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Putin Orders a Surprise Army Exercise Near a Fragile Ukraine Putin Drills Ground Troops at Doorstep of a Fragile Ukraine
(35 minutes later)
MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin ordered a surprise military exercise of ground forces on Ukraine’s doorstep Wednesday, intending to demonstrate his country’s military preparedness amid tensions with Europe and the United States over the turmoil gripping Russia’s western neighbor. MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin ordered a surprise military exercise of ground and air forces on Ukraine’s doorstep Wednesday, intending to demonstrate the country’s military preparedness at a time of heightened tensions with Europe and the United States over the turmoil gripping Russia’s western neighbor.
Mr. Putin’s order, which applied to forces in western Russia and air forces across the country, also included unspecified measures to ensure the security of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in southern Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, a region that was a part of Russia until 1954 and is still heavily populated by ethnic Russians. Russia’s military put tens of thousands of troops in western Russia on alert at 2 p.m. for an exercise that is scheduled to last until March 3. The minister of defense, Sergei K. Shoigu, also announced unspecified measures to tighten security at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
The order came as thousands of ethnic Russians demonstrated in Crimea’s regional capital of Simferopol, protesting the political upheavals in Kiev that felled the pro-Moscow government of President Viktor F. Yanukovych over the weekend and turned him into a fugitive. The orders came as thousands of ethnic Russians gathered outside the regional parliament in Crimea’s capital, Simferopol, to protest the political upheaval in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, that felled the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovych and turned him into a fugitive. Crimea was a part of Russian territory until the Soviet Union ceded it to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine in 1954, and Russians there have already pleaded for the Kremlin’s intervention to protect the region and its population from Ukraine’s new leadership.
“Crimea is Russian!” some screamed, as brawls erupted with rival demonstrators from Crimea’s ethnic Tatar population who support Kiev’s new interim authorities created by the Parliament. “Crimea is Russian!,” some of the protesters screamed as brawls erupted with rival demonstrations by Crimea’s ethnic Tatars supporting the new interim authorities.
Facing increased signs of an impending economic default in the former Soviet republic of 46 million, those interim authorities hastened on Wednesday to accelerate the formation of a new government that could reach agreements for more cash and loans. The national currency, the hryvnia, plunged to near a 2008 low of 10 cents. The latest development deepened the economic and political crisis in Ukraine, even as the interim leaders scrambled on Wednesday to form a new government able to find ways out of an impending economic default. The national currency, the hryvnia, plunged to 10 cents, near a previous low in 2008. The leaders also announced the dissolution of the country’s widely despised riot police, the Berkut, whose officers were blamed for shooting demonstrators last week in Kiev’s central Independence Square.
The interim leaders in Kiev also announced the dissolution of Ukraine’s widely despised Berkut riot police, blamed for many of the shooting deaths of demonstrators during violent clashes last week in Kiev’s central Independence Square. “Berkut is gone,” the acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, announced in a posting on Facebook.
“Berkut is gone,” the acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, wrote in a Facebook posting. General Shoigu announced the snap exercise during a meeting of Russia’s general staff, citing the need to test the readiness of Russia’s armed forces to respond to a “crisis situation,” including a terrorist attack involving biological or chemical weapons.
The Russian military put scores of units on alert at 2 p.m. local time for an exercise that was scheduled to last until March 3, the minister of defense, Sergei K. Shoigu, announced, according to news agencies. Mr. Shoigu’s statement cited the need to test the readiness of the armed forces to respond to a “crisis situation,” including a terrorist attack involving biological or chemical weapons. Senior defense and government officials later said the exercise was not related to the events in Ukraine, which officials here have watched with growing alarm, but they also said there was no reason to postpone them either, and the geopolitical message was clear.
Neither Mr. Shoigu nor the Kremlin mentioned the events in Ukraine, which officials here have watched with growing alarm, but the geopolitical message of the snap drill was unmistakable.
Russia has refused so far to recognize the legitimacy of the new political powers in Ukraine’s Parliament following the flight of President Yanukovych on Saturday, and officials have denounced the actions of opposition leaders now in control.
