Will not cede land to Russia: Kiev
‘No movements, no departures for Crimea by the Ukrainian armed forces are foreseen. They are doing their routine work which the armed (forces) have always had’ said Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh
KIEV/WASHINGTON: Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk yesterday vowed Ukraine would not give “an inch” of its territory to Russia, at a rally of thousands of people in Kiev in honour of 19th-century national hero Taras Shevchenko.
“This is our land. We will not give an inch of it. Russia and its president should know that,” Yatsenyuk said after Russian forces and pro-Kremlin gunmen seized control of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian troops are performing training exercises in base but there are no plans to send the country’s armed forces to the Crimea region, Interfax news agency quoted Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh as saying.
Responding to media speculation about Ukrainian military movements after Russian forces took control of Crimea, Tenyukh said the only troop movements that might be seen would be from one base to another to take part in the training exercises.
“No movements, no departures for Crimea by the armed forces are foreseen. They are doing their routine work which the armed have always had,” he said.
President Barack Obama will meet in Washington this week with Ukraine’s interim prime minister, in a show of support amid a tense stand-off with Russia over control of Crimea.
Obama will host crisis talks with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Wednesday, US Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said, confirming earlier reports.
“He has invited the Ukrainian prime minister to come to the White House on Wednesday to further demonstrate... support,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wanted to find a ‘diplomatic solution’ to the crisis in Ukraine in a telephone call with British Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday, 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. ‘The Russian government has already reserved a lot of money, it’s around 40 billion rubles, to support the development of the industrial and economic infrastructure of Crimea,’ Pavel Dorokhin, deputy chair of the State Duma committee on industry, told reporters in the regional capital Simferopol, Interfax reported. ‘Primarily this is support for enterprises linked to the defence industry, machine building, and maintenance of ships, including the ships of the Black Sea fleet. Here we envisage quite clear measures,’ Dorokhin said. Blinken told NBC television’s “Meet the Press” program.
Yatsenyuk had earlier announced in Kiev that he would travel to the United States, but gave no further details of the planned meetings.
Blinken said the US leader has been rallying world support for Kiev’s fledgling administration and against Russia’s incursion into the Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
“We’ve seen the president put together a major international support package.
“In terms of isolating Russia, what we’ve seen as a result of the mobilised support is the financial markets in Russia have hit lows, the ruble has hit a low, investors are wondering whether to get involved in Russia because of the instability,” Blinken said.
He added: “The president has made clear that going forward in coordination with our partners and allies we have in place a mechanism with sanctions to raise the cost significantly.
“But this is really a choice for the Russians to make. They have to decide whether they want to resolve the diplomatically or whether they want to face growing isolation, growing economic cost.”
“First, if there is an annexation of Crimea, a referendum that moves Crimea from Ukraine to Russia, we won’t recognise it, nor will most of the world,” Blinken said further
“Second, the pressure that we’ve already exerted in coordination with our partners and allies will go up. Obama made it very clear in announcing our sanctions, as did the Europeans, that this is the first step and we’ve put in place a very flexible and very tough mechanism to increase the pressure, to increase the sanctions.”