Crimea Asks for Russian Help, US Warns Moscow
Local Editor
The newly-chosen prime minister of the Ukrainian southern region of Crimea on Saturday called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to help restore "peace and calm" to the Black Sea peninsula, amid a standoff with the new authorities in Kiev.
"Taking into account my responsibility for the life and security of citizens, I ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to help in ensuring peace and calm on the territory of Crimea," Sergiy Aksyonov said in an address quoted by local media and broadcast in full by Russian state television.
This comes as the Russian aircraft carrying nearly 2,000 troops have landed at a military air base near the regional capital of the restive Crimean peninsula, a top Ukrainian official said Friday, accusing Moscow of an "armed invasion."
"Thirteen Russian aircraft landed at the airport of Gvardeyskoye [near Simferopol] with 150 people in each one," Sergiy Kunitsyn, the Ukrainian president's special representative in Crimea, told the local ATR television channel, adding the air space had been closed.
In the wake of the development, Ukraine's new interim president Oleksandr Turchynov asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop what he called the "naked aggression" against his country and to withdraw from the flashpoint Crimea peninsula.
"I personally appeal to President Putin to immediately stop military provocation and to withdraw from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea... It's a naked aggression against Ukraine," he told reporters.
Earlier on Friday, Ukraine accused Russia of staging an "armed invasion" of Crimea and appealed to the West to guarantee its territorial integrity after pro-Kremlin gunmen seized control of the peninsula's main airport.
Ukraine's parliament immediately appealed to the US and Britain to uphold a 1994 pact with Russia that guaranteed the country's sovereignty in return for it giving up its Soviet nuclear arms.
Putin this week stoked concerns that Moscow might use its military might to sway the outcome of Ukraine's three-month standoff by ordering snap combat drills near its border involving 150,000 troops and nearly 900 tanks.
US Secretary of State John Kerry attempted to relieve diplomatic pressure in a crisis that has increasingly assumed Cold War overtones by announcing that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had assured him Moscow "will respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine".
Putin also appeared to take a more conciliatory approach Thursday by vowing to work on improving trade ties and promising to support international efforts to provide Kiev with funds that could keep it from declaring a debt default as early as next week.
But tensions were soaring by the hour in Russian-speaking Crimea -- a scenic Black Sea peninsula that has housed Kremlin navies for nearly 250 years and was handed to Ukraine as a symbolic gift by a Soviet leader in 1954.
Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov accused Russian armed forces of being directly involved in dawn raids on an airport in Crimea's main city of Simferopol as well as an airfield.
Dozens of men in battle fatigues and armed with Kalashnikovs encircled the Simferopol airport and were checking all incoming and outgoing traffic although flights continued on schedule.
Unconfirmed reports by Ukrainian media said armed men had also seized the Belbek military air base near the city of Sevastopol -- home to Russia's Black Sea fleet.
"I consider what is happening to be an armed invasion and an occupation," Avakov said in a statement on his Facebook account.
The peninsula of nearly two million people has been in crisis since dozens of pro-Kremlin gunmen seized Crimea's parliament and government buildings Thursday and raised the Russian flag.
Crimean lawmakers appointed Russian Unity party member Sergiy Aksyonov as regional premier in place of a Kiev ally in a vote held late Thursday under the watchful eye of the militiamen.
Aksyonov said Friday he still recognized Yanukovych as Ukraine's legitimate head of state.
The 63-year-old announced from an undisclosed location on Thursday that he was "compelled to ask the Russian Federation to ensure (his) personal security."
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama warned Russia that "there will be costs" for any military maneuvers it launches in Ukraine, a move US and Ukrainian officials say they believe is already underway.
Officials say Obama may retaliate by canceling a trip to Russia this year for an international summit and could cut off trade discussions with Moscow. But it's unclear whether those moves will have any impact on Russia's strategy on Ukraine, which is at the center of what many see as tensions between East and West.
"Any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing," Obama declared Friday. Such action by Russia would represent a "profound interference" in matters that must be decided by the Ukrainian people, he said.
US War Secretary Chuck Hagel said that while he would not address specific US options, "this could be a very dangerous situation if this continues in a provocative way." Asked about options in a CBS News interview, he said that "we're trying to deal with a diplomatic focus, that's the appropriate, responsible approach."
A spokesman for the Ukrainian border service said Friday that eight Russian transport planes had landed with unknown cargo in Ukraine's Crimea region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to host the Group of Eight economic summit in June in Sochi, the site of the recently completed Winter Olympics. The US is in discussions about the summit with European partners, and it is difficult to see how some of those leaders would attend the summit if Russia has forces in Crimea, according to the administration officials. They were not authorized to discuss the situation by name and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Obama canceled a bilateral meeting with Putin last year after Russia granted asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, though Obama still attended a separate international meeting in Russia.
For the US, levying punishments on Russia is complicated by the various issues on which the White House needs Moscow's help. Among them: ending the bloodshed in Syria, negotiating a nuclear agreement with Iran and transporting US military troops and equipment out of Afghanistan through Russian supply routes.
"The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine," Obama said.
Political turmoil in Ukraine has pushed President Viktor Yanukovych from office. Yanukovych held a news conference in Russia on Friday in which he said he was not asking Moscow for military assistance.
Yanukovych, who still regards himself the president, also vowed to "keep fighting for the future of Ukraine" and blamed the US and the West for encouraging the rebellion that forced him to flee last weekend.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
