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Pro-Russia Leader Warns Ukrainian Troops to Leave Crimea Pro-Ukraine Rally Is Attacked as Nation Celebrates a Poet
(about 7 hours later)
MOSCOW — Amid new reports of Russian reinforcements in Crimea, one of the region’s leaders on Sunday recommended that Ukrainian troops remaining there should “quietly and peacefully” leave the territory unless they were willing to renounce their loyalty to Kiev and serve the region’s new administration. KIEV, Ukraine — Rival rallies turned violent in Crimea on Sunday, as Ukraine celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of its greatest poet and the White House announced that President Obama would host the Ukrainian prime minister just days before a controversial referendum on Crimean secession next week.
The remarks by Vladimir Konstantinov, a pro-Russian figure who was in Moscow on Sunday, suggested an attempt to clear roughly 3,500 Ukrainian forces from the territory after a tense, weeklong standoff. Another official, speaking to reporters in Simferopol, the regional capital of Crimea, announced plans to build railway bridges connecting Crimea with mainland Russia, bypassing Ukraine. In Kiev, the capital, tens of thousands rallied in Independence Square to celebrate the birth of Taras Shevchenko, a poet who is a symbol of Ukrainian nationhood. The gathering was both a riposte to Russia and a memorial service for the more than 80 people who died there.
Russia, meanwhile, made clear that it planned to move forward with some form of recognition after Crimea’s referendum vote March 16 on the regional assembly’s move to secede from Ukraine. “Our fathers and grandfathers have spilled their blood for this land,” said the interim prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, who will visit the White House on Wednesday. “We won’t budge a single centimeter from Ukrainian land. Let Russia and its president know this.”
In a conversation with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia made a forceful case for the legitimacy of Crimea’s referendum, telling them, “The steps taken by the legitimate leadership of Crimea are based on the norms of international law and aim to ensure the legal interests of the population of the peninsula,” according to a statement from the Kremlin on Sunday. Yet in Sevastopol, Crimea, a pro-Ukraine rally attended by several hundred people was attacked by pro-Russia supporters — some brandishing whips — who had their own large rally there. In the Crimean capital, Simferopol, about 400 people, a mixture of pro-Ukrainian Russians and Tartars, gathered around a statue of Shevchenko while listening to readings of his works and speeches calling for Russian troops to withdraw. The police there stopped a group of hooded men from approaching the rally.
“Vladimir Putin also drew the attention of his interlocutors to the absence of any effort by the authorities in Kiev to limit the riot of ultranationalist and radical forces in the capital and many other regions,” the statement said. Though the leaders had different readings of the situation, it said, “There was an expression of interest in de-escalating the tension and soonest possible normalization of conditions.” In Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, thousands of pro-Russian activists took over the city’s main thoroughfare to call for greater autonomy from Kiev and a referendum on secession. Vitali Klitschko, the former boxing champion and opposition politician who is now a presidential candidate, visited Donetsk to appeal for calm after days of violence between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters.
Pavel Dorokhin, deputy chairman of the State Duma’s committee on industry, said Russia had set aside 40 billion rubles, or about $1.1 billion, to rebuild Crimea’s industrial infrastructure. After the referendum, he said, Crimea may take on one of three statuses within Russia – that of a region, a territory or an autonomous republic. “The current conflict and aggression must be resolved,” Mr. Klitschko told reporters at a news conference, urging residents to support national unity and stating that he was worried that the events in Crimea may repeat themselves here, in the country’s east. “It must not be solved through bloodshed.”
“We are ready to back any of these options, with regard for the people’s opinion,” Mr. Dorokhin said, during a visit to Simferopol on Sunday, according to Interfax. Another deputy, Vladimir Bessonov, said the Duma would amend a law in the coming week to facilitate Crimea’s accession to Russia. He said it would be a “lawful process.” He laid a wreath at a statue of Shevchenko, but canceled a scheduled appearance at a rally at the request of the police.
“No one from abroad can tell us how to live,” he said. In nearby Luhansk, the regional capital of a coal-mining region bordering Russia, several thousand protesters occupied a regional administration building, where the region’s governor, a Kiev appointee, is based, and raised the Russian flag.
On Saturday, a Ukrainian border plane was fired on near the boundary between Crimea and Russia, according to Ukrainian authorities, and witnesses reported seeing around 200 military vehicles unloaded from amphibious ships sent from Russia. As Ukrainians rallied on Sunday, leaders of several nations continued to pursue diplomacy. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany both spoke with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Cameron’s office relayed that Mr. Putin “said that Russia did want to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis” and “agreed that it is in all our interests to have a stable Ukraine.”
“If you don’t want to owe allegiance to the new administration, we will do everything to ensure that you quietly and peacefully leave the territory — no problem,” said Mr. Konstantinov, the chairman of Crimea’s legislature, in remarks carried by the Interfax news service. “The people are in a difficult situation; they have taken oaths. However, it is a big question who they owed allegiance to.” By the British account, Mr. Putin said he would discuss proposals for a contact group, which the West envisages involving direct talks between Moscow and Kiev.
