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Russian Troops Seize Gas Plant Beyond Crimean Border, Ukraine Says Russian Troops Seize Gas Plant Beyond Crimean Border, Ukraine Says
(about 4 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — At least 80 Russian troops landed by helicopter Saturday to seize a natural gas terminal just beyond the regional border of Crimea, the Ukrainian government said. The action was Russia’s most provocative since its forces took over Crimea two weeks ago. SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Tensions mounted on the eve of a secession referendum here in Crimea as helicopter-borne Russian forces made a provocative incursion just beyond the peninsula’s regional border to seize a natural gas terminal while American and European officials prepared sanctions to impose on Moscow as early as Monday.
The latest troop advance comes one day before Crimea is to vote on whether to secede from Ukraine and is testing Ukrainian leaders’ resolve to engage Russia’s much more powerful military if it moved beyond Crimea. The military operation by at least 80 troops landing on a slender sand bar just across Crimea’s northeast border seemed part of a broader effort to strengthen control over the peninsula before a vote Sunday on whether its majority Russian-speaking population wants to demand greater autonomy from Ukraine or break completely and join Russia. Whatever its tactical goals, it sent a defiant message to the United States and Europe and underscored that a diplomatic resolution to Russia’s recent takeover of Crimea remains elusive.
By late afternoon, Ukranian troops were stationed outside the gas plant, which is on a slender sand bar to the east of the Crimean Peninsula, according to Unian, a Ukrainian news service that spoke to local police. The news agency did not say if shots had been fired. The raid came as American and European diplomats essentially forced Russia to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution declaring the Sunday referendum illegal. Western diplomats hoped the result would reinforce Russia’s growing international isolation. Russia cast the only vote against the resolution; even China, its traditional ally on the Council, did not vote with Moscow but abstained, an indication of its unease with Russia’s violation of another country’s sovereignty.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry issued a statement saying Ukraine “reserves the right to use all necessary measures” to stop what it called “the military invasion by Russia.” American and European officials worked through the day readying lists of Russians to penalize after the referendum, including possibly vital members of President Vladimir V. Putin’s inner circle. Among the Russians under consideration for Western sanctions, according to officials, are Sergei K. Shoigu, the defense minister; Aleksandr V. Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service; Nikolai P. Patrushev, the secretary of the security council; Sergei B. Ivanov and Vladislav Surkov, two of Mr. Putin’s closest and most powerful advisers; Dmitri O. Rogozin, a deputy prime minister; Aleksei Miller, the chief executive of Gazprom, the state energy giant; and Igor Sechin, head of the oil company Rosneft.
Ukrainians have feared for some time that as Russia tightened its control over Crimea, it would also try to secure key infrastructure supporting the peninsula that lie outside its administrative borders, including a reservoir of fresh water in Ukraine’s Kherson region. The sanctions would ban the targets from traveling to Europe or the United States and freeze any assets they had in either place. Western officials said they do not plan to sanction Mr. Putin himself, at least at this point, because he is a head of state, nor do they intend to target Sergey V. Lavrov, the foreign minister, because he needs to travel if there are any future diplomatic talks.
Unian reported initially that helicopters had landed near the village of Strelkovoye on the Arabatskaya Spit, in the Azov Sea that links Crimea to the mainland. Moreover, American and European officials said President Obama and his European counterparts may not start with the list of Putin confidants in whatever sanctions are imposed immediately after the referendum, so as to have the means to further escalate their response should Russia continue to press its seizure of Ukrainian territory. Instead, they may start with lower-level officials, military leaders, business tycoons or parliamentarians.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry statement said about 80 troops landed on the spit, supported by four helicopters and three armored vehicles. The Ukrainian ministry of defense said it also had scrambled aircraft without specifying what type. Mr. Obama’s cabinet secretaries and top advisers huddled in the White House on Saturday to discuss their strategy, joined by Secretary of State John Kerry, who landed in Washington after a fruitless last-ditch diplomatic trip to talk with Mr. Lavrov in London.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said on Saturday afternoon that American officials had not confirmed the reported incursion and had no comment. The degree of sanctions and the exact timing may depend on how Moscow reacts immediately after the referendum, which is almost universally expected to approve seceding from Ukraine and becoming part of Russia, officials said. If Mr. Putin moves promptly to initiate annexation, that would trigger immediate action, but if he holds back and leaves room for talks, Washington and Brussels may defer.
The Russian move appeared to fit the pattern of deployment on Crimea: Unian cited local residents saying soldiers without identifying insignia had landed near the gas terminal but their origin was hardly in doubt, as they had landed in helicopters with Russia’s red-star tail art. Russia left little impression of backing down on Saturday. Russian forces made a muscular show of added strength here in Simferopol, the regional capital, stationing armed personnel carriers in at least two locations in the city center and parking two large troop carriers outside the headquarters of the election commission.
Even before the incursion, Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, warned on Saturday that, “the situation is very dangerous. I am not exaggerating. There is a real danger of an invasion of Ukrainian territory.” He called on Parliament to hold an extraordinary session Monday morning to authorize emergency funding to the ministry of defense. The more provocative move, however, was the seizure of the gas terminal near a town called Strelkovoye, which drew new threats of a military response from the Ukrainian government. Until now, it has refrained from responding in force to Russian actions, but it sent troops Saturday to surround the gas terminal, though there were no immediate indications of any shots being fired, according to a Ukrainian news service quoting local police.
