 "Ukraine crisis: Putin reserves right to use force")
Russian President Vladimir V Putin, in his first comments since the crisis in Ukraine boiled over, said on Tuesday that he saw no reason for Russia's army to intervene in eastern Ukraine at the moment, but left open the possibility of military action, saying that Russia "reserves the right to use all means at our disposal to protect" Russian speakers in the country's south and east if they are in danger.
"We are not going to fight with the Ukrainian people," he said. "I want you to understand me clearly. If we make such a decision, it will only be for the protection of Ukrainian citizens. And God forbid if any of the servicemen tries to shoot their own people, we will be standing behind them - not in front, but behind. Let them try to shoot women and children!"
Speaking defiantly at an hourlong, unscripted news conference in Moscow at which he described events in Ukraine as an "unconstitutional coup," Putin denied that Russian troops had occupied Crimea and laid blame for the crisis on the United States, which he said had interfered in Ukraine "from across the pond in America as if they were sitting in a laboratory and running experiments on rats, without any understanding of the consequences."
Clearly furious, Putin delivered a version of the crisis almost entirely at odds with the view held by most officials in Europe and the United States, as well as by many Ukrainians. He described anti-government protests in Kiev as an "orgy" of radicals and nationalists, noting a swastika armband that he had glimpsed in images of the crowd. He also insisted that ousted President Viktor F Yanukovich had never ordered security forces to shoot protesters, suggesting that snipers stationed on rooftops "may have been provocateurs from opposition parties."
Putin said Yanukovych's fatal mistake had been to order security forces to withdraw from the site of the protests after days of bloodshed, while the sides were engaged in negotiations, and that he had personally warned him not to do so. He said Russia had then stepped in to assist Yanukovych, but did so for humanitarian reasons, ""because death is the simplest way to get rid of the legitimate president, and it would have happened. I think he would have been probably killed."
And he expressed confidence that the crisis would not boil over into war, because, as he put it, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are "brothers in arms."
"I am convinced that Ukrainian personnel and Russian personnel will not be on different sides of the barricades, they will be on the same side of the barricades," he said. "There has not been a shot fired in Crimea. The tense situation in Crimea, related to the possibility of the use of force, has been exhausted. There was no necessity of that."
The Kremlin leader took issue with Western threats of reprisals, including sanctions and a boycott of the meeting of the Group of 8 industrial nations that is scheduled to be held in Russia. "All threats against Russia are counterproductive and harmful," he said, according to Reuters, adding that Russia was ready to host the G-8 but Western leaders who did not want to attend "don't need to."
Putin acknowledged that had met two days ago with Yanukovych, saying he was "safe and sound" and dismissing rumours that the ousted Ukrainian president had died of a heart attack.
Putin's remarks came after declared the scheduled end of a military exercise he ordered in western Russia near Ukraine's border last week, telling military units that participated to return to their permanent garrisons.
There was no indication that Putin's move presaged any easing of a crisis that has raised Western fears that the region may be spinning toward a broader conflict. Tension remained high in Crimea, where Russian troops are blockading Ukrainian military facilities in what the authorities in Kiev have called a declaration of war.
He denied that military personnel in unmarked uniforms who now control much of Crimea are Russian forces, describing them instead as "local defence forces."
"Look at the people who were operating in Kiev - they were very well trained at special camps in Poland and Lithuania, they were trained by special structures," he said. "Why do you think that the self-defence forces in Crimea should be any less professional."
He said Russia is not considering annexing Crimea, but said Crimean citizens should be allowed to determine their own future, presumably as part of Russia or Ukraine
"We are not considering this possibility," he said. "It's up to people living in a certain territory, if they can exercise their free will, and determine their future. For example, if Kosovo's Albanians were allowed to do that, self-determination, which according to U.N. documents is a right, but we will never instigate it, never support such trends."
"Only the people who live in a certain territory have the right to decide their own future," he said.
But in a graphic illustration of the standoff and its potential hazards, Russian troops on Tuesday fired warning shots in the air as approximately 200 unarmed Ukrainian soldiers approached Russian positions on the perimeter of the contested Belbek airfield in Crimea to press demands to return to their positions there and conduct joint patrols.
In Moscow, the Kremlin responded to American warnings of economic punishment and isolation for its actions in Crimea with a counterthreat that Moscow might abandon the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to repay loans to American banks, Reuters reported. The warning came from Sergei Glazyev, a Kremlin aide with limited influence over the formulation of a policy but boasting a reputation for staking out hard-line positions, the news agency said.
Secretary of State John. Kerry was expected to meet with the fledgling Ukrainian leadership that forced President Yanukovych to flee to Russia last month as the crisis deepened. He will be the highest-ranking Western official to meet the administration, signaling the Obama administration's support for a government that the Kremlin does not recognise.
