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0:28 AM Russia seizes Crimea

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11212273 By David McHugh 7:10 AM Sunday Mar 2, 2014 President Barack Obama is calling on Russia to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine by pulling its forces back to bases in the country's Crimean peninsula and to refrain from any interference elsewhere in Ukraine. The White House says Obama delivered that message to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a 90-minute telephone call on Saturday afternoon. A statement from the White House says the U.S. condemns Russia's military reach into Ukrainian territory. Russia says Putin emphasized that real threats exist to the life and health of Russian citizens and that Russia has the right to protect its interests and the Russian-speaking people who live in that part of Ukraine. Russia's parliament on Saturday gave Putin the right to deploy the Russian military in Ukraine. Ukraine's acting president says he has ordered the country's armed forces on full readiness because of the threat of "potential aggression." Speaking live on Ukrainian TV, Oleksandr Turchynov said he had also ordered stepped up security at nuclear power plants, airports and other strategic infrastructure. His comments on Ukrainian TV came after Russia's parliament approved a military intervention in Ukraine and Russian troops and pro-Russian units took up positions across the strategic Crimea region. Meanwhile UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is "gravely concerned about the deterioration of the situation'' in Ukraine and plans to speak shortly with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A gunman stands guard and blocks the road toward the military airport at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea. Photo / AP / Darko Vojinovic A gunman stands guard and blocks the road toward the military airport at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea. Photo / AP / Darko Vojinovic A Ban spokesman delivered the statement as members of the Security Council met in an emergency closed-door session on the rapidly developing events in Ukraine's Crimea region. Ban's statement calls for "full respect for and preservation of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine'' and demands "immediate restoration of calm and direct dialogue between all concerned.'' Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters on his way into the meeting, "Busy weekend, isn't it?'' British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the meeting is to determine "what justification Russia claims to have'' for its de facto military takeover of the strategic Crimea region. Russia executed a de facto military takeover of a strategic region in Ukraine as the parliament in Moscow gave President Vladimir Putin a green light to proceed to protect Russian interests. The newly installed government in Kiev was powerless to react to the swift takeover of Crimea by Russian troops already in Ukraine and more flown in, aided by pro-Russian Ukrainian groups. Putin's move follows President Barack Obama's warning "there will be costs" if Russia intervenes militarily, sharply raising the stakes in the conflict over Ukraine's future and evoking memories of Cold War brinkmanship. The explicit reference to the use of troops escalated days of conflict between the two countries, which started when Ukraine's pro-Russian president was pushed out by a protest movement of people who wanted closer ties to the European Union. "I'm submitting a request for using the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country," Putin said in his request sent to parliament. Putin's call came as pro-Russian demonstrations broke out in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east, where protesters raised Russian flags and clashed with supporters of the new Ukrainian government. Russia's upper house also recommended that Moscow recall its ambassador from Washington over Obama's comments. Video Ukraine had already accused Russia of a "military invasion and occupation" of the Crimea peninsula, where Russia's Black Sea fleet is based. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk called on Moscow "to recall their forces, and to return them to their stations," according to the Interfax news agency. "Russian partners, stop provoking civil and military resistance in Ukraine." The crisis was sparked when Ukraine's deposed president, Victor Yanukovych, ditched a deal for closer ties to the EU and instead turned toward Moscow. Months of protests followed, culminating in security forces killing dozens of protesters and Yanukovych fleeing to Russia. Ignoring Obama's warning, Putin said the "extraordinary situation in Ukraine" was putting at risk the lives of Russian citizens and military personnel stationed at a naval base that Moscow has maintained in the Black Sea peninsula since the Soviet collapse. Reflecting a degree of caution, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, who presented Putin's request to the upper house, told reporters that the motion doesn't mean that the president would immediately send additional troops to Ukraine. "There is no talk about it yet," he said. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in remarks on Rossiya 24 television that while the president "got the entire arsenal of means necessary for settling this situation," he hadn't yet decided whether to use the Russian military in Ukraine or recall the ambassador from Washington. "He will make these decisions depending on how the situation will develop," Peskov said. "We would like to hope that the situation will not develop along the scenario it's developing now that is inciting tensions and making a threat for the Russians on the Crimean Peninsula." The U.N. Security Council called an urgent meeting on Ukraine on Saturday, and the European Union foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the crisis. Putin's motion loosely refers to the "territory of Ukraine" rather than specifically to Crimea, raising the possibility that Moscow could use military force in other Russian-speaking areas in eastern and southern Ukraine, where many oppose the new authorities in Kiev. Pro-Russian protests were reported in the eastern cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern port of Odessa. In Kharkiv, 97 people were injured in clashes between pro-Russia demonstrators and supporters of the new Ukrainian government, according to the Interfax news agency. Ukraine's population is divided in loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the European Union while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support. Crimea, a semi-autonomous region of Ukraine, is mainly Russian-speaking. In Saturday's parliamentary session in Moscow, a deputy house speaker said Obama had insulted Russia and crossed a "red line," and the upper house recommended the Russian ambassador in Washington be recalled. It will be up to Putin to decide whether that happens. In Crimea, the pro-Russian prime minister who took office after gunmen seized the regional Parliament claimed control of the military and police there and asked Putin for help in keeping peace, sharpening the discord between the two neighboring Slavic countries. Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said the election of Sergei Aksyonov as prime minister of Crimea was invalid. Ukrainian officials and some Western diplomats said that a Russian military intervention is already well underway after heavily armed gunmen in unmarked military uniforms seized control of local government buildings, airports and other strategic facilities in Crimea in recent days. Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred jurisdiction from Russia, a move that was a mere formality when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the Soviet Union. The Soviet breakup in 1991 meant Crimea landed in an independent Ukraine. Russia put pressure on Ukraine from another direction when a spokesman for state gas company Gazprom said that Ukraine owed $1.59 billion in overdue bills for imported gas. Sergei Kuprianov was quoted by the RIA-Novosti agency as saying the gas arrears would endanger a recent discount granted by Russia. The discount lowered the price to $268.50 per thousand from other $400. The Russian payment demand and loss of the discount would accelerate Ukraine's financial crisis. The country is almost broke and seeking emergency credit from the International Monetary Fund. Russia has taken a confrontational stance toward its southern neighbor after Yanukovych fled the country. Yanukovych was voted out of office by parliament after weeks of protests ended in violence that left more than 80 people dead. Aksyonov, the Crimea leader, appealed to Putin "for assistance in guaranteeing peace and calmness on the territory of the autonomous republic of Crimea." Aksyonov was voted in by the Crimean parliament on Thursday after pro-Russia gunmen seized the building and as tensions soared over Crimea's resistance to the new authorities in Kiev, who took office this week. Obama called on Russia to respect the independence and territory of Ukraine and not try to take advantage of its neighbor, which is undergoing political upheaval. He said such action by Russia would represent a "profound interference" in matters he said must be decided by the Ukrainian people. "The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine," he said. Obama did not say what those costs might be. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter that it was "obvious that there is Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Likely immediate aim is to set up puppet pro-Russian semi-state in Crimea." At the United Nations, the Ukrainian ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, said Friday that Russian transport aircraft and 11 attack helicopters had arrived in Crimea illegally, and that Russian troops had taken control of two airports in Crimea. He described the gunmen posted outside the two airports as Russian armed forces as well as "unspecified" units. Russia has kept silent on claims of military intervention and has said any troop movements are within agreed rules, even as it maintained its hard-line stance on protecting ethnic Russians in Crimea. Meanwhile, flights remained halted from Simferopol's airport. Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings patrolled the area. They didn't stop or search people leaving or entering the airport, and refused to talk to journalists. Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing across the border into Russia as pro-Russian forces defy the new interim government and the conflict threatens to escalate, Russian officials say. "According to the border services, since the beginning of the events in Ukraine, 143,000 people have already left Ukraine for Russia,'' the Senate's deputy speaker Yevgeny Bushmin said in a televised speech on Saturday as the upper house voted to approve military intervention. The head of the citizenship department of the Federal Migration Service, Valentina Kazakova, confirmed the number to journalists. "The tragic events in Ukraine have sharply increased the number of applications to regional migration authorities,'' she said, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency. "In the last two weeks of February around 143,000 people have applied. That puts great pressure on the regions bordering Ukraine. People are bewildered, frightened and despondent,'' she said. She said that Ukrainians who already live in Russia were also applying for citizenship in greater numbers than usual. The governors of three of the five Russian regions bordering Ukraine told ITAR-TASS news agency that thousands were arriving across the frontier. The governor of Bryansk region, Nikolai Denin, told ITAR-TASS he observed "an influx of Ukrainian citizens who want to stay in Russia until the situation normalises in their country.'' The governor of the Rostov region Vasily Golubev said he also saw a "significant inflow of Ukrainian citizens.'' The governor of the Belgorod region, Yevgeny Savchenko, said that "thousands of good people are coming to the Belgorod region, not only from southeastern Ukraine but also from its central region, escaping from the lawlessness of rebels who seized power in Kiev.'' Ukraine has a population of around 46 million, while Crimea, where pro-Kremlin militia have taken control, has around two million residents. -AP with additional reporting by AFP

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