian warship and issued a threat.
"Swear allegiance to the
new Crimean authorities, or surrender, or face an attack," he said,
according to the spokesman, Vladislav Seleznev.
Ex-prime minister calls on world to act
How will the West respond to Ukraine?
NATO calls emergency meeting on Ukraine
Obama to Russia: 'There will be costs'
But a spokesman for the
Russian Black Sea Fleet said there are no plans to storm Ukrainian
military units in Crimea, according to the state-run Interfax news
agency.
Despite the assurance,
stocks fell around the world, with Russian stocks leading the way as
investors parsed the day's developments. Markets declined in Asia,
Europe and the United States, where the benchmark Dow Jones was down
more than 200 points in mid-afternoon trading.
Although Russia's foreign
minister rejected claims his country was acting aggressively, his
European Union counterparts met in Brussels to condemn what they called
Russia's "clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial
integrity." They demanded Moscow pull its troops back or face possible
sanctions.
Vice President Joe Biden,
speaking by telephone to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, warned
of increasing political and economic isolation.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that sanctions against Russia weren't just possible, but likely.
A senior U.S.
administration official told CNN that Russian forces "have complete
operational control of the Crimean Peninsula." The official said the
U.S. estimates there are 6,000 Russian ground and naval forces in the
region.
"There is no question
that they are in an occupation position -- flying in reinforcements and
settling in," another senior administration official said.
Tensions rise even higher in Ukraine
Ukraine PM: 'This is a red alert'
In Kiev, interim Prime
Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who has accused Moscow of declaring war,
vowed that his West-leaning government would not give up the region.
"Nobody will give Crimea
away. ... There are no grounds for the use of force against civilians
and Ukrainians, and for the entry of the Russian military contingent,"
he said. "Russia never had any grounds and never will."
Ukraine's shaky new government has mobilized troops and called up military reservists.
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, released from jail last week, asked the international community for help.
"I am asking all the
world, personally every world leader, to use all the possibilities in
order to avoid Ukraine losing Crimea," she told CNN's Christiane
Amanpour in an interview.
How will the West respond to Ukraine?
Putin defies U.S. warning about Ukraine
Lawmaker speaks of blood-soaked soil
Camouflaged and unidentified
Ukrainian border guards
on Monday reported a buildup of armored vehicles on the Russian side of a
narrow sea channel dividing Russia and Crimea, Reuters reported, citing
a border guard spokesman.
He said that Russian
ships had been moving in and around the city of Sevastopol, where the
Russian Black Sea Fleet has a base, and Russian forces had blocked
mobile telephone service in some areas. The buildup of Russian armor was
near a ferry port on the Russian side of the Kerch Channel, opposite
the Ukrainian city of Kerch.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian
State Border Security Service said there had been several attacks on
border posts in eastern Crimea just along the border with Russia.
Also on Sunday night,
unidentified armed men tried to enter the arms depot in Belbek military
base near Sevastopol, said Seleznev, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry
spokesman. Ukrainian forces shot into the air to warn them off, but the
unidentified men used sound grenades and a Ukrainian commander was
wounded as a result, Seleznev told CNN.
The attackers gained
access to the base, but Ukrainian troops retain control of the weapons
depot and administration building, Seleznev added.
Men dressed in both
civilian and camouflage gear with red armbands have patrolled the
streets of the regional capital, Simferopol. The area has seen several
pro-Russia demonstrations with crowds waving Russian flags and shouting
"Thank you, Putin."
Navy defector seeks allies
Ten Ukrainian military
and naval bases in Crimea were blocked Monday by armed men, the newly
appointed naval commander of Ukraine, Rear Admiral Serhei Gayduk, told a
Ukrainian TV station.
His predecessor, Denis
Berezovsky, who on Sunday said he would not submit to orders from Kiev
and defected, was said to have entered the Ukrainian naval base in
Crimea under the protection of a group of Cossacks and tried to convince
other Ukrainian officers to defect. However, Gayduk was at the base and
urged officers to maintain their allegiance to Ukraine, the Defense
Ministry's Seleznev told CNN. Troops responded by singing the Ukrainian
national anthem.
These scenes come after
Putin secured permission from his parliament Saturday to use military
force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine and told U.S. President
Barack Obama he had the right to defend Russian interests and nationals,
spurning Western pleas not to intervene.
