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| Ukrainian soldiers, left and unidentified gunmen, right, guard the gate of an infantry base in Privolnoye, Ukraine, Sunday, March 2, 2014. Hundreds of unidentified gunmen arrived outside Ukraine's infantry base in Privolnoye in its Crimea region. The convoy includes at least 13 troop vehicles each containing 30 soldiers and four armored vehicles with mounted machine guns. The vehicles — which have Russian license plates — have surrounded the base and are blocking Ukrainian soldiers from entering or leaving it. |
KIEV, Ukraine
(AP) -- Warning that it was "on the brink of disaster," Ukraine put its
military on high alert Sunday and appealed for international help to
avoid what it feared was the possibility of a wider invasion by Russia.
Outrage
over Russia's military moves mounted in world capitals, with U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry calling on President Vladimir Putin to
pull back from "an incredible act of aggression."
A
day after Russia captured the Crimean Peninsula without firing a shot,
fears grew in the Ukrainian capital and beyond that Russia might seek to
expand its control by seizing other parts of eastern Ukraine. Senior
Obama administration officials said the U.S. now believes that Russia
has complete operational control of Crimea, a pro-Russian area of the
country, and has more than 6,000 troops in the region.
Faced
with the Russian threat, Ukraine's new government moved to consolidate
its authority, naming new regional governors in the pro-Russia east,
enlisting the support of the country's wealthy businessmen and
dismissing the head of the country's navy after he declared allegiance
to the pro-Russian government in Crimea.
Ukrainian
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said there was no reason for Russia to
invade Ukraine and warned that "we are on the brink of disaster."
"We
believe that our Western partners and the entire global community will
support the territorial integrity and unity of Ukraine," he said Sunday
in Kiev.
World leaders rushed to try to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
NATO
held an emergency meeting in Brussels, Britain's foreign minister flew
to Kiev to support its new government and Kerry was to travel to Ukraine
on Tuesday. The U.S., France and Britain debated the possibility of
boycotting the next Group of Eight economic summit, to be held in June
in Sochi, the host of Russia's successful Winter Olympics.
In
Kiev, Moscow and other cities, thousands of protesters took to the
streets to either decry the Russian occupation or celebrate Crimea's
return to its former ruler.
"Support us,
America!" a group of protesters chanted outside the U.S. Embassy in
Kiev. One young girl held up a placard reading: "No Russian
aggression!"
"Russia! Russia!" the crowd chanted in Moscow.
Kerry,
interviewed on U.S. television news shows, talked about boycotting the
G-8 summit, as well as possible visa bans, asset freezes and trade and
investment penalties against Russia. All the foreign ministers he talked
to were prepared "to go to the hilt" to isolate Russia, Kerry said.
President
Barack Obama also spoke Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Polish President Bronislaw
Komorowski.
NATO issued a statement saying it
"condemns Russia's military escalation in Crimea" and demanding that
Russia respect its obligations under the U.N. charter. Ukraine is not a
NATO member, meaning the U.S. and Europe are not obligated to come to
its defense, but the country has taken part in some alliance exercises.
"We
are on a very dangerous track," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier said. But "it is still possible to turn around. A new
division of Europe can still be prevented."
So
far, however, Ukraine's new government and the West have been powerless
to counter Russia's tactics. Armed men in uniforms without insignia
have moved freely about Crimea for days, occupying airports, smashing
equipment at an air base and besieging a Ukrainian infantry base.
Putin
has defied calls from the West to pull back his troops, insisting that
Russia has a right to protect its interests and those of
Russian-speakers in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine. His confidence is
matched by the knowledge that Ukraine's 46 million people have divided
loyalties. While much of western Ukraine wants closer ties with the
28-nation European Union, its eastern and southern regions like Crimea
look to Russia for support.
Russia has long
wanted to reclaim the lush Crimean Peninsula, part of its territory
until 1954. Russia's Black Sea Fleet pays Ukraine millions annually to
be stationed at the Crimean port of Sevastopol and nearly 60 percent of
Crimea's residents identify themselves as Russian.
During
a phone conversation Sunday with Merkel, Putin "directed her attention
to the unrelenting threat of violence from ultranationalist forces (in
Ukraine) that endangered the life and legal interests of Russian
citizens," according to a Kremlin statement.
"The measures taken by Russia are fully adequate with regard to the current extraordinary situation," it said.
The
German government said Putin had accepted a proposal by Merkel to set
up a "contact group" aimed at facilitating dialogue in the Ukraine
crisis.
Russia's state-controlled media has
played almost nonstop footage of the Ukrainian crisis, highlighting what
it says are ultranationalist attacks on Russians and pro-Russian
Ukrainians by activists from Kiev or regions further west. However, AP
reporters in Ukraine witnessed no acts of violence directed at Russians
or Russian sympathizers in Crimea.
Ukraine's
new government came to power last week following months of pro-democracy
protests against the country's pro-Russian president, Viktor
Yanukovych, and his decision to turn Ukraine toward Russia instead of
the EU. Yanukovych fled to Russia after more than 80 people were killed
in the protests, but insists he's still president.
Ukraine's
acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, put Ukraine's armed forces on
alert Sunday, calling up reserves for training and stepping up security
at nuclear power plants, airports and other strategic locations.
However, no overt military actions by Ukraine were seen.
Turchynov
also moved to consolidate authority in eastern Ukraine, appointing 18
new regional governors, including two of the countries wealthiest
businessmen, known as oligarchs, in the cities of Dneprotrovsk and
Donetsk, as big business and the Ukrainian government united against
Russia.
Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov,
urged business, ordinary people and the government to join together,
saying Sunday that the use of force and "illegal action from outside"
were "impermissible."
"I call upon all my
fellow citizens to unity for the sake of a whole and undivided Ukraine
... Our strength is in the solidarity of business, government and
society," said Akhmetov, whose SCM Group has 300,000 employees and
interests in steel, coal and mining.
"The
national elite has consolidated around the new government," political
analyst Vadim Karasyov of the Institute for Global Strategies told The
Associated Press. "This is a very good sign for the new government."
Russian
troops, meanwhile, pulled up to the Ukrainian military base at
Perevalne on the Crimean Peninsula in a convoy Sunday that included at
least 13 trucks and four armored vehicles with mounted machine guns. The
trucks carried 30 soldiers each and had Russian license plates.
In
response, a dozen Ukrainian soldiers, some with clips in their rifles,
placed a tank at the base's gate, leaving the two sides in a tense
standoff. It appeared to be the first known case of outmatched
Ukrainians standing up to Russian military might.
Unidentified
soldiers were also seen cutting power to the headquarters of the
Ukrainian naval forces in Crimea - whose commander defected later Sunday
and pledged his allegiance to "the people of Crimea."
In
Kiev, a Ukrainian security official said the head of the Ukrainian navy
- Adm. Denis Berezovsky - had been dismissed and faces a treason
investigation after declaring his allegiance to the pro-Russian
government in Crimea and offering no resistance to the Russian troops.
The
speaker of Crimea's legislature, Vladimir Konstantinov, was quoted as
saying local authorities do not recognize the new government in Kiev. He
said a planned referendum on March 30 would ask voters about the
region's future status.
A convoy of hundreds
of Russian troops was also seen heading toward Simferopol, the regional
capital of Crimea. Armed men in military uniforms without markings
strolled around Simferopol's central plaza, Lenin Square, outside its
Council of Ministers building.
"It is very
important that we all do everything we can to calm tensions," said
British Foreign Minister William Hague, who flew to Kiev on Sunday.
He said he has urged Russian officials to "speak directly to the Ukrainians" but so far they had not.
