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Vladimir Putin scuttles his own navy warship in
Black Sea to BLOCK Ukrainian vessels from leaving port as Crimeans face
referendum on whether to join Russia
Vice premier Temirgaliev said
issue will be put to vote on March 16. 'We
will decide our future ourselves' said one official. Strong response to Russia is unlikely as EU
nations argue over sanctions. EU
has frozen assets of members of Yanukovych's ousted government. U.S. is imposing visa bans on Russian
nationals and planning sanctions
The Russian Black Sea fleet has blockaded
Ukrainian warships by scuttling an anti-submarine ship at the entrance to their
port in Crimea.
Russian sailors scuttled the decommissioned
warship Ochakov at the entrance to Donuzlav Bay, the location of Ukraine's
Southern Naval Headquarters in the west of the peninsula.
It came as Crimea's parliament voted
unanimously in favour of a snap referendum to decide whether the region should
join the Russian Federation.
A tug boat was escorted by a warship and
several gun boats is it towed the Ochakov into position from a nearby naval
junkyard, before Russian sailors set explosives to breach the vessel's hull.
Marines from the Ukrainian navy heard a loud
explosion coming from the vessel in the early hours of last night, AP reported,
and by this morning it was blocking their way out.
Ukraine Defence Ministry spokesman Lieutenant
Colonel Alexei Mazepa told the Los Angeles Times that he believed the act
was intended to prevent Ukrainian ships going to sea.
The naval move came hours before Crimea's
parliament voted to join Russia and its Moscow-backed government announced a
referendum to put the decision to the region's people within 10 days.
The sudden acceleration of moves to bring
Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and has effectively been seized by
Russian forces, formally under Moscow's rule came as European Union leaders
urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to enter direct talks with the Ukrainian
government, warning of 'far-reaching consequences' for relations with Moscow if
there is any further escalation.
At emergency talks in Brussels, leaders of
the group of 28 states agreed on a limited package of sanctions to take
immediate effect with the threat of further measures - including asset freezes
and travel bans - unless there was swift action to end the stand-off.
Earlier, the White House announced it would
impose visa restrictions on Russians and Crimeans who it says are 'threatening
the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine'.
In addition, President Barack Obama has
signed an executive order authorising sanctions against 'individuals and
entities responsible for activities undermining democratic processes or
institutions in Ukraine'.
Prime Minister David Cameron said that it was
essential that Europe stood up to Russian aggression in Crimea which he
described as a 'flagrant breach of international law'.
'Illegal actions committed by Russia cannot
pass without a response. It cannot be business as usual with Russia,' he said.
'We know from our history that turning a
blind eye when nations are trampled over and their independence trashed, that
stores up up far greater problems for the long run. 'So we must stand up to
aggression, we must uphold international law, and we should support people who
want a free European future.'
The mood of the assembled leaders in Brussels
appeared to have hardened after the parliament in Crimea voted unanimously 'to
enter into the Russian Federation with the rights of a subject of the Russian
Federation'. The vice premier of Crimea, home to Russia's Black Sea military
base in Sevastopol, said a referendum on the status would take place on March
16.
The decree making Crimea part of Russia is
already in force and Ukrainian troops still on its territory will be treated as
occupiers and forced to surrender or leave, the Russian-controlled region's
deputy prime minister said.
'The only lawful armed force on the territory
of the Crimea is the Russian armed forces,' Rustam Temirgaliev said.
'Armed forces of any third country are
occupiers. The Ukrainian armed forces have to choose: lay down their weapons,
quit their posts, accept Russian citizenship and join the Russian military.
'If they do not agree, we are prepared to
offer them safe passage from the territory of Crimea to their Ukrainian
homeland.'
In Moscow, a prominent member of Russia's
parliament, Sergei Mironov, said he has introduced a bill to simplify the
procedure for Crimea to join Russia and it could be passed as soon as next
week, the state news agency ITAR-Tass reported.
The announcement on the vote, which diplomats
said could not have been made without Russian President Vladimir Putin's
approval, raised the stakes in the most serious east-west confrontation since
the end of the Cold War.
EU leaders had been set to warn but not
sanction Russia over its military intervention after Moscow rebuffed Western
diplomatic efforts to persuade it to pull forces in Crimea, with a population
of about two million, back to their bases. It was not immediately clear what
impact the Crimean moves would have.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
said he remained hopeful of a peaceful solution but vowed that his country
would fight to protect its freedom if Moscow stepped up its military
intervention. 'Putin, tear down the wall of military intimidation immediately,'
he said at a press conference today. 'We are ready for co-operation but not for
surrender to be subordinate to Russia.' He told reporters that the situation
had serious implications for global security - not least undermining nuclear
disarmament efforts.