Two days ago, Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev said the turmoil posed “a real threat to our interests and to our citizens’ lives and health.”
In Crimea, historically a part of Russian territory until the Soviet Union ceded it to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine, ethnic Russians have appealed for the Kremlin’s intervention to protect the region and its population from Ukraine’s opposition leaders.
“I think it is flag waving, but it’s more than that also,” Dmitri Trenin, the director of the Moscow Carnegie Center, said after the announcement of the exercise. “It’s a message to Kiev not to impose its rule in Crimea by force.”“I think it is flag waving, but it’s more than that also,” Dmitri Trenin, the director of the Moscow Carnegie Center, said after the announcement of the exercise. “It’s a message to Kiev not to impose its rule in Crimea by force.”
Russia’s Western Military District — one of four across the country — stretches along the border of northeastern Ukraine and includes the 6th and 20th Armies, with tens of thousands of soldiers. The exercise will also involve the 2nd Army in the Central Military District, as well as airborne, aerospace and military transport commands. Mr. Trenin warned that the exercise could have the opposite effect, rallying Ukrainians against Russia if the country’s territorial integrity appeared threatened.
Russia has refused so far to recognize the legitimacy of the new political powers in Ukraine’s parliament, denounced their actions since Mr. Yanukovych’s flight as inflammatory and divisive, including what the Foreign Ministry described on Wednesday as discrimination toward Russian Orthodox believers. Two days earlier Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev said the turmoil posed “a real threat to our interests and to our citizens’ lives and health.”
The Crimea, where Mr. Yanukovych is believed to be in hiding since he bolted from Kiev over the weekend, has been a particular focus of concern among Russian lawmakers, many of whom share the sentiment that the region is culturally and historically Russian, not Ukrainian. The Black Sea Fleet maintains its headquarters in the port of Sevastopol under a lease that Mr. Yanukovych’s government extended until 2042 after a riotous debate in Ukraine’s parliament in 2010.
Mr. Putin himself has yet to make public remarks on the crisis in Ukraine, but senior officials have vowed not to interfere directly and called on the United States and Europe to do the same. Even so, the public clamor of ethnic Russians in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine has raised fears that Russia could be provoked to intervene.
“Such a scenario is impossible,” Valentina I. Matviyenko, the chairman of Russia’s upper house of Parliament, said on Wednesday, according to Interfax.
Russia’s military exercise will involve nearly 150,000 troops, including the entire Western Military District, one of four across the country, as well as hundreds of tanks and artillery batteries, and dozens of aircraft and ships, the deputy defense minister, Anatoly I. Antonov, said, according to Interfax.
The district, headquartered in St. Petersburg, stretches along the border of northeastern Ukraine and includes the 6th and 20th Armies. The exercise will also involve the 2nd Army in the Central Military District, as well as airborne, aerospace and military transport commands. Mr. Antonov informed the military attaches of several nations of the exercise, including the United States, as required by an agreement negotiated in 2011 and known as the Vienna Document.
Aleksandr Golts, an independent military analyst in Moscow, said that the exercise theoretically could – and he emphasized the word “theoretically” – disguise a more general mobilization of Russia’s military in case a conflict erupted over Ukraine.
“In my view it’s very bad, even if there are no plans to use the military, that maneuvers are being held with the goal of testing the nerves of others,” he said. “That these maneuvers will increase the tenseness of this situation – that is not even a question.”
Since Mr. Putin returned to the presidency for a third term in 2012, he has sought to refurbish and modernize the country’s military, which remains reliant on conscripts despite proposed reforms over the years, by increasing spending for weapons and benefits. Russia conducted a similar exercise last year in the Eastern Military District, which extends across Siberia to the Pacific Coast; it was described as the largest single military drill since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than two decades ago. The military also held smaller exercises in southern Russia ahead of the Olympic Games in Sochi.
General Shoigu, in his remarks, made clear that Russia’s military ambitions extended beyond its borders. He said that Russia intended to expand its military operations and presence globally by holding negotiations with Nicaragua, Venezuela, Singapore and the Seychelles to provide logistical support for strategic air patrols.
“We need refueling bases either in the area of the Equator or elsewhere,” he said, according to Interfax.