He said those who stayed will become part of “new armed forces, with new regulations and new conditions of labor renumerations, years in grade and pension.” Interfax reported on Saturday that the separatist government swore in armed units that they described as “the Armed Forces of the Republic of Crimea.” The German government said Ms. Merkel made it clear that any Crimean referendum was illegal and that it would not be recognized internationally. On Thursday, the chancellor said that if a contact group was not formed soon and no progress was made in negotiations with Russia, the European Union could impose sanctions on Russia, including travel restrictions and the freezing of assets.
Over the weekend there were signs of a modest willingness on the part of Russia and Ukraine to seek a diplomatic resolution to the widening crisis. On Sunday, a spokesman for the European Union said she hoped for a thorough investigation into the identity of snipers who shot demonstrators in Kiev. According to the Kremlin’s account of the call, however, Mr. Putin “underlined in particular that the steps taken by Crimea’s legitimate authorities are based on international law and aimed at guaranteeing the legitimate interests of the peninsula’s population” and that Kiev was not acting “to limit the rampant behavior of ultranationalists and radical forces in the capital and in many regions.”
In Moscow, an unidentified military official told Russian news agencies that Russia was considering suspending inspections of its strategic nuclear arsenal required by arms-reduction treaties, as well as other military cooperation accords meant to build confidence and avoid confrontations. The Kremlin statement continued: “Despite the differences in the assessments of what is happening,” the three leaders “expressed a common interest in de-escalation of the tensions and normalization of the situation as soon as possible.”
The official said the move was justified by “baseless threats” against Russia by the United States and NATO. A suspension of the inspections would undermine a pillar of international security and expand the confrontation beyond Ukraine. The new Ukrainian government and its supporters, the United States and the European Union, reject the legitimacy of the Crimea referendum, scheduled for March 16, and deny that any ethnic Russians or Russian speakers have been threatened or harmed in Ukraine.
Although President Obama has made it clear that the United States does not want to escalate the Crimean crisis, the Pentagon has stepped up training operations in Poland and sent fighter jets to patrol the skies over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, three former Soviet republics with sizable populations of ethnic Russians. Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament, had said on Friday that Ukrainian troops remaining there should “quietly and peacefully” leave the territory unless they were willing to renounce their loyalty to Kiev and serve the region’s new administration.
Over the weekend, Mr. Obama had phone consultations about Ukraine with the French president and the British and Italian prime ministers, then had a conference call with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are NATO members. Late Sunday, Mr. Konstantinov told reporters that the Ukrainian military installations “in large part have come under control — they are blocked, and their weapons are under joint control.” That was only partially true, since Russian forces were still demanding that Ukrainian forces disarm and surrender.
He pledged that the United States, as a NATO ally, had an “unwavering commitment” to their defense, according to the White House’s account of the call. He said the Ukrainian forces’ final status will be determined after the referendum. “If they want to serve the people of Crimea, they need to inform us of that,” he said. “Those who do not want to, we will secure their safe exit from the territory of Crimea, and they can leave the peninsula.”
In a separate phone conversation on Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry warned the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, 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,” a State Department official said. Pavel Dorokhin, deputy chair of the State Duma’s committee on industry, said while on a visit to Simferopol that Russia has set aside 40 billion rubles, or about $1.1 billion, to rebuild Crimea’s industrial infrastructure. He said that after the referendum, Crimea may take on one of three statuses within Russia — that of a region, a territory or an autonomous republic.
In Kiev, Ukraine’s new foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsa, said some small progress had been made to form a “contact group” of foreign diplomats to mediate the country’s confrontation with Russia after the occupation of Crimea by Russian soldiers and local “self-defense” groups more than a week ago. Washington has sought to establish the contact group — which would include Russia, Ukraine, Britain, France and the United States — as a way to bring Moscow and Kiev to the negotiating table. In the United States, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Antony J. Blinken, rejected the notion that Crimea was now effectively Russian. “It’s not a done deal,” he said on the CNN program “State of the Union.” “I think the door is clearly open to resolving this diplomatically.”
He noted that Mr. Obama and European leaders continued to engage with Mr. Putin.
“Russia’s paying a price for this,” he said. “The question now is whether they will take the off ramp that the president and our partners around Europe have proposed. There is a way out of this that can take into account Russia’s interests and concerns, but restores Ukraine’s sovereignty. That’s what we’re working on.”
Robert M. Gates, a former defense secretary, was less optimistic, telling “Fox News Sunday”: “I do not believe that Crimea will slip out of Russia’s hands.” He said of Mr. Putin: “I don’t think that he will stop in Ukraine until there is a government in Ukraine, in Kiev, that is essentially pro-Russian.”
Although President Obama has made it clear that the United States does not want to escalate the Crimean crisis, the Pentagon has increased training operations in Poland and sent fighter jets to patrol the skies over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, three former Soviet republics with sizable populations of ethnic Russians.
In Kiev, the rally on Sunday was also addressed by an emotional Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oil oligarch who spent years in prison after he challenged Mr. Putin. Mr. Khodorkovsky was released in December.
“I want you to know that there is another Russia,” he said. “There are people who despite the arrests, despite the long years they have spent in prison, go to antiwar demonstrations in Moscow” and support “friendship between the Russian and Ukrainian people.” He said he saw no more “fascists or neo-Nazis” in Kiev than “on the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg.”
Mr. Khodorkovsky added, “I believe that Russia and Ukraine have a united, common European future.”