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In response to U.S. sanctions over Ukraine, Russia may freeze weapons inspections In response to U.S. sanctions over Ukraine, Russia may freeze weapons inspections
(about 5 hours later)
MOSCOW —Russia’s defense ministry is considering freezing American inspections of its strategic weapons arsenal in response to Washington’s decision to authorize sanctions and halt military cooperation with Russia over its military takeover in Crimea, according to news reports Saturday. MOSCOW — Russia broadened its war of words with the United States over Ukraine on Saturday when the Ministry of Defense said it would consider stopping international inspections of its nuclear weapons in response to threatened sanctions from the West.
A statement attributed to an unnamed high-ranking official in the Russian Defense Ministry was carried by Russia’s Interfax news agency Saturday. “The unfounded threats towards Russia from the United States and NATO over its policy on Ukraine are seen by us as an unfriendly gesture,” the ministry said in a statement distributed to Russian news agencies.
The military inspections take place as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between Russia and the United States that involves cutting the nuclear arsenal of both countries. Those threats, the statement said, have created new circumstances, giving Russia the right to pull out of the inspections required under the START treaty with the United States and a separate agreement with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“As the inspections are a measure of trust and the U.S. has effectively declared sanctions, regular bilateral contact in accordance with the treaties is impossible,” the Defense Ministry official told Interfax. Russia, infuriated at the prospect of Western sanctions in response to its intervention in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, has been making one threat after another in recent days, and it has been difficult to distinguish bluster from serious intent. The United States has been urging Russia to pull its troops back to its existing bases for the Black Sea Fleet, and not to annex Crimea.
President Obama has authorized the Treasury Department to impose sanctions on “individuals and entities” held responsible for what he has called illegal Russian military aggression in Crimea, and corruption under previous Ukraine governments. The European Union has threatened similar action. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Russian government had not yet notified the United States of a decision but was expected to uphold its treaty obligations. “We would take very seriously and strongly discourage any Russian decision to cease implementation of its legally binding arms control treaty obligations and other military transparency commitments,” she said.
Lawmakers in Crimea, an autonomous region that is part of Ukraine, voted Thursday to join the Russian Federation and hold a referendum March 16 to validate their decision. The escalating tensions between Washington and Moscow came amid indications that the Russian military presence in Crimea is expanding with every passing day. A convoy with dozens of Russian military trucks was spotted Saturday heading in the direction of an airfield near the Crimean capital, Simferopol, from the city of Feodosia in the east.
The interim government in Ukraine on Saturday said it has no intention of ceding Crimea to Russia, while Moscow accused the West of turning a blind eye to extremists pulling the strings in Kiev and sowing terror in Ukraine. Russia’s Foreign Ministry added its voice to the dispute as well, Saturday. “The crisis in Ukraine was not created by Russia,” the ministry said in a tweet. “Moreover, it was engineered deliberately despite our repeated warnings.”
Though both sides said they were open to negotiations, the heated rhetoric suggested there will be no respite from tensions on the strategic peninsula in the run-up to the referendum. In another tweet, the ministry quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying, “Threats are made not only against officials in Kiev and Ukraine’s regions, but also heads of Russia’s regions bordering on Ukraine.”
“Crimea is and will be Ukrainian territory, and we will not give up Crimea to anyone,” said Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia, in a Saturday news conference in Kiev. The implication was that the revolution in Ukraine was stirred up and encouraged by the West and could spill over into Russia. Moscow has reacted with a campaign in the media suggesting that thugs from Kiev are about to invade the majority Russian-speaking Crimea. Troops in unmarked uniforms — who have told journalists they are Russians — have surrounded Ukrainian bases in Crimea.
Of the upcoming referendum, Deshchytsia said, “It is illegitimate and will not have any legal implications for Crimea, for Ukraine, as well as for the international community.” Crimea has been a growing focus of the Ukrainian crisis since the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych after three months of anti-government protests.
In Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the interim Ukrainian government was beholden to extremists of the Right Sektor, a Ukrainian group that grew out of the uprising. The Crimean parliament has voted to join Russia and called a referendum for next Sunday to confirm the decision. Many ethnic Russians in Crimea consider a return to Russia the righting of a historical wrong done when Russia gave it away to Ukraine in 1954.
“Effectively there is no state control whatsoever over public order, and the music is ordered by the so-called Right Sektor, which operates with methods of terror and intimidation,” Lavrov said. Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia, told reporters Saturday that Ukraine will never cede its claim to Crimea no matter what the outcome of the referendum. Lawmakers in the Russian parliament have said they consider the vote legitimate, and they will support Crimea’s return to Russia.