Worried West
The tensions have
worried the West, and Russia's G8 partners have condemned Moscow's
military buildup in Crimea. The world's seven major industrialized
powers also suspended preparations for the G8 summit in Sochi, Russia,
in June.
Their finance ministers announced some economic support for cash-strapped Ukraine.
"We are also committed
to mobilize rapid technical assistance to support Ukraine in addressing
its macroeconomic, regulatory, and anti-corruption challenges," the
finance ministers said in a written statement.
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry, due in Kiev Tuesday, said several foreign powers are looking
at economic consequences if Russia does not withdraw its forces.
"It is now of the utmost
importance to install calm and de-escalate tensions immediately through
dialogue," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters.
Scheduled to meet Lavrov
later Monday, he urged "that the Russian Federation refrain from any
acts and rhetoric that can further escalate the situation and instead
engage constructively and through peaceful means with Ukraine."
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel's office said Putin had accepted a proposal to establish a
"fact-finding mission" to Ukraine, possibly under the leadership of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and to start a
political dialogue.
Moscow has defended its
parliament's approval of President Vladimir Putin's use of military
force to protect its citizens in the Crimean Peninsula, an autonomous
region of eastern Ukraine with strong loyalty to Russia.
"I repeat: This is a
matter of defending our citizens and our compatriots, of defending the
most important human right -- the right to life," Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a U.N. human rights meeting in Geneva,
Switzerland.
But Ukraine's ambassador to the U.N. says Russia's reasoning for a possible invasion is fake.
"There is no evidence
that the Russian ethnic population or Russian-speaking population is
under threat," Ambassador Yuri Sergeyev told CNN.
The Russian parliament,
or Duma, is also considering a law that would allow for the annexation
of Crimea, according to the parliament's website.
"Now they are trying to create new legal basis to prove annexation of the territory they're now occupying," Sergeyev said.
East vs. West
Ukraine, a nation of 45
million people sandwiched between Europe and Russia's southwestern
border, has been in chaos since Yanukovych was ousted on February 22
after bloody street protests that left dozens dead and hundreds wounded.
Anti-government
demonstrations started in late November, when Yanukovych spurned a deal
with the EU, favoring closer ties with Moscow instead.
Ukraine has faced a
deepening split, with those in the west generally supporting the interim
government and its European Union tilt, while many in the east prefer a
Ukraine where Russia casts a long shadow.
Nowhere is that feeling
more intense than in Crimea, the last big bastion of opposition to the
new political leadership. Ukraine suspects Russia of fomenting tension
in the autonomous region that might escalate into a bid for separation
by its Russian majority.
Ukrainian leaders and
commentators have compared events in Crimea to what happened in Georgia
in 2008. Then, cross-border tensions with Russia exploded into a
five-day conflict that saw Russian tanks and troops pour into the
breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as Georgian
cities. Russia and Georgia each blamed the other for starting the
conflict.
CNN's Diana Magnay in Simferopol, Alla
Eshchenko in Moscow, Lindsay Isaac and Rob North in London, Neda
Farshbaf in Atlanta, Dominique Van Heerden and journalist Azad Safarov
in Kiev contributed to this report.
end quote from:
Russia tightens grip on Crimea as world grasps for solution to crisis
To understand strategically what is happening here: Russia has only two warmwater non-freezing ports year around. One is in the Crimea and the other is in Syria. Understanding that Russia cannot strategically or economically afford to give up either port is necessary to understand fully what is happening here.
If they can keep their warmwater port in Crimea they are okay. If they can keep their warmwater port in Syria they are okay. But to lose either might be enough to send Russia to war with whoever tries to stop them from having their warmwater ports. Any dealings with Russia from any country must understand these two ports areas are necessary for Russia's well being so it doesn't have to start more wars like in Syria now only in Ukraine.
So, likely, on a purely strategic level Russia isn't going to ever leave Crimea or Syria because of their ports and Russians who live in Crimea and Syria and many have intermarried with locals for 50 or more years already. Understanding this is necessary to completely get what is going on here.
Without this strategic understanding a war with the western world could happen that could eventually lead to nukes. So, understanding that these ports are necessary to Russia's military and economic survival long term. On top of this their GDP is dropping precipitously. Also, Putin is trying to draw attention away from the 50 billion dollars he put into the Olympic Games on top of what it cost to pay 40,000 security personnel during the games to keep terrorist plots from happening in Russia.
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