US UN Ambassador: Russian Intervention 'Act of Aggression'
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has strongly condemned Russia, saying there is nothing to justify its military presence in neighboring Ukraine.
At an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council Monday, Ambassador Samantha Power called Russia's intervention an "act of aggression," and not the humanitarian mission that Moscow is seeking to portray.
Power told the Council that Russia has every right to wish events had turned out differently. But she said it does not have the right to express that using military force.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin used the heated Council session to read a statement from Ukraine's ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled Kyiv for Russia last week after weeks of anti-government protests.
Churkin said Yanukovych has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene militarily in Ukraine to establish "peace" and "stability" in his homeland. For his part, Putin insists Moscow has the right to intervene in Ukraine to protect Russian citizens.
“The country has plunged into chaos and anarchy,” Churkin read from an unofficial translation of the letter while speaking to reporters after an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. “The country is in the grip of outright terror and violence driven by the West.”
“People are persecuted on political and language grounds,” he read. “In this context, I appeal to the President of Russia Vladimir V. Putin to use the armed forces of the Russian Federation to re-establish the rule of law, peace, order, stability and to protect the people of Ukraine.”
Churkin held up a copy of the letter for council members to see during the council session in which Western envoys and the Russian ambassador hurled allegations at each other for two-and-a-half hours. He said the letter was dated March 1.
After the Russian ambassador spoke, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power dismissed Russian claims that Russian-speaking Ukrainians were under threat in the eastern regions of the former Soviet republic.
“There is no evidence that ethnic Russians are in danger,” she told the 15-nation council, which is holding its third emergency session on Ukraine in four days, this time at the request of Russia.
Power said there was “no legal basis” for Russia to justify its military deployments in Ukraine through an invitation from the regional prime minister of the Crimea, adding only Ukraine's parliament could do that.
“Russia has every right to wish that events in Ukraine had turned out differently,” she said. “But it does not have the right to express that unhappiness by using military force or by trying to convince the world community that up is down and black is white.”
Churkin rejected Power's denials and said she appeared to have gotten all her information about Ukraine “from U.S. TV”. He repeated Moscow's view that Yanukovich is Ukraine's legitimate leader, not interim President Oleksandr Turchynov.
Obama: US Examining Steps to 'Isolate Russia'
Earlier, President Obama condemned Russia saying it is on "the wrong side of history" for mobilizing forces around Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. His comments came as Russia moved troops into Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula by ferry.
Obama told reporters Monday that the United States is considering a series of economic and diplomatic steps "that will isolate Russia."
"I think the world is largely united in recognizing that the steps Russia has taken are a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty, Ukraine's territorial integrity, that there a violation of international law," he said. "There's a violation of previous agreements that Russia has made with respect to how it treats and respects its neighbors, and as a consequence we got strong statements from NATO, from the G7, condemning the actions that Russia has taken."
Obama called on the U.S. Congress to work on an aid package to assist Ukraine.
The U.S. State Department said Washington is preparing to impose sanctions on Moscow, but spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not elaborate.
Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to arrive in the Ukrainian capital Tuesday to demonstrate what U.S. officials say is a show of support for Ukrainian democracy.
During a joint press conference Monday in Washington with visiting Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca, Kerry said Russia has used its influence to apply pressure on Ukraine similar to tactics used in Moldova.
"Russia, in some of the challenges we are seeing right now in Ukraine, has put pressure on Moldova," he said. "There are challenges with respect to their energy sources and also their ability to trade."
In tandem with the U.S. diplomatic push, the Pentagon said Monday it is suspending military-to-military contacts with Russia. Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said the move is aimed at prodding Moscow to deescalate the Ukraine crisis, and said the suspension covers maneuvers, bilateral meetings, port visits and planning conferences.
Russian markets plunge
Russia paid a heavy financial price on Monday for its military intervention in neighboring Ukraine, with stocks, bonds and the ruble plunging as President Putin's forces tightened their grip on the predominantly Russian-speaking Crimea region.
Stock markets plunged around the world Monday as investors reacted to the Russian military takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
The fallout reached seismic proportions in Moscow, where the stock market fell more than 11 percent, erasing nearly $60 billion off the value of Russian companies.
The value of the Russian currency, the ruble, dropped to an all-time low against the U.S. dollar, prompting the Russian central bank to boost its key lending rate 1.5 percent.
