US secretary of state John Kerry heads to Kiev as senior officials attempt to defuse crisis in Ukraine
Western leaders scrambled to defuse the crisis in Ukraine without shots being fired as the US conceded Moscow had "complete operational control of the Crimean peninsula".
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, was due to fly to Kiev on Monday evening in a further attempt to halt Russia's advance into Ukrainian territory, having conceded that Crimea had fallen to Moscow in a bloodless takeover.
Senior US officials have dismissed claims that Washington is incapable of exerting influence on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, but were forced to admit Crimea had been successfully invaded by 6,000 airborne and ground troops in what could be the start of a wider invasion.
"They are flying in reinforcements and they are settling in," said one senior official. Another said: "Russian forces now have complete operational control of the Crimean peninsula."
On Monday morning, Russian soldiers were reported to have further cemented their control over the region overnight having seized a ferry terminal in the Ukrainian port city of Kerchson, about 20km from Russia. The soldiers were reported to be Russian speaking, driving vehicles with Russian number plates, but refused to confirm their identity. Residents of the neighbouring port town Nikolayev also reported Russian troops had arrived overnight, intensifying fears that Moscow will send further troops beyond the Russian-speaking Crimean peninsula into eastern Ukraine.
Russia's Interfax news agency reported that Russian fighter jets twice violated Ukraine's air space over the Black Sea during the night. It said Ukraine's air force had scrambled a Sukhoi Su-27 interceptor aircraft and prevented any "provocative actions".
Ukrainian border guards reported a buildup of armoured vehicles near a ferry port on the Russian side of the Kerch Channel – a narrow sea channel dividing Russia and Ukraine. A statement from the guard spokesperson said Russian ships had also been moving in and around the city of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea fleet has a base, and that Russian forces had blocked telephone services in some areas.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said on Monday morning he had discussed Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart and their views coincided on the situation there. Lavrov said in a statement that the two veto-wielding UN security council members would stay in close contact on the issue.
So far, Kiev and the west have appeared powerless to counter Russia's tactics. As Russia's military progress into Ukranian territory continued unapologetically, EU foreign ministers urged high-level mediation to resolve the crisis surrounding the invasion of Crimea – the greatest confrontation between Russia and the west since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, insisted Crimea remains Ukrainian territory despite the presence of Russian military. During a joint news conference in Kiev with the British foreign secretary, William Hague, Yatsenyuk said: "Any attempt of Russia to grab Crimea will have no success at all. Give us some time. For today, no military options [are] on the table." He added that economic and political support are needed urgently. "Real support. Tangible support. And we do believe that our western partners will provide this support," Yatsenyuk said.
On Monday Hague threatened Russia with sanctions and pledged £10m in financial assistance to Ukraine. He said the UK was not considering military action but added "the world cannot just allow this to happen". He later tweeted: "Have held talks in Kyiv wtih Acting President Turchynov and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk. UK will stand by gov and people of #Ukraine."
The British foreign ministry has said it is considering a range of economic sanctions against Russia. Germany, meanwhile, has proposed a creating a "contact group" to work on resolving the crisis by opening a channel of communication between Moscow and Kiev. "Crisis diplomacy is not a weakness but it will be more important than ever to not fall into the abyss of military escalation," the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told reporters ahead of an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke to Putin on Sunday evening to encourage him to back down from his invasion and suggest a "fact-finding" mission to Ukraine, possibly led by the Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, currently chaired by Switzerland.
According to US reports, Merkel phoned Barack Obama after speaking to the Russian president and said he had lost "touch with reality". The New York Times reported: "She was not sure he was in touch with reality, people briefed on the call said. 'In another world,' she said."
Hague and Obama's administration have called for Putin to withdraw his troops in Crimea to Russian military bases on the peninsula, attempting to use political and economic threats to prevent any further military incursion.
One senior official said the major decision facing Putin was whether to "continue to escalate troop movements into other parts of Ukraine". "We've already seen the intervention in Crimea," the official said. "It would be even further destabilising to expand that intervention into eastern Ukraine. Our bottom line is they had to pull back from what they've already done, go back into their bases in Crimea. We'll be watching very, carefully of course and will be concerned if we saw further escalation into eastern Ukraine."
Kerry will fly to Kiev to meet Ukraine's new government on Monday evening and display "strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty", a state department official said. However, in Washington there were mounting questions, particularly from Republican opponents of the administration, about the influence Kerry and other officials have over Moscow.
Kerry, Obama and other senior officials spent the past 24 hours attempting to rally an international coalition of countries to condemn Moscow over the Crimea invasion, and commit to economic sanctions in order to prevent a further advance into other pro-Russian parts of Ukraine. Obama spoke on the phone with Merkel, the prime minister, David Cameron, and the Polish president, Bronisław Komorowski.
"We are concerned as we watch this situation that the Russians have badly miscalculated," one senior official said. "There is a fierce and proud tradition in Ukraine of defending their sovereignty and territorial integrity. So far Ukraine has showed, and Ukrainians individually have showed, marked restraint … but the longer this situation goes on, the more delicate it becomes."
On Sunday, Kerry told CBS leading western nations were prepared to enact economic sanctions against Russia over what he called an "incredible act of aggression".
"You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext," Kerry said. "It is really a stunning, wilful choice by President Putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia is in violation of its international obligations."
Asked how the US and its allies might respond, Kerry stressed the economic harm that could befall Russia if it continued its occupation of Crimea, but repeatedly said "all options" were under consideration. Reported by guardian.co.uk 54 minutes ago.
