Russian forces continued to flood into Ukraine’s
Crimean peninsula, ignoring Western calls to halt a military takeover before
the region’s separatist referendum on March 16th.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk plans to travel
to Washington this week as Russian
President Vladimir Putin defended
Crimea’s local government, which may use the March 16 vote to leave Ukraine and
join the Russian Federation.
The U.S. estimates there are 20,000 Russian troops
confronting a smaller Ukrainian contingent in Crimea. Russia is concerned about
the Crimean peninusla because of it is home to its Black Sea Fleet, a strategic
warm water port for Russia.
Putin spoke to German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and British Prime Minister David
Cameron by phone yesterday. He said Russia wanted a
diplomatic solution and he’d discuss a proposal today with his foreign
minister, Sergei Lavrov, to
establish a contact group with European Union leaders and the U.S. to resolve
the situation, a spokesman from Cameron’s office said yesterday.
Lawmakers in Moscow have pledged to accept the results of
Crimea’s referendum. Putin says he’s defending Ukraine’s ethnic Russians, who
make up 59 percent of Crimea’s population. Ukraine’s government says they
aren’t under threat.
U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry “made clear that continued military escalation and
provocation in Crimea or elsewhere in Ukraine, along with steps to annex Crimea
to Russia would close any available space for diplomacy,” the U.S. State
Department said in a statement.
The peninsula, where Russian speakers comprise a
majority, will join Russia once parliament in Moscow passes the necessary
legislation and there’s nothing the West can do, according to Sergei Tsekov,
the deputy speaker of Crimea’s parliament.
“There’s no comeback, and the U.S. or Europe can’t impede
us,” Tsekov said March 7 by phone from Moscow, where he met Russian officials
to discuss the region’s future. “Crimea won’t be part of Ukraine anymore. There
are no more options.”
Former Defense Secretary Robert
Gates, who served under Obama and Republican President George
W. Bush, said the U.S. has few means to pressure
Putin on Ukraine.
“There really aren’t any direct military options that we
have,” Gates said yesterday on “Fox News Sunday.” The economic sanctions being
discussed will not be “any deterrent for Putin,” he said, adding that Crimea
will probably stay under Russian control.
Russia also turned up the economic pressure on the Kiev
government by signaling that natural gas supplies may be cut because Ukraine’s
unpaid gas bills have reached $1.9 billion. OAO Gazprom halted
supplies to Ukraine five years ago amid a pricing and debt dispute, curbing
flows to Europe. Ukraine faces a 37 percent increase in the price it pays for
the fuel, Energy Minister Yuri Prodan told reporters yesterday.
To steady Ukraine’s finances, the EU plans to provide an
11 billion-euro ($15.3 billion) aid package and is prepared to drop tariffs on
about 85 percent of the bloc’s imports of Ukrainian goods, according to EU
Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. Ukraine wants as much as $15 billion from
the International Monetary Fund.
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