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(Reuters) – The European Union is to impose sanctions including asset freezes and travel bans on 21 officials from Russia and Ukraine after Crimea applied to join Russia on Monday following a weekend referendum, Lithuania’s foreign minister said. Crimea’s leaders declared a Soviet-style 97-percent result in favor of seceding from Ukraine in a vote condemned as illegal by Kiev and the West. After a meeting lasting around three hours, the EU’s 28 foreign ministers agreed […]
(Reuters) – Russian state media said Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia on Sunday, as Kiev accused Moscow of pouring forces into the peninsula and warned separatist leaders “the ground will burn under their feet”. With over half the votes counted, 95.5 percent had chosen the option of annexation by Moscow, the head of the referendum commission, Mikhail Malyshev, said two hours after polls closed. Turnout was 83 percent, he added […]
(Reuters) – Russia said any U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine will boomerang back on the United States and that Crimea has the right to self-determination as armed men tried to seize another Ukrainian military base on the peninsula. In a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against “hasty and reckless steps” that could harm Russian-American relations, the foreign ministry said on Friday. […]
The 2014 Winter Paralympics have begun in Sochi, Russia. Just one Ukraine athlete participated in the opening ceremony, amid simmering tensions over Crimea. After all 45 teams had taken part in the opening ceremony at the Fisht Stadium on Friday, the Games were officially opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin: “I declare the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games open,” he said. Ukraine was among those nations that participated in the opening ceremony, but warned it could […]
The EU and US have both announced preliminary steps against Russia over the situation in Crimea. Chancellor Angela Merkel said EU economic sanctions could follow within days unless Russia changes tack. The European Union announced that it would suspend talks with Russia on visa matters after a hastily-convened leaders’ summit to address the Crimean crisis on Thursday afternoon. The European Council statement also announced the postponement of ongoing negotiations, started in 2008, seeking a more […]
BY ALISSA DE CARBONNEL AND LUKE BAKER (Reuters) – Crimea’s parliament voted to join Russia on Thursday and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum in 10 days’ time in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian region that drew a sharp riposte from U.S. President Barack Obama. Obama ordered sanctions on those responsible for Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine, including bans on travel to the United States and freezing of their U.S. assets. He […]
Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, has called Crimea’s planned referendum to join the Russia Federation “illegitimate.” The Black Sea peninsula remains an “integral” part of Ukraine, he said. In a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian premier Yatsenyuk urged Moscow to withdraw its troops to their barracks in Crimea and to end its support for separatism on the peninsula. “We urge the Russian government to pull back its military into barracks, not to […]
As diplomats met in Paris to lower tensions between Ukraine and Russia, a number of incidents on the ground in Ukraine are fanning the flames. UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called on both sides to “lower their temperature.” While there have been no indications of outright violence, instances of intimidation and unrest have been reported in Crimea on Wednesday. Robert Serry, a special United Nations envoy in the autonomous Ukrainian region on an observer mission, […]
(Reuters) – Holed up on their bases, Ukraine’s besieged servicemen and the Russians surrounding them in Crimea are locked in a standoff that at times is tense and at others surreal. Almost a week after Russian forces began their swift and bloodless takeover of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula, there is a standoff as the two sides dig in and play a waiting game. The Russians have swatted down isolated attempts by the Ukrainian forces […]
(Reuters) – Ukraine mobilized for war on Sunday and Washington threatened to isolate Russia economically after President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbor in Moscow’s biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War. “This is not a threat: this is actually the declaration of war to my country,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said in English. Yatsenuik heads a pro-Western government that took power in the former Soviet republic when […]
(Reuters) – Ukraine mobilized on Sunday for war and called up its reserves, after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to invade in the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. Ukraine’s security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert, the council’s secretary Andriy Parubiy announced. The Defense Ministry was ordered to conduct the call-up, potentially of all men up to 40 in a country […]
US President Obama and Russian President Putin have discussed the Crimea crisis via telephone. Obama called for Russian forces to withdraw, while Putin said Moscow reserved the right to defend its interests in Ukraine. President Barack Obama reportedly told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday that Moscow had violated international law by intervening in Crimea, calling for Russian forces to withdraw to their bases on the peninsula. The White House has suspended its […]