'We still believe that we can solve it in a
peaceful manner but in case of further escalation and military intervention
into the Ukrainian territory by the foreign forces, the Ukrainian government
and Ukrainian military will act in accordance with the constitution and laws,'
he said.
'We are ready to protect our country. We have
less arms, no nuclear bombs, but we have the spirit. This is the spirit of
Ukrainian revolution and this is the spirit of freedom and liberty.'
He went on: 'What's up with global security?
Are we going crazy? Is it acceptable that in the 21st century, with no legal
grounds, with no reason, one country which possesses a nuclear weapon just
decides in a snapshot to invade another? We probably need to overhaul the
entire system. 'That is the reason why we ask Russia to stop. God knows where
it leads.' Mr Yatsenyuk was repeatedly pressed on whether he believed the EU
was failing to take a sufficiently tough stance against Russia.
'We strongly believe that the EU supports
Ukraine and we strongly believe that both the Ukraine and the EU are ready to
sign an association agreement and are ready to take real steps to stabilise the
situation in the region. 'We expect that the EU, the US and probably Russia
will do their best to stabilise the situation.'
'WE ARE NOT IN DANGER':
UKRAINIAN JEWS REFUTE PUTIN'S FEARS OVER RUSSIAN SPEAKERS
Leaders from the Ukrainian Jewish community,
which is mainly Russian-speaking, have written an open letter to Vladimir Putin
rejecting his argument that minorities in the country are threatened by the new
government. It said: 'The Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine are not being
humiliated or discriminated against, their civil rights have not been infringed
upon. 'Meanderings about "forced Ukrainisation" and "bans on the
Russian language" that have been so common in Russian media are in the
heads of those who invented them. 'Your certainty about the growth of
anti-Semitism in Ukraine, which you expressed at your press-conference, also
does not correspond to the actual facts. 'Perhaps you got Ukraine confused with
Russia, where Jewish organisations have noticed a growth in anti-Semitic
tendencies last year?' European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said
in a Twitter message: 'We stand by a united and inclusive #Ukraine.'
French President Francois Hollande told
reporters on arrival at the summit: 'There will be the strongest possible
pressure on Russia to begin lowering the tension and in the pressure there is,
of course, eventual recourse to sanctions.'But leaders appeared divided between
nations close to Russia's borders and some western economic powerhouses -
notably Germany - that were taking a more dovish line.
'Whether (sanctions) will come into force
depends also on how the diplomatic process progresses,' German Chancellor
Angela Merkel said, noting that foreign ministers including Secretary of State
John Kerry and Russia's Sergey Lavrov were holding talks again in Rome on
Thursday.
'Russia today is dangerous,' insisted
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, warning Moscow is seeking to expand its
borders. 'After Ukraine will be Moldova, and after Moldova will be different
countries.'
Poland, Lithuania and other eastern European
countries closer to Russia's borders pushed for a strong and united EU response
including meaningful sanctions, but Germany, the Netherlands and others
preferred defusing the crisis through diplomacy without alienating Moscow.
'We should do everything to give the route of
de-escalation a chance and if we come to the conclusion today or the next 24,
48, 72 hours that de-escalation is not an option then obviously sanctions are
back on the table,' Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.
Russia is Europe's third-largest trading
partner and its biggest gas and oil supplier. EU exports to Russia in 2012
totaled £101bn, and European banks have about £164billion euros in outstanding
loans to Russia.
The new Ukrainian government has declared the
referendum illegal and opened a criminal investigation against Crimean Prime
Minister Sergei Askyonov, who was appointed by the region's parliament last
week. The Ukrainian government does not recognise his authority or that of the
parliament.
A Crimean parliament official said voters
will be asked two questions: should Crimea be part of the Russian Federation
and should Crimea return to an earlier constitution (1992) that gave the region
more autonomy?
'If there weren't constant threats from the
current illegal Ukrainian authorities, maybe we would have taken a different
path,' deputy parliament speaker Sergei Tsekov told reporters outside the
parliament building in Crimea's main city of Simferopol. 'I think there was an
annexation of Crimea by Ukraine, if we are going to call things by their name.
'Because of this mood and feeling we took the decision to join Russia. I think
we will feel much more comfortable there.'
In Simferopol, Crimea's capital, about 50
people rallied outside the local parliament today morning waving Russian and
Crimean flags. Among the posters they held was one that said: 'Russia, defend
us from genocide.'
'We are tired of revolutions, maidans and
conflicts and we want to live peacefully in Russia,' said one of the
bystanders, Igor Urbansky, 35. 'Only Russia can give us a peaceful life.'
Maidan is the name of the downtown square in
Kiev where tens of thousands of protesters contested the rule of Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia. Not all in this city favored
the lawmakers' action.