Ukrainian officials were especially anxious because of reports of street fighting breaking out in cities in the eastern provinces of Ukraine between protesters who are pro-Russian and those who support the Ukrainian government in Kiev. Russian officials have said they stood ready to enter the Ukrainian mainland if they felt ethnic Russian citizens were in danger. In Kiev, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Ukraine “reserves the right to use all necessary measures” to stop what it called “the military invasion by Russia.”
On Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry reiterated that. “Russia has received many calls to protect peaceful citizens,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “These requests are being considered.” The White House suggested the move only increased the likelihood of sanctions. “We remain concerned about any attempt by Russia to increase tensions or threaten the Ukrainian people, and as we have long said if Russia continues to take escalatory steps, there will be consequences,” said Caitlin Hayden, a White House spokeswoman.
The statement went on to denounce what it called provocations against ethnic Russians in several eastern cities, including Kharkiv, where two people were killed and several wounded in a violent clash on Friday night. The pro-Russian government in Crimea issued a statement saying its “self-defense” forces had seized the gas terminal because Ukraine had turned off the supply of fuel, leaving homes, hospitals and schools without heat or electricity. The government also said that it found the terminal rigged with explosives “with the goal of totally destroying it,” which would cut off gas to eastern cities in Crimea.
The Ukrainian military in Crimea had reported Friday that Russian forces on the peninsula were shifting tanks, artillery and troops to the north of the region, toward the Ukrainian mainland. A spokesman in Crimea, Vladislav Seleznyov, said that a column of more than 100 military vehicles was seen on a highway. Elsewhere on the peninsula, he said, troops and trucks towing artillery pieced moved from Kerch, a city near the strait of the same name separating Crimea from Russia, to the north, and a cargo train carried armored vehicles from the south to the north of the region. Those claims, carried by the Interfax news service, were impossible to verify independently. Power in some parts of Crimea appeared to be disrupted in recent days, although it was possible that was because of power lines downed by high winds.
In Russia, there have been numerous anecdotal reports of troop movements near Ukraine’s border. While the military has announced a series of operations to test the readiness of forces, the movements have been seen as preparation for a push across the border. Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov after meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday in London, have insisted that Russia did not intend to send armed forces into southern or eastern Ukraine. Although the Crimean government sought to take responsibility for the operation, there was little doubt that it was conducted by Russian forces given the involvement of helicopters and other sophisticated equipment.
The move appeared to fit the pattern of deployment on Crimea. The Ukrainian Unian news agency cited local residents saying soldiers without identifying insignia had landed near the gas terminal in helicopters with Russia’s red-star tail art.
The showdown at the United Nations was dramatic in its own way. The Russian ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, preceded his veto by saying that Moscow would respect the results of Sunday’s referendum, but he did not say what it would do afterward. He described the referendum as an “extraordinary measure,” expressing the Crimean people’s right to self-determination, made necessary by what he called an “illegal coup carried out by radicals” in Ukraine, referring to the street protests that led to the ouster of President Viktor F. Yanukovych, a Russian ally.
No one had expected the Security Council resolution to pass given Russia’s veto, but Western officials crafted the language to persuade China not to side with Moscow. China is sensitive about talk of secession since it has its own worries about its own restive regions, including Tibet.
“China has always respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states,” said Liu Jieyi, the Chinese ambassador, explaining his abstention before adding a jab at the West: “At the same time, we have noticed foreign interference is also an important reason leading to violent clashes on the streets of Ukraine.”
The officials meeting in Washington and Europe were creating lists based on categories of Russians — government officials, military officers, lawmakers, businessmen and the like. In considering sanctions, they said they were focused on which categories to start with to show resolve and possibly influence Mr. Putin while leaving some on the table to use if he refuses to defuse the crisis.
They saw three scenarios for Monday and beyond: Mr. Putin does not act; he moves to begin the legal processes of annexation; or, in the worst case, he moves to seize parts of eastern Ukraine. While Europeans were initially more reluctant to impose strong measures, officials said their resolve hardened on Thursday when Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke out strongly on Mr. Putin’s actions. They added that there is little disagreement at this point between the United States and Europe on the larger strategy.
Ukrainian officials have been worried about an escalation of Russian military actions, reporting shifting tanks and troops in the north of Crimea, near the Ukrainian mainland. A spokesman in Crimea, Vladislav Seleznyov, said a column of more than 100 military vehicles was seen on a highway.
Elsewhere on the peninsula, he said, troops and trucks towing artillery pieces moved from Kerch, a city near the strait of the same name separating Crimea from Russia, to the north, and a cargo train carried armored vehicles from the south to the north of the region.
In one episode on Saturday night, masked gunmen stormed into the Hotel Moskva where foreign journalists are staying. The heavily armed men, many in plainclothes, searched some rooms. Some journalists said they were searched for weapons, while others said they had passports checked and others said their flash drives had been taken.
Crimean officials arriving on the scene quickly insisted it was nothing more than a training exercise.