Armed men seized the Parliament in Ukraine’s Crimea region yesterday and raised the Russian flag, alarming Kiev’s new rulers, who warned Moscow not move troops beyond the confines of its navy base on the peninsula.
Crimea, the only Ukrainian region with an ethnic Russian majority, is the last big bastion of opposition to the new leadership in Kiev since President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted at the weekend and provides a base for Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Its regional Parliament, meeting in another part of the building that was apparently still occupied by the gunmen, voted to stage a referendum on “sovereignty” for Crimea.
“I am appealing to the military leadership of the Russian Black Sea fleet,” said Oleksander Turchinov, Ukraine’s acting president, who warned Russia not to move personnel beyond areas permitted by treaty for those using its naval base.
Russia says it will defend the rights of its compatriots
“Any military movements, the more so if they are with weapons, beyond the boundaries of this territory will be seen by us as military aggression,” he said.
Russia has repeatedly declared it will defend the interests of its citizens in Ukraine, and on Wednesday announced war games near the border involving 150,000 troops on high alert.
Although Moscow says it will not intervene by force, its rhetoric since the removal of its ally Yanukovych has echoed the run-up to its invasion of Georgia in 2008, when it sent its troops to protect two self-declared independent regions and then recognised them as independent states. Ukraine’s leaders say they fear separatism in the Crimea.
In Washington, the White House warned Russia to avoid “provocative” acts. “We strongly support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. We expect other nations to do the same,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and urged Moscow to work with the US and its European allies to help stabilise Ukraine.
“We believe that everybody now needs to take a step back and avoid any kind of provocations,” Kerry said at a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s acting ambassador in Kiev for consultations. The face-off between Moscow and the West has revived memories of the Cold War. Ukraine has been in crisis since November, when Yanukovych abandoned a proposed trade pact with the EU and turned instead towards Russia. It escalated last week when scores of demonstrators were killed, many by police sharpshooters on rooftops, and Yanukovych was toppled.
The fresh turmoil in Crimea sent the Ukrainian hryvnia tumbling to a new record low of 11 to the dollar on the Reuters dealing platform. Ukraine’s new central bank governor has abandoned a policy of propping up the currency which was rapidly draining its foreign reserves.
Yanukovych’s overthrow will cost Kiev a $15 billion Russian bailout offered as a prize by Moscow for spurning the EU trade pact. Ukraine urgently needs other sources of funding to stave off bankruptcy. The International Monetary Fund is sending a team to Kiev in the coming days.