The Russian military exercise coincided with the deployment of Russian special forces troops to Crimea beginning last Friday, though officials maintained it was not directly related to the conflict in Ukraine. Nothing the Kremlin reported on Tuesday suggested that the Russian operations in Crimea would end.
The military exercise involved the mobilization of the entire Western Military District, which stretches from the border of Ukraine to the Arctic, as well as units from the Central Military District, the Baltic Fleet and air defence commands. The troops dispatched to Ukraine are reported to have deployed from ports and airfields in the Southern Military District.
Mr. Putin ordered the mobilization only days before Russian forces began spreading through Crimea, and despite officials' reassurances to the contrary, the timing and scale of the operations had a palpable message. Mr. Putin attended the culmination of the exercises near St. Petersburg on Monday, appearing in state television reports observing live-fire training involving tanks and helicopters.
The Kremlin announced the end of the maneuvers - which involved 150,000 troops, as well as air and naval forces and live-fire demonstrations in several Russian bases - and reported that they had been "successfully carried out."
At the United Nations, where the Security Council met on Monday for the third time in an emergency session since Friday, the Ukrainian ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, distributed a three-page letter asserting that the Russians had sent 16,000 troops into the Crimean Peninsula since Feb. 24.
The troops, Mr. Sergeyev wrote, had moved to "seize, block and control crucial governmental and military objects of Ukraine in Crimea."
Russia has denied Western accusations that it flouted international law in asserting military control in Crimea, a historically Russian region that is home to its Black Sea naval base. The Russians have asserted that they moved to protect their legitimate interests there after President Yanukovych fled more than a week ago after protests in Kiev against his shift toward closer relations with Russia.
The Kremlin still regards him as Ukraine's legitimate president.
The Security Council meeting in New York was requested by Russia's ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, who told fellow members that Russia had acted to thwart what he called threats by ultranationalists, including anti-Semites, against Russians and Russian speakers inside Ukraine. Mr. Churkin also held up a copy of a letter from Mr. Yanukovych to Russia asking for military help.
Yet the Security Council meeting quickly became a venue for East-West diplomatic gibes and rejoinders. The British ambassador, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, called Russia's justification bogus, while the envoy from Lithuania, Raimonda Murmokaite, told the Council it "resurrects the memory of darkest pages of the 20th century."
After Mr. Churkin had spoken, Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said, "Listening to the representative of Russia, one might think that Moscow had just become the rapid response arm of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights."
The Council took no action, and it remained unclear what - if anything - it might agree to do, since Russia, a permanent member, has veto power.
"We are not going to fight with the Ukrainian people," he said. "I want you to understand me clearly. If we make such a decision, it will only be for the protection of Ukrainian citizens. And God forbid if any of the servicemen tries to shoot their own people, we will be standing behind them - not in front, but behind. Let them try to shoot women and children!"
Speaking defiantly at an hourlong, unscripted news conference in Moscow at which he described events in Ukraine as an "unconstitutional coup," Putin denied that Russian troops had occupied Crimea and laid blame for the crisis on the United States, which he said had interfered in Ukraine "from across the pond in America as if they were sitting in a laboratory and running experiments on rats, without any understanding of the consequences."
Clearly furious, Putin delivered a version of the crisis almost entirely at odds with the view held by most officials in Europe and the United States, as well as by many Ukrainians. He described anti-government protests in Kiev as an "orgy" of radicals and nationalists, noting a swastika armband that he had glimpsed in images of the crowd. He also insisted that ousted President Viktor F Yanukovich had never ordered security forces to shoot protesters, suggesting that snipers stationed on rooftops "may have been provocateurs from opposition parties."
Putin said Yanukovych's fatal mistake had been to order security forces to withdraw from the site of the protests after days of bloodshed, while the sides were engaged in negotiations, and that he had personally warned him not to do so. He said Russia had then stepped in to assist Yanukovych, but did so for humanitarian reasons, ""because death is the simplest way to get rid of the legitimate president, and it would have happened. I think he would have been probably killed."
And he expressed confidence that the crisis would not boil over into war, because, as he put it, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are "brothers in arms."
"I am convinced that Ukrainian personnel and Russian personnel will not be on different sides of the barricades, they will be on the same side of the barricades," he said. "There has not been a shot fired in Crimea. The tense situation in Crimea, related to the possibility of the use of force, has been exhausted. There was no necessity of that."
The Kremlin leader took issue with Western threats of reprisals, including sanctions and a boycott of the meeting of the Group of 8 industrial nations that is scheduled to be held in Russia. "All threats against Russia are counterproductive and harmful," he said, according to Reuters, adding that Russia was ready to host the G-8 but Western leaders who did not want to attend "don't need to."
