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Business News/ News / World/  Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin wants ‘diplomatic solution’
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Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin wants ‘diplomatic solution’

British PM David Cameron had called the Russian president urging him to de-escalate tension, Downing Street said

A flag is seen during a pro-Russia rally in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. Photo: ReutersPremium
A flag is seen during a pro-Russia rally in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. Photo: Reuters

London/Kiev/Simferopol: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday said Sunday he wanted to find a “diplomatic solution" to the crisis in Ukraine in a telephone call with British Prime Minister David Cameron, according to Downing Street.

Cameron had called Putin to urge him to “de-escalate" the situation in Ukraine and to support the formation of a contact group that could lead to direct talks between Moscow and the new leaders in Kiev. “President Putin agreed that it is in all our interests to have a stable Ukraine," a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

“He said that Russia did want to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis and that he would discuss the proposals on the contact group with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov tomorrow (Monday)."

Cameron had made clear to Putin that Britain, along with its European partners and the US, “want to work with Russia to find a diplomatic solution to the situation in Ukraine, including Crimea".

The British prime minister told Putin that “we recognise the right of all Ukrainian people to choose their future" and that elections scheduled for May “provide the best way to ensure the elections are free, fair and inclusive".

Pro-Russian forces on Sunday advanced in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, ignoring western calls to abandon a takeover in run up to a separatist 16 March referendum.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Sunday he’d travel to Washington as local Crimean officials demanded a unit loyal to Ukraine’s central government in Kiev lay down its arms. Russian troops took control of the province’s Chernomorskoye border guard base, detaining Ukrainian soldiers, a day after gunmen fired warning shots at international observers and barred them from entering the region.

Russia is wresting control of Crimea, home to its Black Sea Fleet, from Ukraine following last month’s ouster of the former Soviet republic’s Moscow-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych.

The US estimates Russia now has 20,000 troops confronting a smaller Ukrainian force there, while Ukraine has stepped up its eastern border defences in the worst standoff between it and the West since the Cold War.

“There clearly are Russian troops in Crimea," UK foreign secretary William Hague said on Sunday on BBC TV. “The long-term effect will be to unite Ukraine more against Russian domination of their affairs and to recast European policies in a way that will reduce Russian leverage over Europe."

Russian minefields

Pro-Russian units planted minefields in the Kherson region, north of Crimea on Ukraine’s mainland, and began to install border markers between the two regions, news website Khersonskie Vesti reported on Sunday. Ukraine’s border control service said Russian forces now control 13 border stations as well as the ferry across the Kerch Strait to Russia, preventing border guards from inspecting trucks arriving in Crimea.

“Russia and Ukraine, right now, are one nervous 20-year-old soldier’s mistake away from something very, very bad happening that could spin out of control," said Steven Pifer, a former US ambassador to Ukraine.

Crimea ordered an anti-aircraft regiment in the city of Yevpatoriya to lay down its arms by 5pm on Sunday or its base would be taken over, news service Interfax reported.

“Ukrainian border troops will leave Crimea only if forced, the head of the service, Pavlo Shysholin," told reporters in Kiev on Sunday. The country’s military moved groups of armoured vehicles from its western Zhytomyr and Lviv regions toward the east and southeast, Russian television Rossiya 24 reported, citing local citizens.

“Ukraine isn’t planning to move army troops to Crimea," acting defence minister Ihor Tenyukh said at a government meeting in Kiev.

Observers blocked

“Gunmen fired warning shots at observers on Saturday from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), blocking them from entering Crimea," Tatyana Baeva, a spokeswoman said by phone by Vienna.

A 57-nation group that includes Russia and the US, the OSCE focuses on conflict prevention and preserving human rights, among other issues. Russia isn’t taking part in the Ukraine mission.

US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Saturday. Kerry made clear that continued military escalation and provocation in Crimea or elsewhere in Ukraine, along with steps to annex Crimea to Russia would close any available space for diplomacy, according to a statement from the US state department.

No options

“Lawmakers in Moscow have pledged to accept the results of the referendum on Crimea joining Russia. The peninsula, where Russian speakers comprise a majority, will join Russia once parliament in Moscow passes the necessary legislation and there’s nothing the West can do to stop the process," according to Sergei Tsekov, the deputy speaker of Crimea’s parliament.

“There’s no comeback, and the US or Europe can’t impede us," Tsekov said by phone on 7 March from Moscow, where he met Russian officials to discuss the region’s future. “Crimea won’t be part of Ukraine anymore. There are no more options."

US President Barack Obama spoke by phone this week with leaders of EU states including France, the UK, Germany, Italy and the Baltic former Soviet republics Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, according to the White House.

“All of the leaders Obama talked with rejected the proposed referendum in Crimea as a violation of Ukraine’s constitution, and all agreed on the need for Russia to pull its military forces back to their bases," according to a White House statement. “The US European allies will impose sanctions if there isn’t a quick resolution," Obama said at the White House on 6 March.

Russian pressure

Putin says he’s defending Ukraine’s ethnic Russians, who make up 59% of Crimea’s population. Ukraine’s government in Kiev says they aren’t under threat.

“Obama has urged Ukraine to control its military and avoid giving Russia a pretext to escalate with military force," said two US officials who requested anonymity to discuss intelligence reports and diplomatic contacts.

“Lavrov, in his conversation with Kerry, warned against hasty and ill-considered moves that can damage Russian-American relations, especially sanctions, which would inevitably boomerang on the US," the Russian foreign ministry said in its statement.

Russia also turned up the economic pressure on the Kiev government by signalling that natural gas supplies may be cut because Ukraine’s unpaid gas bills have reached $1.9 billion. OAO Gazprom halted supplies to Ukraine five years ago amid a pricing and debt dispute, curbing flows to Europe.

“To steady Ukraine’s finances, the EU plans to provide an €11 billion ($15.3 billion) aid package and is prepared to drop tariffs on about 85% of the bloc’s imports of Ukrainian goods," according to De Gucht. Ukraine wants as much as $15 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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Published: 09 Mar 2014, 11:02 AM IST
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