Europe's peace at risk: World leaders say Russian invasion of Ukraine could spiral into 'biggest international crisis since Cold War'
World leaders said yesterday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatened to spiral into the biggest international crisis since the end of the Cold War.
On a dramatic day of escalation in what the US called an ‘incredible act of aggression’ by Moscow, there were warnings that the standoff threatens peace in Europe.
And today leaders of Europe and the U.S. called on Russia to act with 'self-restraint' and 'responsibility' and urged them to ease tensions in Crimea.
Ukraine’s acting prime minister, Arseniy Yatseniuk, said today his country would never give up Crimea.
Russian forces have taken control of the Black Sea peninsula, which is part of Ukraine, but Yatseniuk told reporters: 'No one will give up Crimea to anyone.'
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In other developments:
Britain pulled out of preparatory talks for a summit of the G8 group of leading countries due to take place in Russia in June, while the US suggested Moscow could be thrown out of the organisation altogether.
A pro-Russian soldier stands by a billboard with a map of Crimea and bearing the words 'Autonomous Republic of Crimea' in the port of Kerch, Ukraine
Military personnel, believed to be Russian servicemen, walk outside the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in the village of Perevalnoye outside Simferopol today
Russia claims its troops have not 'deployed abroad'
EUROPE, CANADA AND U.S. URGE RUSSIA TO BACK DOWN
'We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission, join together today to condemn the Russian Federation's clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, in contravention of Russia's obligations under the UN Charter and its 1997 basing agreement with Ukraine.
'We call on Russia to address any ongoing security or human rights concerns that it has with Ukraine through direct negotiations, and/or via international observation or mediation under the auspices of the UN or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. We stand ready to assist with these efforts.
'We also call on all parties concerned to behave with the greatest extent of self-restraint and responsibility, and to decrease the tensions.
'We note that Russia's actions in Ukraine also contravene the principles and values on which the G-7 and the G-8 operate. As such, we have decided for the time being to suspend our participation in activities associated with the preparation of the scheduled G-8 Summit in Sochi in June, until the environment comes back where the G8 is able to have meaningful discussion.
'We are united in supporting Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its right to choose its own future. We commit ourselves to support Ukraine in its efforts to restore unity, stability and political and economic health to the country.
'To that end, we will support Ukraine's work with the International Monetary Fund to negotiate a new program and to implement needed reforms. IMF support will be critical in unlocking additional assistance from the World Bank, other international financial institutions, the EU, and bilateral sources.'
A soldier without identifying insignia mans a machine gun outside the Crimean parliament building
A Ukrainian army tank withdraws from standing just inside the gate at the Crimean base
Armed men in military uniform walk outside the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in the village of Perevalnoye, outside Simferopol, where a tense stand-off took place.
US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Putin of seeking to drag international relations back to the ‘19th century’, adding: ‘It is really a stunning, wilful choice by President Putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine.’
Last night, Nato said Russia’s military action against Ukraine was ‘a breach of international law’. ‘We call on Russia to de-escalate tensions,’ it said.
‘Nato allies will continue to support Ukrainian sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.’ Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia was ‘threatening peace and security in Europe’.
The crisis has been triggered by Russian forces effectively seizing control of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was a part of Russia until the 1950s.
While the EU and NATO stepped up verbal pressure on Moscow, a German spokesman said Merkel believed it was not too late to resolve the Ukrainian crisis by political means despite differences of opinion between Putin and the West.
The German leader, who speaks fluent Russian, has had several long telephone calls with the German-speaking Putin since the crisis erupted with mass protests in Kiev.
He added that Ukraine's Prime Minister had assured her that he would respect the rights of the Russian-speaking majority in Crimea
An Orthodox priest stands next to an armed man blocking access to a Ukrainian border guards base.
Moscow is refusing to recognise the government which took power in Kiev last month after overthrowing the pro-Russian President, Viktor Yanukovych.
This weekend, the Russian parliament authorised Putin to deploy troops in Ukraine to protect the lives of Russian citizens.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Russian troops that have streamed into Ukraine are protecting his country's citizens living there.
Lavrov said on Monday that it's necessary to use Russian troops in Ukraine 'until the normalisation of the political situation'.
He told an opening session Monday of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that Russia is committed to human rights and 'military interventions on the pretext of civilian population produce the opposite effect'.
Ukraine has accused Russia of a military invasion, and has called on Kremlin to withdraw its troops.
Speaking as Western nations began suspending preparations for the G8 summit in June, Mr Kerry said Moscow could be forced out of the group altogether.
LOOMING CRISIS SHAKES GLOBAL STOCK MARKET
Investor fears over Russia's military intervention in Ukraine caused a slump for global shares today, with the FTSE 100 Index more than 1 per cent lower.
Meanwhile Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 also saw 2 per cent wiped off their value in morning trading.
Asian markets took a hit overnight, with Japan's Nikkei dropping more than 1 per cent, and Wall Street is expected to reopen deeply in the red later.