“Already threats are heard not only against officials in Kiev and other Ukrainian regions, but against the heads of the Russian region’s neighboring Ukraine, as well,” he added, referring to threats e-mailed to four Russian governors, allegedly from Ukrainian radicals. “Crimea is and will be Ukrainian territory and we will not give up Crimea to anyone,” Deschytsia said.
Lavrov said European diplomats had not kept a promise made to Russia last month that radical nationalists would not be involved in governing Ukraine. Dmitro Yarosh, the leader of Right Sektor, has announced he will run for president in elections scheduled for May. Russians accuse him of inciting terrorism and have put him on an international wanted list. Last week, President Obama ordered financial and visa sanctions against officials connected to the events in Crimea, setting off defiant rhetoric in Russia, where some legislators have called for the seizure of property belonging to Western businesses.
In Crimea, pro-Russian groups describing themselves as local self-defense units have started patrolling neighborhoods and campaigning for next week’s election. The cities are mostly calm, with residents going about their lives. Things are more tense, though, around the naval and air bases on the edges and outskirts of town. In a telephone call with U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Friday, Lavrov warned that any sanctions imposed on Russia would backfire, setting off sanctions in return.
Late Friday night, a pro-Russia militia tried to attack a Ukrainian air base outside Sevastopol. Though it remains unclear exactly what happened, a truck with Russian license plates rammed the front gate while the militiamen demanded the Ukrainians hand over their weapons, according to the BBC. The incident ended without a shot being fired. “Lavrov has warned against hasty and ill-considered steps capable of causing damage to the U.S.-Russian relations,” the Foreign Ministry said Friday, “especially sanctions that will inevitably hit the U.S. like a boomerang.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel telephoned Ukraine’s defense minister earlier Friday to stress “the firm commitment of the United States” to support Ukraine, and to praise “the performance and the restraint [of] the Ukrainian armed forces, who have not allowed this situation to escalate,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John F. Kirby said. The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the West of trying to draw Ukraine into closer association with Europe, and said that in so doing it is disregarding the real wishes of the Ukrainian people. “We have witnessed a chain of events that shows that no means are too dirty for our partners,” one statement said last week. “The poorly cloaked attempts to turn a blind eye to the crimes committed in Kiev and in west Ukraine are accompanied by the close monitoring of the actions of the lawful Crimean authorities to independently choose a future for Crimea.”
Kirby confirmed that aircraft would be sent to Poland to “plus-up” an existing U.S. aviation attachment based in Poland but said that decisions on numbers and timing have not been made. The Defense Department sent six F-15 fighter jets to Lithuania this week after Baltic nations requested additional defense assets as part of an existing air patrol mission. Kerry and Lavrov talked by phone again Saturday, saying they must keep the conversation going.
Kirby also clarified that the USS Truxtun, a guided-missile destroyer, was in the Black Sea as part of a routine deployment scheduled before the upheaval in Ukraine. “The minister and the secretary agreed to continue intensive contacts in order to facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Asked about the number of Russian troops in Crimea, he put the total at “near 20,000,” including up to 6,000 that have been newly deployed, in addition to those already stationed at Russian bases in the Ukrainian region. Russia has denied sending any additional troops to Crimea. Russia has denied it is sending more troops into Crimea, but an Associated Press reporter drove behind a convoy of military trucks, some of which had mobile field kitchens in tow and what appeared to be medical equipment. Some of the vehicles had Russian license plates, and soldiers spat at the reporters following them.
Also on Friday, President Obama spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and they “agreed on the need for Russia to pull back its forces, allow for the deployment of international observers and human rights monitors to Crimea, and support free and fair presidential elections in May,” the White House said in a statement. Reports on Russian troop movements in Crimea are difficult to verfy, in part because about 40 military and civilian observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were blocked from entering Crimea for the third day in a row Saturday as they traveled by bus through the Armyansk checkpoint. Tatyana Baeva, a spokeswoman for the OSCE, said the group was turned back by unidentified armed men who fired warning shots. No one was hurt.
Morello reported from Sevastopol, Ukraine. Other confrontations have been more menacing. Late Friday night, masked men in one of the local militia groups that are blocking military bases tried to overrun a Ukranian base outside Sevastopol. The intruders left without firing a shot. But Ukraine’s Channel 5 television said its journalists were beaten by the pro-Russian militiamen as they covered the confrontation.
The instability in Ukraine in general, and particularly in Crimea, led the State Department to issue a travel warning Saturday advising Americans to avoid Ukraine for the time being.
In one of the day’s few cordial exchanges, Ukraine’s ambassador to Moscow, Volodymyr Yelchenko, met Saturday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin. It was the first time that diplomats from the two nations had talked since the crisis began.
“Questions of Russia-Ukrainian relations were discussed in an open atmosphere,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, without providing further details about the meeting, which took place in Moscow.
Morello reported from Sevastopol, Ukraine. Isabel Gorst in Moscow contributed to this report.