SEVASTOPOL/KIEV: Ukraine’s government appealed for Western help to stop Moscow annexing Crimea but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalise rule from Moscow within days.
With their own troops in Crimea effectively prisoners in their bases, the new authorities in Kiev painted a sorry picture of the military bequeathed them by the pro-Moscow president overthrown two weeks ago. They announced yesterday the raising of a new National Guard to be drawn from volunteers among veterans.
The prime minister, heading for talks at the White House and United Nations, told parliament in Kiev he wanted the United States and Britain, as guarantors of a 1994 treaty that saw Ukraine give up its Soviet nuclear weapons, to intervene both diplomatically and militarily to fend off Russian “aggression”.
But despite NATO reconnaissance aircraft patrolling the Polish and Romanian borders and US naval forces preparing for exercises in the Black Sea, Western powers have made clear that, as when ex-Soviet Georgia lost territory in fighting in 2008, they have no appetite for risking turning the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War into a military conflict with Moscow.
Diplomacy seemed restricted to a war of words. The US and Russian foreign ministers did speak by telephone. But the US State Department said Moscow’s position offered no room for negotiation and the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning US financial aid to the “illegitimate regime” in Kiev, which it calls ultra-nationalists with “Nazi” links.
That language echoed ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich, who gave a news conference in Russia insisting that he was still the legitimate head of state. Toppled by protests sparked by his rejection of closer ties with the European Union in favour of a deal from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Yanukovich blamed his enemies for provoking Crimean secession.
Parliament in Kiev, whose position is backed by Western governments, dismisses plans for a referendum yesterday to unite the region with Russia as illegitimate and resolved on Tuesday to dissolve Crimea’s regional assembly if by today it had not scrapped the plebiscite. There seems no chance that it will.
Moscow, which to widespread scorn denies its troops have any role in the takeover of the once Russian-ruled region, says people in Crimea, a small majority of whom are ethnic Russians, should have the right to secede. It has made much of anti-Russian sentiment among some Ukrainian nationalists – though many native Russian speakers in Ukraine are wary of Putin. –
US lawmakers are preparing sanctions against Russia and European Union leaders could impose penalties, such as bans on visas for key officials, as early as Monday.
The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said yesterday he would introduce a bill that would include 150 million dollars in aid for Ukraine, sanctions and backing for a shift in funding for the International Monetary Fund.
The bill echoes one passed by the US House of Representatives last week in backing 1 billion dollars in loan guarantees for Ukraine, but it would also authorize 50 million dollars for democracy, governance and civil society assistance, as well as 100 million dollars for enhanced security cooperation for Ukraine and other states in Central and Eastern Europe.
However, by the time the West acts, Crimea could already have voted – in a referendum not recognised by Kiev or the West – to seek union with Russia. The ballot paper offers no option to retain the status quo of autonomy within Ukraine.
Voters among the two million population must choose either direct union with Moscow or restoring an old constitution that made Crimea sovereign with ties to Ukraine. Yesterday, the regional assembly passed a resolution that a sovereign Crimea would sever links to Kiev and join Russia anyway.
The Russian parliament has already approved the accession in principle of Crimea, which was handed to Ukraine by Soviet rulers 60 years ago. Still, it is not clear whether or how soon Putin would formalise such a union as he engages in a complex confrontation with the West for geostrategic advantage.
In disputes with Georgia, Russia has granted recognition to small breakaway states on its borders, a process critics view as annexation in all but name. It fiercely criticised Western recognition of the independence of Kosovo from its ally Serbia – a process which Crimea’s parliament nonetheless cited as a legal precedent for its own forthcoming declaration of independence.
There seems little chance that Crimea’s new leaders, who emerged after Yanukovich’s overthrow as Russian-backed forces took control of the peninsula, will fail to get the result they want. A boycott by ethnic Tatars, 12 per cent of the regional population and deeply wary after centuries of persecution by Moscow, will have little effect as there is no minimum turnout. (PTI)