Oil prices also jumped by more than one US dollar a barrel as Russia's military advance into Ukraine raised fears of economic sanctions against one of the world's major energy producers.
The risk averse stance of markets meant only five top flight stocks were in positive territory, with mining giant Rio Tinto among those lower after a fall of 86.5p to 3346p. The FTSE 100 Index was down 72.4 points at 6737.4.
In Russia, markets dropped by as much as 10 per cent and its currency fell to its lowest point ever against the dollar and the euro because of the crisis.
Oil giant BP, which holds a large stake in Russian oil company Rosneft, was down 6.1p to 498.25p.
‘You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext,’ he said.
‘He [Putin] is not going to have a Sochi G8, he may not even remain in the G8 if this continues. He may find himself with asset freezes on Russian business, American business may pull back, there may be a further tumble of the rouble.’
The US yesterday warned Putin of massive economic reprisals which could include blacklisting oligarchs who parade their wealth abroad but keep tight links to Putin at home.
A diplomatic source said: ‘Tycoons like Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov are more than football moguls – they are close to Putin. Whose side are they on here?’
British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned Russia today of 'consequences and costs'
but could not give any details of what that might mean in practice.
but could not give any details of what that might mean in practice.
'It is not an acceptable way to behave and there will be consequences and costs,' Hague said in Kiev, two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin got the green light to send Russian troops to Ukraine from parliament.
He had earlier said: ‘It is certainly the biggest crisis in Europe in the 21st Century and it will require all our diplomatic efforts, but also a great deal of strength in the western world in order to deal with this satisfactorily.’
He added that a resolution would also require Ukrainian leaders to ‘act in a way that unites their country’ including dealing with the ‘pervasive corruption’ that remains.
He confirmed that Russia now has ‘operational control’ of Crimea, and other G7 countries were still working on how to respond.
‘There are things that we can do about it and must do about it,’ Mr Hague said.
‘This clearly is a violation of the sovereignty and independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
‘If Russia continues on this course, we have to be clear: this is not an acceptable way to conduct international relations.
'And as President Obama and the Prime Minister have said, there will be significant costs to that. Now, that is something that Russia has to recognise.
‘The EU foreign ministers will be working on that further today and there will certainly be significant costs. So no, it would not be right to say there is nothing we could do about it.’
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today called on Russia to avoid actions that might worsen the situation in crisis-hit Ukraine.
'I urge the Russian Federation to refrain from any acts... that could further escalate the situation,' Ban said to the press ahead of a scheduled meeting with Lavrov.
Ukraine's acting President Oleksander Turchinov (right) meets with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in Kiev today
Hague with Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (left) who has said Ukraine will never give up Crimea
Ukraine's Acting President Oleksander Turchinov (L), Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk (R) and Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh. Kiev said Russia's behaviour today was a 'declaration of war'
Independence square in Kiev was full of protestors today, demonstrating against Russian action in Crimea
A man holds a sign depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin as World War II German dictator Adolf Hitler with text reading 'Putler you're finished' during a demonstration in Kiev.
Experts warned that an economic war between the EU, USA and Russia – with China likely to back the latter – would threaten globalisation itself.
US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a likely Republican presidential contender in 2016, declared Russia ‘an enemy of the United States’ and said that it would be ‘important to learn from the errors of the last few years’ in Mr Obama’s foreign policy.
Analysts agree that Putin saw Mr Obama’s failure to press ahead with military action against his ally, Syrian tyrant Bashar al Assad, despite declaring his use of chemical weapons a fundamental red line, as pivotal.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Russian action was 'a stunning, wilful choice by President Putin'
Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation in Ukraine. The US called movements today an 'incredible act of aggression'
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine had been ‘violated’ and called for Moscow to speak directly to the nation’s new leaders.
Speaking from RAF Northolt as he left for crisis talks in Kiev, he said: ‘We have to recognise the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine has been violated and this cannot be the way to conduct international affairs.
‘In addition to calling yesterday’s emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the United Kingdom will join other G8 countries this week in suspending our co-operation under the G8, which Russia chairs this year.’
Switzerland, which chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said on Monday it is trying to convene an international contact group on Ukraine and urged all players to help defuse the crisis.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine had been ¿violated¿. British ministers will boycott the Sochi Parlympic games, it was announced today.
Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, who holds the rotating presidency of Europe's main human rights and democracy watchdog, said that the OSCE contact group would support Ukraine during its period of transition and coordinate international aid.
Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva as the OSCE Council met in Vienna, he said: 'These talks also aim to discuss an observer mission with a particular focus on the rights of national minorities and human rights in Ukraine.'
Russia's military activities on Ukrainian soil are unacceptable but international diplomacy must prevail to solve the crisis, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said today.
'Crisis diplomacy is not a weakness but it will be more important than ever to not fall into the abyss of military escalation,' Steinmeier told reporters ahead of an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Russia's western partners on Monday to put aside geopolitical calculations and think about the Ukrainian people.