The selloff started in Asia and quickly spread through European and U.S. exchanges. The U.S. Dow Jones average closed down one percent, while London's FTSE 100 index fell 1.5 percent.
World political turmoil frequently sends stock markets into a plunge. It is not clear how long global markets will react to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troop deployment in Crimea.
Russian Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach called the plunging stocks a market “hysteria” and predicted it would subside.
The chief executive of a British investment brokerage, Nigel Green of deVere Group, said he also thinks the stock sell-off will prove to be short-lived.
Both the United States and its European allies have threatened to impose visa bans and trade restrictions and to impose asset bans that could further roil international markets in the coming days.
Ukraine is in severe economic straits, and Kyiv is seeking new funding from the International Monetary Fund, the United States and the European Union . Ukraine says it needs $35 billion in new funding during the next two years.
In his first public appearance for nearly a week, Putin flew to watch military maneuvers in western Russia in what appeared designed as a show of strength.
Russia's Black Sea fleet denied reports that it had given Ukrainian forces in Crimea an ultimatum to surrender by early on Tuesday or face a military assault, Interfax news agency said after earlier reporting such a threat.
UN, EU call for restraint
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged Russian and Ukrainian authorities to de-escalate tensions and engage constructively in finding a resolution to the crisis in Ukraine. The secretary-general and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were due to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which opened in Geneva on Monday.
Ban told journalists in Geneva he was working on different fronts to try to find a resolution to this crisis. He said he spoke with Russian President Putin, urging him to address the crisis by engaging in constructive talks directly with the Ukrainian authorities.
Ban said it was critical to ensure full respect for and the preservation of Ukraine’s independence, unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Separately, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called on Russia to withdraw its troops to their bases and hold consultations with Ukraine.
European Union Council President Herman Van Rompuy said EU leaders will hold an extraordinary meeting on the Ukraine crisis Thursday in Brussels.
McCain blasts Putin
Meanwhile, drawing parallels between the Middle East conflict and the latest tensions surrounding Ukraine, U.S. Senator John McCain took issue with Russia's actions in Crimea.
Speaking on Monday before the the American Israel Public Affairs Committee he said that "Crimea is a sovereign part of a sovereign nation of Ukraine." He emphasized that the people of Ukraine, by the hundreds of thousands, stood in a square in sub-freezing weather, saying that "they did not want to be part of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's Russia."
McCain said that the Russian leader was only waiting for the Olympics in Sochi to be over to proceed with the "occupation of Crimea."
"This is a blatant act on the part of Vladimir Putin and one that must be unacceptable to the world community. It cannot stand," he said. "And I have to be very honest with you – there is a not a military option that can be exercised now but the most powerful and biggest and strongest nation in the world should have plenty of [other] options."
Russia chides West, justifies incursion
Moscow on Monday sharply criticized Western members of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations for suspending preparations for a G8 summit scheduled to be held in the Russian city of Sochi in June over the crisis in Ukraine.
The decision to suspend preparatory work for the summit in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi “has no grounds” and “damages not only the countries of the Group of Eight but also the whole international community,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russia's foreign minister defended the increasing presence of his country's troops in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
Sergei Lavrov said Monday that the use of Russian troops in Crimea is necessary "until the normalization of the political situation" in Crimea. Speaking at the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council session in Geneva, he said his country's troops are protecting Russian nationals.
Growing troop presence
Russia moved troops into Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula by ferry, after Russian soldiers on Monday seized a border post on the Ukrainian side of a waterway separating the two countries.
Washington's United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power confirmed the troop movement Monday at the Security Council's emergency meeting.
Earlier Monday, Reuters news agency quoted Ukraine border guards as saying they had seen Russia assembling an armored column on its side of the Kerch Strait.
Ukraine's acting president said on Monday Russia's military presence was growing in the Crimea region and urged Moscow to halt what he called aggression and piracy.
Oleksandr Turchynov said the situation was “difficult” in some regions in the south and east of the country, where there are many Russian speakers, but that the Ukrainian authorities had matters there under control.
He also said Russia's Black Sea Fleet had trapped Ukrainian navy vessels in the bays of Sevastopol, the Crimean port where the Russian fleet has a base.
”The situation in Crimea remains tense and Russia's military presence is growing,” Turchynov told a news briefing. “I appeal to Russia's leadership - stop the provocative actions, aggression and piracy. This is a crime and you will answer for it.”
Source: Voice of America
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