Putin acknowledged that had met two days ago with Yanukovych, saying he was "safe and sound" and dismissing rumours that the ousted Ukrainian president had died of a heart attack.
Putin's remarks came after declared the scheduled end of a military exercise he ordered in western Russia near Ukraine's border last week, telling military units that participated to return to their permanent garrisons.
There was no indication that Putin's move presaged any easing of a crisis that has raised Western fears that the region may be spinning toward a broader conflict. Tension remained high in Crimea, where Russian troops are blockading Ukrainian military facilities in what the authorities in Kiev have called a declaration of war.
He denied that military personnel in unmarked uniforms who now control much of Crimea are Russian forces, describing them instead as "local defence forces."
"Look at the people who were operating in Kiev - they were very well trained at special camps in Poland and Lithuania, they were trained by special structures," he said. "Why do you think that the self-defence forces in Crimea should be any less professional."
He said Russia is not considering annexing Crimea, but said Crimean citizens should be allowed to determine their own future, presumably as part of Russia or Ukraine
"We are not considering this possibility," he said. "It's up to people living in a certain territory, if they can exercise their free will, and determine their future. For example, if Kosovo's Albanians were allowed to do that, self-determination, which according to U.N. documents is a right, but we will never instigate it, never support such trends."
"Only the people who live in a certain territory have the right to decide their own future," he said.
But in a graphic illustration of the standoff and its potential hazards, Russian troops on Tuesday fired warning shots in the air as approximately 200 unarmed Ukrainian soldiers approached Russian positions on the perimeter of the contested Belbek airfield in Crimea to press demands to return to their positions there and conduct joint patrols.
In Moscow, the Kremlin responded to American warnings of economic punishment and isolation for its actions in Crimea with a counterthreat that Moscow might abandon the dollar as a reserve currency and refuse to repay loans to American banks, Reuters reported. The warning came from Sergei Glazyev, a Kremlin aide with limited influence over the formulation of a policy but boasting a reputation for staking out hard-line positions, the news agency said.
Secretary of State John. Kerry was expected to meet with the fledgling Ukrainian leadership that forced President Yanukovych to flee to Russia last month as the crisis deepened. He will be the highest-ranking Western official to meet the administration, signaling the Obama administration's support for a government that the Kremlin does not recognise.
The Russian military exercise coincided with the deployment of Russian special forces troops to Crimea beginning last Friday, though officials maintained it was not directly related to the conflict in Ukraine. Nothing the Kremlin reported on Tuesday suggested that the Russian operations in Crimea would end.
The military exercise involved the mobilization of the entire Western Military District, which stretches from the border of Ukraine to the Arctic, as well as units from the Central Military District, the Baltic Fleet and air defence commands. The troops dispatched to Ukraine are reported to have deployed from ports and airfields in the Southern Military District.
Mr. Putin ordered the mobilization only days before Russian forces began spreading through Crimea, and despite officials' reassurances to the contrary, the timing and scale of the operations had a palpable message. Mr. Putin attended the culmination of the exercises near St. Petersburg on Monday, appearing in state television reports observing live-fire training involving tanks and helicopters.
The Kremlin announced the end of the maneuvers - which involved 150,000 troops, as well as air and naval forces and live-fire demonstrations in several Russian bases - and reported that they had been "successfully carried out."
At the United Nations, where the Security Council met on Monday for the third time in an emergency session since Friday, the Ukrainian ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, distributed a three-page letter asserting that the Russians had sent 16,000 troops into the Crimean Peninsula since Feb. 24.
The troops, Mr. Sergeyev wrote, had moved to "seize, block and control crucial governmental and military objects of Ukraine in Crimea."
Russia has denied Western accusations that it flouted international law in asserting military control in Crimea, a historically Russian region that is home to its Black Sea naval base. The Russians have asserted that they moved to protect their legitimate interests there after President Yanukovych fled more than a week ago after protests in Kiev against his shift toward closer relations with Russia.
The Kremlin still regards him as Ukraine's legitimate president.
The Security Council meeting in New York was requested by Russia's ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, who told fellow members that Russia had acted to thwart what he called threats by ultranationalists, including anti-Semites, against Russians and Russian speakers inside Ukraine. Mr. Churkin also held up a copy of a letter from Mr. Yanukovych to Russia asking for military help.
Yet the Security Council meeting quickly became a venue for East-West diplomatic gibes and rejoinders. The British ambassador, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, called Russia's justification bogus, while the envoy from Lithuania, Raimonda Murmokaite, told the Council it "resurrects the memory of darkest pages of the 20th century."
After Mr. Churkin had spoken, Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said, "Listening to the representative of Russia, one might think that Moscow had just become the rapid response arm of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights."
The Council took no action, and it remained unclear what - if anything - it might agree to do, since Russia, a permanent member, has veto power.
©2014 The New York Times News Service