'We call for a responsible approach, to put aside geopolitical calculations, and above all to put the interests of the Ukrainian people first,' he said in Geneva on a live feed broadcast to Moscow.
Ukrainian navy chief Denis Berezovsky swears allegiance to the pro-Russian regional leaders of Crimea in Sevastopol today. He could now be prosecuted for treason
The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Yuriy Sergeyev, pictured, said his country was asking the West for help.
I SAW THIS COMING, SAYS SARAH PALIN
Former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is making hay over her prediction that Russia would seek to invade Ukraine.
The Republican, who was governor of Alaska at the time, was castigated by foreign policy experts when she made the comment in 2008.
On Friday, she wrote on her Facebook page: ‘Yes, I could see this one from Alaska. I’m usually not one to Told-Ya-So, but I did, despite my accurate prediction being derided as “an extremely far-fetched scenario” by the “high-brow” Foreign Policy magazine.’
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Mrs Palin said: ‘After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence; the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next.’
Last night Putin defended Russia’s action against ‘ultranationalist forces’ in Ukraine. Speaking on the phone with German chancellor Angela Merkel, he said the response by Russia so far was ‘wholly adequate’.
There was a glimmer of hope when Putin accepted a proposal by Mrs Merkel for a fact-finding mission and ‘contact group’ on Ukraine.
The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Yuriy Sergeyev, said his country was asking the West for help. ‘If aggravation is going in that way, when the Russian troops are enlarging their quantity with every coming hour, naturally we will ask for military support and other kind of support.’
Former Liberal Democrat leader and Special Forces veteran Lord Ashdown said: ‘We are one pace away from catastrophe at the moment – it would require one foolish act, a trigger-happy Russian soldier, a Ukrainian guard who acts aggressively at one of these institutions taken over by Russian supporters, a foolish act now could tip us over the edge.’
Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said the situation was ‘desperately serious’.
‘There is no doubt this is probably the most serious crisis since the end of the Cold War,’ he said.
‘Here we have in our own European backyard, military troops of Russia going across their international border into another country to try and interfere with its own internal affairs.
‘That is desperately serious, that has not happened for very many years, even at the height of the Bosnian conflict. This has to be a defining moment in the West’s relationship with Russia.
Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt raised eyebrows when he said yesterday that Russia's involvement in Crimea was 'somewhat understandable'.
Reinfeldt was talking to reporters on Sunday afternoon and was asked about the crisis.
A military personnel member, believed to be a Russian serviceman, stands guard on a military vehicle outside the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in the village of Perevalnoye outside Simferopol.
He said: 'It's somewhat understandable that Russia is acting on concerns about the Russian minority of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, but not in the way they're doing it.
'There are of course methods for talking to the Ukrainian government and calm down the situation in that way.'
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, was dismissive of the PM's statement that night.
'I don't think there has been that much concern among the Russian minority if I'm being honest,' he told SVT's Agenda programme.
China, which consistently says it opposes interference in other countries' internal affairs, is looking to 'maintain principles' on Ukraine, it said Monday after Russia insisted the two were in broad agreement.
Moscow has appeared keen to stress that it has a major international ally on its military intervention in Ukraine, and Beijing frequently backs its positions against Western powers on thorny issues, such as the protracted conflict in Syria.
But analysts say China is torn between wanting to support Russia and keeping to its longtime opposition to foreign intervention, especially given its own separatist issues in the far-western region of Xinjiang.
When asked about Ukraine at a regular press briefing on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang answered indirectly.
'China has always upheld the principles of diplomacy and the fundamental norms of international relations,' he said.
'At the same time we also take into consideration the history and the current complexities of the Ukrainian issue. It could be said that China's position is to both maintain principles while also seeking to be realistic.'
GAS PRICES COULD RISE: FEARS OVER RUSSIAN PIPELINE STRANGLEHOLD
The tensions in Ukraine could put Britain’s gas supply at risk.
Fears that the cost of energy could rise as a result of the crisis have heightened amid fears that Russia could again turn off the taps of the pipeline connecting Europe to its natural gas fields.
Europe imports around a third of its gas from Russia via a pipeline which passes through Ukraine.
Analysts warn that because Britain is now a net gas importer – last year for the first time we bought in more than we produced from the North Sea – we are vulnerable to rising world energy prices
Much of the UK’s supply comes either by pipeline from Norway or from Qatar, where it is loaded on tankers in liquefied form.
If Russian gas is taken out of the market, as it was in 2006 and 2009 when the country blocked exports via Ukraine, the knock-on effect for global prices could be to push up the cost of gas that Britain imports.
David Buik of stockbrokers Panmure Gordon said: ‘We have let Russia dominate the energy market with a vice-like control of gas pipes.
‘Vladimir Putin can turn the supply on or off as he sees fit.’
