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Ukraine’s Interim Leader Seeks Aid in Washington Obama Makes Diplomatic Push to Defuse Crisis in Ukraine
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday raised the stakes in the showdown with Russia over its invasion of Crimea as he welcomed Ukraine’s interim prime minister to the White House in a defiant show of solidarity and vowed retaliation if Moscow follows through with threats to annex the peninsula. WASHINGTON — President Obama and Ukraine’s interim prime minister opened the door on Wednesday to a political solution that could lead to more autonomy for Crimea if Russian troops withdraw, as the United States embarked on a last-ditch diplomatic effort to defuse a crisis that reignited tensions between East and West.
Mr. Obama said the international community would “completely reject” what he called a “slapdash election” to be held in Crimea to justify annexation by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. But Mr. Obama also approved a last-ditch diplomatic effort by sending Secretary of State John Kerry to London to meet with his Russian counterpart on Friday, just two days before the pivotal referendum supported by Moscow. The tentative feeler came as Mr. Obama dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to London to meet with his Russian counterpart on Friday, two days before a Russian-supported referendum in Crimea on whether to secede from Ukraine. Mr. Obama said the world would “completely reject” what he called a “slapdash election,” but added he still hoped for a peaceful settlement.
“If it continues on the path that it is on, then not only us but the international community, the European Union and others will be forced to apply a cost to Russia’s violations of international law and its encroachments on Ukraine,” Mr. Obama said. “There’s another path available, and we hope that President Putin is willing to seize that path. But if he does not, I’m very confident that the international community will stand strongly behind the Ukrainian government in preserving its unity and its territorial integrity.” In a show of solidarity for the besieged Ukraine, Mr. Obama hosted a White House visit by Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the country’s pro-Western acting prime minister, and vowed to “stand with Ukraine.” But he also hinted at a formulation that could be the basis for the coming talks between Mr. Kerry and Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, recognizing Moscow’s interest in helping the Russian-speaking population in Crimea while affirming that it is part of Ukraine.
The interim Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, in strong words belying his slight frame and sober demeanor, promised to oppose Russian interference in Ukraine. “Mr. President,” he said, addressing Mr. Obama, “it’s all about the freedom. We fight for our freedom. We fight for our independence. We fight for our sovereignty. And we will never surrender.” Mr. Obama said Mr. Yatsenyuk told him that a new Ukrainian government formed after elections scheduled for May 25 could find ways to address Crimea’s concerns. “There is a constitutional process in place and a set of elections that they can move forward on that, in fact, could lead to different arrangements over time with the Crimean region,” Mr. Obama said. “But that is not something that can be done with the barrel of a gun pointed at you.”
Mr. Yatsenyuk’s visit to the White House offered potent symbolism just weeks after the young opposition figure led street protests that toppled a pro-Russian government in Kiev and took control himself, only to now find his nation of 46 million teetering on the edge of financial and geopolitical upheaval. Cast as an enemy by the Kremlin, Mr. Yatsenyuk was celebrated as a hero in Washington as he sought an economic and diplomatic rescue mission for his besieged new government. At a separate appearance later in the day, Mr. Yatsenyuk expressed willingness to consider concessions to Crimea. “We the Ukrainian government are ready to start a nationwide dialogue how to increase the rights of autonomous Republic of Crimea, starting with taxes and ending with other aspects like language issues,” he told an audience at the Atlantic Council.
His visit comes at a critical moment for his country. Russian troops have been solidifying their positions in Crimea in advance of Sunday’s referendum. The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan, in a joint statement as the Group of 7, called the vote illegal on Wednesday and vowed unspecified “further action” if Russia annexes the peninsula. Any such discussion, he added, had to take place in a “constitutional manner” rather than imposed by Russian troops. But he did not rule out holding a local referendum if authorized by the Ukrainian Parliament. “Only afterward, this referendum could be a constitutional one,” he said.