Western leaders scrambled to defuse the crisis in Ukraine without shots being fired as the US conceded Moscow had "complete operational control of the Crimean peninsula".
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, was due to fly to Kiev on Monday evening in a further attempt to halt Russia's advance into Ukrainian territory, having conceded that Crimea had fallen to Moscow in a bloodless takeover.
Senior US officials have dismissed claims that Washington is incapable of exerting influence on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, but were forced to admit Crimea had been successfully invaded by 6,000 airborne and ground troops in what could be the start of a wider invasion.
"They are flying in reinforcements and they are settling in," said one senior official. Another said: "Russian forces now have complete operational control of the Crimean peninsula."
On Monday morning, Russian soldiers were reported to have further cemented their control over the region overnight having seized a ferry terminal in the Ukrainian port city of Kerchson, about 20km from Russia. The soldiers were reported to be Russian speaking, driving vehicles with Russian number plates, but refused to confirm their identity. Residents of the neighbouring port town Nikolayev also reported Russian troops had arrived overnight, intensifying fears that Moscow will send further troops beyond the Russian-speaking Crimean peninsula into eastern Ukraine.
Russia's Interfax news agency reported that Russian fighter jets twice violated Ukraine's air space over the Black Sea during the night. It said Ukraine's air force had scrambled a Sukhoi Su-27 interceptor aircraft and prevented any "provocative actions".
Ukrainian border guards reported a buildup of armoured vehicles near a ferry port on the Russian side of the Kerch Channel – a narrow sea channel dividing Russia and Ukraine. A statement from the guard spokesperson said Russian ships had also been moving in and around the city of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea fleet has a base, and that Russian forces had blocked telephone services in some areas.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said on Monday morning he had discussed Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart and their views coincided on the situation there. Lavrov said in a statement that the two veto-wielding UN security council members would stay in close contact on the issue.
So far, Kiev and the west have appeared powerless to counter Russia's tactics. As Russia's military progress into Ukranian territory continued unapologetically, EU foreign ministers urged high-level mediation to resolve the crisis surrounding the invasion of Crimea – the greatest confrontation between Russia and the west since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, insisted Crimea remains Ukrainian territory despite the presence of Russian military. During a joint news conference in Kiev with the British foreign secretary, William Hague, Yatsenyuk said: "Any attempt of Russia to grab Crimea will have no success at all. Give us some time. For today, no military options [are] on the table." He added that economic and political support are needed urgently. "Real support. Tangible support. And we do believe that our western partners will provide this support," Yatsenyuk said.
On Monday Hague threatened Russia with sanctions and pledged £10m in financial assistance to Ukraine. He said the UK was not considering military action but added "the world cannot just allow this to happen". He later tweeted: "Have held talks in Kyiv wtih Acting President Turchynov and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk. UK will stand by gov and people of #Ukraine."
The British foreign ministry has said it is considering a range of economic sanctions against Russia. Germany, meanwhile, has proposed a creating a "contact group" to work on resolving the crisis by opening a channel of communication between Moscow and Kiev. "Crisis diplomacy is not a weakness but it will be more important than ever to not fall into the abyss of military escalation," the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told reporters ahead of an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke to Putin on Sunday evening to encourage him to back down from his invasion and suggest a "fact-finding" mission to Ukraine, possibly led by the Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, currently chaired by Switzerland.
According to US reports, Merkel phoned Barack Obama after speaking to the Russian president and said he had lost "touch with reality". The New York Times reported: "She was not sure he was in touch with reality, people briefed on the call said. 'In another world,' she said."
Hague and Obama's administration have called for Putin to withdraw his troops in Crimea to Russian military bases on the peninsula, attempting to use political and economic threats to prevent any further military incursion.
One senior official said the major decision facing Putin was whether to "continue to escalate troop movements into other parts of Ukraine". "We've already seen the intervention in Crimea," the official said. "It would be even further destabilising to expand that intervention into eastern Ukraine. Our bottom line is they had to pull back from what they've already done, go back into their bases in Crimea. We'll be watching very, carefully of course and will be concerned if we saw further escalation into eastern Ukraine."
Kerry will fly to Kiev to meet Ukraine's new government on Monday evening and display "strong support for Ukrainian sovereignty", a state department official said. However, in Washington there were mounting questions, particularly from Republican opponents of the administration, about the influence Kerry and other officials have over Moscow.
Kerry, Obama and other senior officials spent the past 24 hours attempting to rally an international coalition of countries to condemn Moscow over the Crimea invasion, and commit to economic sanctions in order to prevent a further advance into other pro-Russian parts of Ukraine. Obama spoke on the phone with Merkel, the prime minister, David Cameron, and the Polish president, Bronisław Komorowski.
"We are concerned as we watch this situation that the Russians have badly miscalculated," one senior official said. "There is a fierce and proud tradition in Ukraine of defending their sovereignty and territorial integrity. So far Ukraine has showed, and Ukrainians individually have showed, marked restraint … but the longer this situation goes on, the more delicate it becomes."
On Sunday, Kerry told CBS leading western nations were prepared to enact economic sanctions against Russia over what he called an "incredible act of aggression".
"You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext," Kerry said. "It is really a stunning, wilful choice by President Putin to invade another country. Russia is in violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia is in violation of its international obligations."
Asked how the US and its allies might respond, Kerry stressed the economic harm that could befall Russia if it continued its occupation of Crimea, but repeatedly said "all options" were under consideration. Reported by guardian.co.uk 54 minutes ago.