'This is crazy. Crimea has become Putin's
puppet,' said Viktor Gordiyenko, 46. 'A referendum at gunpoint of Russia
weapons is just a decoration for Putin's show. A decision on occupation has
already been made.'
A mission of observers from the Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been stopped from entering
Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula by unidentified men in military fatigues, Poland's
defence minister said.
'The mission has been detained, they cannot
go further. They landed in Odessa and they were travelling by car from Odessa
towards the Crimean Peninsula, but they were detained by unidentified men in
fatigues,' the defence minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, told reporters.
He said it was possible the observers would
be allowed to head back the way they came, but they could not go forward into
Crimea. Two Polish military officers are among the OSCE mission.
The leader of the most persistent pro-Moscow
protest movement in eastern Ukraine was arrested at his home in the city of
Donetsk on Thursday, a Reuters journalist who was with police on the raid said.
Around 10 members of the SBU security service
arrested Pavel Gubarev at his apartment in a five-storey Soviet-era block in
the eastern city, on charges of 'infringing the territorial integrity and
independence of the state'. He did not resist.
Gubarev, a Donetsk businessman, had led
protesters who blockaded the regional administration building and flew the
Russian flag until they were removed on Thursday. He had called himself the
'people's governor' and demanded lawmakers sever ties with Kiev and put him in
charge of the police force.
Earlier today Russian naval personnel
scuttled the decommissioned Russian vessel 'Ochakov' off the Black Sea shore
outside the town of Myrnyi in western Crimea.
The vessel is now blocking access for five
Ukrainian Naval vessels trapped inside of the Southern Naval Headquarters as
Russian war vessels patrolled just of the coast. The vessel was towed by a tug
boat while escorted by a warship and several gun boats on March 4.
Marines from the Ukrainian navy heard a loud
explosion in the early hours of last night coming from the vessel, AP reported.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
refused to meet his new Ukrainian counterpart or to launch a 'contact group' to
seek a solution to the crisis at talks in Paris on Wednesday despite
arm-twisting by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and European colleagues. The
two men will meet again in Rome on Thursday.
Tension was high in Crimea after a senior
United Nations envoy was surrounded by a pro-Russian crowd, threatened and
forced to get back on his plane and leave the country on Wednesday.
The United States has said it is ready to
impose sanctions such as visa bans, asset freezes on individual Russian
officials and restrictions on business ties within days rather than weeks.
Russia's rouble currency weakened further on
Thursday despite central bank intervention due to what analysts at VTB Capital
called the political risk premium.
The short, informal EU summit will mostly be
dedicated to displaying support for Ukraine's new pro-Western government,
represented by Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, who will attend even though
Kiev is neither an EU member nor a recognised candidate for membership.
After meeting European Parliament President
Martin Schulz, Yatseniuk appealed to Russia to respond to mediation efforts.
The European Commission announced an aid
package of up to 11billion euros for Ukraine over the next couple of years
provided it reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund, entailing
painful reforms like ending gas subsidies.
Diplomats said that at most, the 28-nation EU
would condemn Russia's so far bloodless seizure of the Black Sea province and
suspend talks with Moscow on visa liberalisation and economic cooperation,
while threatening further measures if Putin does not accept mediation efforts
soon.
They were expected hold back from tougher
steps both in hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough and out of fear of a
tit-for-tat trade war with Russia, a major economic partner of Europe.
France has a deal to sell warships to Russia that it is so far not prepared to cancel, London's banks have profited from facilitating Russian investment, and German companies have $22billion invested in Russia.
Before the summit, European members of the Group
of Eight major economies will meet separately, diplomats said, in an apparent
effort to coordinate positions towards Russia, due to host the next G8 summit
in Olympic venue Sochi in June.
They have so far stopped participating in
preparatory meetings and Canada has said G7 countries may meet soon without
Russia.
The crisis began in November when Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovich, under strong Russian pressure, turned his back on
a far reaching trade deal with the EU and accepted a $15billion bailout from
Moscow. That prompted three months of street protests leading to the overthrow
of Yanukovich on Feb. 22.
Moscow denounced the events as an
illegitimate coup and refused to recognise the new Ukrainian authorities.
Russia kept the door ajar for more diplomacy
on its own terms, announcing on Thursday a meeting of former Soviet states in
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including Ukraine, for April 4
and saying it would be preceded by contacts between Russian and Ukrainian
diplomats.
Lavrov said attempts by Western countries to
take action over the Ukraine crisis via democracy watchdog OSCE and the NATO
military alliance were not helpful.
In a move that may alarm some of Russia's
neighbours and the West, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced steps
to ease handing out passports to native Russian speakers who have lived in
Russia or the former Soviet Union.