Just as significant on his agenda for Washington, Mr. Yatsenyuk sought a booster shot for Ukraine’s flailing economy. Mr. Kerry has committed $1 billion in loan guarantees, and Congress is working on legislation to make that happen, but that is just a small fraction of what Ukraine is reported to need to prevent a more dire financial and economic slide. Mr. Yatsenyuk also tried to reassure Moscow by saying he respects the longstanding agreement permitting a Russian naval base in Crimea, and that Ukraine would make no provocative moves like cutting off water, electricity and other supplies to the peninsula, which has no direct land connection to Russia.
Mr. Yatsenyuk was scheduled to meet on Wednesday evening at the Capitol with Speaker John A. Boehner and later with Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and the rest of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But he used his visit to Washington to make clear that despite his preference for talks, his government would not accept partition of the country. “Mr. President,” he told Mr. Obama in the Oval Office, “it’s all about the freedom. We fight for our freedom. We fight for our independence. We fight for our sovereignty. And we will never surrender.”
“Putin has miscalculated by starting a game of Russian roulette with the international community,” Mr. Menendez wrote in The Washington Post on Wednesday, “but we refuse to blink, and we will never accept this violation of international law.” Mr. Kerry employed similarly tough language during testimony Wednesday on Capitol Hill, where he said the United States and its partners were prepared to impose tough sanctions if Russia moved to annex Crimea. “It can get ugly fast if the wrong choices are made, and it can get ugly in multiple directions,” he said. “Our hope is that there is a way to have a reasonable outcome here.”
Mr. Menendez, the committee’s chairman, took up legislation on Wednesday that would provide the loan guarantees for Ukraine as well as $50 million to help encourage democracy in Ukraine and an additional $100 million for enhanced security cooperation with Ukraine and other East European states. It would also authorize sanctions in addition to those contemplated by Mr. Obama. In fact, he suggested the two sides could continue talking even if Sunday’s referendum is held, as long as Russia stops short of annexation. “There are a lot of variants here, which is why it is urgent that we have this conversation with the Russians,” he said. The United States has “exchanged some thoughts” with Moscow on how to address the crisis, he said, but the two sides “haven’t had a meeting of the minds.”
The bill passed the committee 14 to 3, but is on a collision course with the House, where Republicans passed their own version of the loan guarantees. Senate Democrats want to attach long-stalled changes to the International Monetary Fund to the bill, while House Republicans oppose that. For Mr. Yatsenyuk, the visit to Washington was not just about rallying support against Russia but was also an effort to seek an economic booster shot for his vulnerable economy. Yet even as both American political parties celebrated Mr. Yatsenyuk as a hero and promised to help Ukraine, a bid to provide financial assistance bogged down in a polarized Congress.
Mr. Yatsenyuk has become the face of the new Ukrainian government after leading months of street protests against Mr. Yanukovych. Thin, balding and bespectacled, Mr. Yatsenyuk, 39, brings a long résumé to the post, having served as economics minister, foreign minister and speaker of Parliament. With his roots in the opposition party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, he ran for president in 2010 but won just 7 percent of the vote in the first round. The Republican-led House has passed legislation authorizing $1 billion in loan guarantees, but the Democratic-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday passed, in a 14-to-3 vote, an alternative version that attached long-stalled reforms to the International Monetary Fund sought by the Obama administration. The administration and its allies contend that the I.M.F. changes would raise loan limits for countries like Ukraine, while House Republicans maintain they would weaken American influence at the organization and expose taxpayers to more risk.
Nonetheless, he has been seen as a favorite of Washington, especially compared with some of his allies in the opposition movement. “I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience,” Victoria J. Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for the region, told a colleague in a January telephone call that was mysteriously tapped and later posted on the Internet. The Treasury Department has lobbied Congress to approve the reforms since they were negotiated in 2010, and this moment might be its best chance to finally pass them. With Ukraine in financial free-fall, the department has redoubled its efforts, arguing that the country’s standing in the I.M.F., and the fund’s standing in the world, are at stake.
