Russia blasted for military buildup in Ukraine's Crimea
March 3, 2014 -- Updated 1232 GMT (2032 HKT)
Standoff at Ukraine base in Crimea
Moscow's G8 partners have
condemned its military buildup in the country, demanding that it
withdraw. Ukraine's new leaders accused Moscow of declaring war, and
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that blood could be
spilled amid growing instability in the neighboring nation.
Ukraine's shaky new
government has mobilized troops and called up military reservists as
officials say signs of Russian military intervention in Ukraine's
Crimean Peninsula -- an autonomous region of eastern Ukraine with strong
loyalty to Russia -- are clear.
Speaking at a visit to
Switzerland on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who spoke
with his Chinese counterpart Monday about the crisis, accused Ukraine's
new authorities -- in place since President Viktor Yanukovych was
ousted last week -- of attacking minorities and violating human rights.
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"The opposition ... has
fulfilled nothing," Russian state news agency ITAR Tass quoted Lavrov as
saying. "Illegal weapons have not been handed in, administrative
buildings and streets in Kiev have not been fully freed, and radicals
continue to control the capital."
A senior U.S.
administration official told CNN on Sunday 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.
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 port city of Sevastopol, where
the Russian Black Sea Fleet has a base, and that 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.
In a statement on its
website, it said men, wearing unidentified camouflage uniforms, were
carrying out the attacks, such as one on the Kerch border post, where
doors and windows were broken and phone lines were destroyed late
Sunday.
Also on Sunday night,
armed men in unidentified camouflage uniforms tried to enter the arms
depot in Ukraine's Belbek military base near Sevastopol, a Defense
Ministry spokesman said.
Ukrainian forces at the
base shot into the air to warn them off, but the unidentified men used
sound grenades, and one of the Ukrainian commanders was wounded as a
result, Vladislav Seleznev, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman in
Crimea, told CNN.
The attackers gained
access to the base, but Ukrainian troops retain control of the weapons
depot and administration building. Seleznev added there have been
negotiations.
Men dressed in both
civilian and camouflage gear and wearing red armbands have been seen on
the streets of the regional capital, Simferopol.
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Ten Ukrainian military
and naval bases in Crimea are currently blocked by armed men, the newly
appointed naval commander of Ukraine, Rear Admiral Serhei Gayduk, told a
Ukrainian TV station by phone.
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 on Monday 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
Russian President Vladimir 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.
In a post on his official Facebook page Monday, Medvedev called Yanukovych's ouster a "seizure of power."
"Such a state of order will be extremely unstable," he said. "It will end with the new revolution. With new blood."
Worried West
The tensions have worried the West, and on Sunday, Russia's G8 partners 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, in a boost
for the country's West-leaning new government.
"We are also committed
to mobilize rapid technical assistance to support Ukraine in addressing
its macroeconomic, regulatory, and anti-corruption challenges," G7
finance ministers said in a prepared statement, adding that an
International Monetary Fund team was due to travel to Kiev this week.
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry is also scheduled to travel to Kiev. He has condemned what he
called Russia's "incredible act of aggression" and said several foreign
powers are looking at economic consequences if Russia does not withdraw
its forces.
British Foreign
Secretary William Hague is currently in Kiev, where he visited the
central Independence Square, cradle of the three-month protests that
ousted Yanukovych, and lay flowers for those who died in clashes between
demonstrators and riot police.
U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon has also dispatched an envoy. "It is now of the utmost
importance to install calm and de-escalate tensions immediately through
dialogue," he said at a news conference, adding that he would 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.
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.
The crisis has hit
Russian stock markets, with Moscow's main MICEX index opening about 8%
lower Monday. The central bank hiked interest rates to 7% from 5.5%.
CNN's Alla Eshchenko in Moscow, Rob North in
London, Neda Farshbaf in Atlanta, Dominique Van Heerden and journalist
Azad Safarov in Kiev contributed to this report.
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