Ukraine Turmoil : News, Commentary and Analysis
Ukraine’s foreign ministry termed the move a “military invasion” and called on Russia to withdraw its forces.
Also Saturday, Russia wielded it’s veto power as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council against a U.S. draft resolution that declared Sunday’s Crimea referendum invalid.
Thirteen of the 15 Security Council members backed the resolution, while China abstained.
“The reason only one country voted ‘no’ today is that the world believes that international borders are more than mere suggestions,” said U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power after the vote.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin argued that Crimean citizens had a right to self-determination.
What happens next in Crimea?
Blue, white and red Russian flags dominate the streets of the coastal Crimean town of Sevastopol, where concerts on the main square have been celebrating the return to the “motherland” this past week.
“Everybody believes the results are already rigged,” said CNN iReporter Maia Mikhaluk from Kyiv.
“People are concerned what is going to happen after the referendum,” she said. “People are concerned that the Russian army will use force, guns to push (the) Ukrainian army from Crimea.”
The referendum will present Crimean residents with the choice of whether to secede from Ukraine and join Russia or effectively become independent.
Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsia, repeated Saturday the interim government’s position that the referendum is illegitimate and will not be recognized by Kyiv or the international community.
Ukraine is engaged in a “diplomatic war” with Russia, he said, but is looking for a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Crimea. It will not respond to Russian “provocations,” he said.
Russia — which the West and Ukraine insist has the majority ethnic Russian Crimean peninsula under its effective military control — has come under concerted international pressure to halt its activities there and talk to the interim government in Kyiv.
But, so far, it has refused to budge. Talks between U.S. Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ended in disagreement.
European nations and the United States have announced some targeted punishments against Russia and have threatened that they could get worse, if Crimea’s defacto annex goes through.
In addition, the West is shoring up Ukraine with offers of billions in aid to its fledgling government.
Investors would also seem to be punishing Russia, which has seen steep declines in its stock market and the value of the ruble in recent days.
Moscow has repeatedly denied direct involvement in Crimea, saying that the well-armed men in uniforms without identifying insignia are not Russian troops.
Already,eight Ukrainian military units in Crimea have been taken over, 22 others are blocked, and 49 of 56 border patrol stations are in similar straits, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.
Kyiv’s new Western-leaning government, which came to power following the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, has insisted that Ukraine’s territorial integrity, including Crimea, must be respected.
Moscow has insisted it has the right to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine, who it claims are threatened by radical nationalists and “fascists.”