In a speech to Parliament before leaving Kiev for Washington, Mr. Yatsenyuk noted that the United States, along with Russia and Britain, signed a treaty in 1994 with Ukraine pledging to uphold its security in exchange for its giving up the nuclear weapons it still held at the breakup of the Soviet Union. “We’re already hearing calls by some to say if the United States doesn’t approve them, we should maybe move on without them,” Jacob J. Lew, the Treasury secretary, told a Senate committee on Wednesday. “That’s not a good place for the United States to be.”
“We are not asking for anything from anyone,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said, according to news agencies. “We are asking for just one thing — military aggression has been used against our country. Those who guaranteed that this aggression will not take place must from the one side pull out troops and from the other side must defend our independent, sovereign state.” Some Senate Republicans and other party figures sided with the Obama administration. A group of officials from President George W. Bush’s administration sent a letter of support on Wednesday signed by Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state; Paul H. O’Neill and John W. Snow, the former treasury secretaries; Tom Ridge, the former homeland security secretary; and Stephen J. Hadley, the former national security adviser.
In Kiev on Wednesday, Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, said that Ukraine could not retake Crimea militarily even if it wanted to. “We cannot launch a military operation in Crimea, as we would expose the eastern border and Ukraine would not be protected,” he said, noting that Russia has “significant tank units massed” near the border. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said he was trying to persuade House Republicans to support the I.M.F. changes. “International organizations like the I.M.F. can provide stability at a time we really need it,” he said. “It’s a strategic tool for U.S. foreign policy. We would be shortsighted not to embrace these reforms.”
The Russians seemed uninterested in a diplomatic solution to the Crimea issue, he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse. “They are refusing all contact at foreign ministry and top government level,” Mr. Turchynov said. But Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said the Obama administration was trying to take advantage of the crisis to advance unrelated policy goals. “This legislation is supposed to be about assisting Ukraine and punishing Russia, and the I.M.F. measure completely undercuts both of these goals by giving Putin’s Russia something it wants,” he said, although he missed the committee vote, citing jury duty in Miami.
He said that this Sunday’s referendum in Crimea on joining Russia was “a sham” and its outcome would be decided “in the offices of the Kremlin.” The administration is trying to help the new Ukrainian government in other ways by organizing a business summit meeting, creating an innovation council, consulting on an increase in energy security, providing military rations, increasing student exchanges and sending the F.B.I. to help locate assets looted by the pro-Russian government in Kiev toppled by street protests last month.
Ukraine would not provide Russia “a pretext to intervene on the Ukrainian mainland” despite provocation, Mr. Turchynov said. With Mr. Yatsenyuk at his side, Mr. Obama pledged again to “apply a cost” on Russia if it does not reverse course in Ukraine. “There’s another path available, and we hope that President Putin is willing to seize that path,” he said. “But if he does not, I’m very confident that the international community will stand strongly behind the Ukrainian government in preserving its unity and its territorial integrity.”
His warnings were echoed Wednesday by Andriy Parubiy, head of the new government’s National Security and Defense Council, who said that “Ukraine today is facing the threat of a full-scale invasion from various directions.”
Russian forces near the border include more than 80,000 soldiers, up to 270 tanks, up to 370 artillery systems, up to 140 combat aircraft, up to 40 helicopters and up to 19 combat ships and boats, Mr. Parubiy said.
He said that Russian “provocateurs” trying to foment reasons for a Russian invasion have been active in the Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson regions but have been foiled by Ukrainian police and security forces, and that 3,700 Russians suspected of wanting to stir trouble have been denied entry to Ukraine.
Mr. Parubiy also said that 399 “refugees” from Crimea had already been registered. “These people feel threat to their lives,” he said. “They are moving to a safe territory where we can ensure the protection of their constitutional rights.” Many of them are Crimean Tatars, he said.
About 560 people have fled Crimea in the last few days, with almost 400 arriving on the mainland, Ukraine’s border guards service said. On Wednesday alone, 158 people, mostly Muslim Tatars, left Crimea for mainland Ukraine.