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BARACK Obama last night vowed Western unity in punishing Moscow for annexing Crimea, ahead of crisis talks that could see Russia kicked out of the G8, as the last troops loyal to Kiev were pulled out of Crimea. “Europe and America are united in our support of the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people, we’re united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions so far,” the US President told journalists at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.
Obama then headed to The Hague where he has called an emergency Group of Seven summit to discuss what steps to take in the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.
Russian troops have rapidly overrun the flashpoint Black Sea peninsula since the fall of a pro-Moscow government in Kiev a month ago, and yesterday Kremlin troops seized another military base in Feodosia. Paratroopers and armoured personnel carriers stormed the naval base in in eastern Crimea. Vehicles were seen leaving the base carrying Ukrainian marines whose hands had been tied.
“The national security and defence council has reached a decision, under instructions from the defence ministry, to conduct a redeployment of military units stationed in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea,” Mr Turchynov told MPs in Kiev.
A senior official in the pro-Russian regional government later confirmed that all troops loyal to Ukraine had left their bases in Crimea.
Russia’s takeover of the region, which it views as a reunification, has forced Western leaders to rethink the relationship after a post-Cold War period in which they sought to bring Russia into the broader international community. With Russia massing what Nato has described as a “very sizeable” force on its border with Ukraine, there are fears President Vladimir Putin is hungry for more Ukrainian territory.
The crisis will dominate the summit in The Hague, originally set up to discuss nuclear security.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit for what may be their most tense talks to date.
It will be their first meeting since Washington imposed financial restrictions on powerful members of the Putin inner circle for their decision to resort to force in response to the fall of Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin regime after three months of protests.
Mr Kerry has already warned that Moscow risks losing its place among the G8 — of which it is currently chair — because of the Crimea crisis.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US must discuss Russia’s permanent expulsion from the G8, to which it was admitted in 1998 as a reward for choosing a democratic post-Soviet course.
Ukraine’s Western-backed leaders have voiced fears of an imminent Russian invasion of the eastern industrial heartland, three weeks after the Kremlin sent troops into the peninsula before sealing its annexation on Friday.
Some other former communist bloc nations fear for their security in the face of Russian expansionism, and President Obama reiterated Nato’s solemn obligation to mutual defence.
“No one should ever question the commitment of the US to the security of Europe,” he told the Dutch Volkskrant newspaper yesterday, saying Nato was “the strongest and most effective alliance in human history”.
He said sanctions on the Russian economy would also have an impact on the global economy.
“And if Russia continues to escalate the situation, we need to be prepared to impose a greater cost.” — AFP.
Online Reporter