U.S. WARSHIP HEADS TO BLACK SEA
The USS Truxtun, a U.S. Navy guided-missile
destroyer, is heading to the Black Sea where it will conduct training with
Bulgarian and Romanian naval forces that was scheduled long before the crisis
in Ukraine, the Navy said today. 'While in the Black Sea, the ship will conduct
a port visit and routine, previously planned exercises with allies and partners
in the region,' the Navy said in a statement. 'Truxtun's operations in the
Black Sea were scheduled well in advance of her departure from the United
States.' The ship is part of an aircraft carrier strike group that deployed
from the United States in mid-February. Putin has cited the threat to Russian
citizens to justify military action in both Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine now.
After a day of high-stakes diplomacy in Paris
on Wednesday, Lavrov refused to talk to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy
Deshchitsya, whose new government is not recognised by Moscow.As he left the
French Foreign Ministry, Lavrov was asked if he had met his Ukrainian
counterpart. 'Who is that?' the Russian minister asked.He stuck to Putin's line
- ridiculed by the West - that Moscow does not command the troops without
national insignia which have taken control of Crimea, besieging Ukrainian
forces, and hence cannot order them back to bases. Kerry said afterwards he had
never expected to get Lavrov and Deshchitsya into the same room right away, but
diplomats said France and Germany had tried to achieve that. Western diplomats
said there was still hope that once Lavrov had reported back to Putin, Russia
would accept the idea of a 'contact group' involving both Moscow and Kiev as
well as the United States and European powers to seek a solution.
The European Union formally announced it had
frozen the assets of ousted Ukrainian president Yanukovich and 17 other
officials, including former prime minister Mykola Azarov, suspected of human rights
violations and misuse of state funds.
In an awkward coincidence as EU leaders were
gathering in Brussels, German Economy Minister and Vice-Chancellor Sigmar
Gabriel travelled to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart and Putin.
Reflecting concern about how the long-planned
trip might be seen in the midst of the Ukraine crisis, Gabriel dropped at the
last minute plans to take along German industrialists with him. Germany has
been accused in some quarters of soft-pedalling on sanctions in the light of
its close economic ties to Russia.
In eastern Ukraine, a pro-Russian crowd in
Donetsk, Yanukovich's home town, recaptured the regional administration
building they had occupied before being ejected by police. But police loyal to
the new authorities in Kiev raised the Ukrainian flag over the building again
on Thursday.
Putin has said Russia reserves the right to
intervene militarily in other areas of Ukraine if Russian interests or the
lives of Russians are in danger. Russia is planning the 'annexation' of Crimea
and other parts of Ukraine, a prominent domestic opponent of Vladimir Putin has
claimed.
Leonid Gozman, a liberal politician in
Moscow, said the president's popularity had grown following his 'war' in
Crimea. He addressed a meeting of centre-right EU politicians in Dublin. 'The
majority of Russians support our aggression in Crimea, the majority of Russians
are very happy that we are planning to bring an annexation of Crimea and other
parts of Ukraine,' Mr Gozman said.
'Our troops occupied another country... it is
the worst thing my country did since August 1968 when we occupied
Czechoslovakia.'
Dropping diplomatic niceties on Wednesday,
the U.S. State Department published a 'fact sheet' entitled 'President Putin's Fiction: 10
False Claims about Ukraine.'
'As Russia spins a false narrative to justify
its illegal actions in Ukraine, the world has not seen such startling Russian
fiction since Dostoyevsky wrote, "The formula 'two plus two equals five'
is not without its attractions2,' the State Department said in the document. Russia
dismissed the fact sheet as a 'primitive distortion of reality'.'It's clear
that in Washington, as before, they are unable to accept a situation developing
not according to their templates,' Alexander Lukashevich, the Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.
Crimea 'fully under control' of 11,000 pro-Russian forces
More than 11,000 pro-Russian forces control
all access to Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and have blockaded all military bases
that have not yet surrendered, Crimea's new leader said.
Sergei Aksyonov said his administration is in
regular contact with Russian officials, including those in a large Russian
delegation now in Crimea.
Speaking at a Crimea government meeting, Mr
Aksyonov said the strategic peninsula is fully under the control of riot police
and security forces joined by thousands of 'self-defence' troops.
All or most of these troops are believed to
be Russian, even though president Vladimir Putin has denied sending in forces
other than those stationed at the home port of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
The West has joined the new Ukrainian
leadership in Kiev in demanding that Moscow pull its forces from Crimea, but
little progress was reported after a flurry of diplomatic activity in Paris
yesterday involving US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign
minister Sergey Lavrov.
www.dailymail.co.uk/.../EU-leaders-hold-emergency-summit
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