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Russia Denies Issuing Ultimatum to Ukraine

As the crisis in Crimea unfolds, reports emerged on Monday about an apparent ultimatum that Russia had delivered to Ukraine’s military.
Photo by Frederick Paxton

Western powers condemned Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine this weekend and its seizure of the nation’s Crimea region. The invasion and consolidation of control over Crimea followed pro-Russian protests that took place there last week. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent an estimated 6,000 troops into the southern peninsula on Saturday in a bold display of armed force that Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has called a “declaration of war.” Yatsenyuk appealed for help from NATO and other Western nations in dealing with Russia’s occupation of sovereign Ukrainian territory.

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Russian troops have seized airports and other facilities, and have surrounded Ukrainian military bases in Crimea. Russia continues to conduct military exercises outside of Ukraine.

Russia Conducts Live Fire Exercises in Baltic.— NATOSource (@NATOSource)March 3, 2014

Following reports on Friday of Russian military movements within Ukraine, President Obama was quick to state that “any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing.” As the crisis in Crimea unfolded the next day, he condemned Russia's invasion and warned that its actions would isolate it politically and economically.

The leaders of the G-7 — a coalition made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States — released a joint statement on Sunday condemning Russia's actions as a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty. “We have decided for the time being to suspend our participation in activities associated with the preparation of the scheduled G-8 Summit in Sochi in June,” the statement said.

Also on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry voiced his displeasure with Putin’s use of military force on NBC's Meet the Press. “Russia is going to lose, the Russian people are going to lose, and he’s going to lose all of the glow that came out of the Olympics, his $60 billion extravaganza,” Kerry said. Kerry plans to visit Kiev on Tuesday.

Reports on Monday suggest that both the US government and the EU are readying economic sanctions against Russia.

Conflicting reports also emerged on Monday about an apparent ultimatum that Russia had delivered to Ukraine's military.

The Ukrainian news agency Interfax reported earlier today that an official from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed that the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet had issued an ultimatum for the Ukrainian military to surrender by 5:00 AM on Tuesday or face an assault. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson quickly dismissed this report as “total nonsense” and told the Russian news agency, RT, We’re interested in keeping friendly relations with the people of Ukraine and in preserving stability.

Russia has asserted its right to intervene in Ukraine on the pretext of protecting the safety of Russians living in Crimea — the same justification it used for its 2008 invasion of Georgia. In a speech given at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had the unenviable task of insisting that Russia's actions were in fact defensive, not aggressive: “We are talking here about protection of our citizens and compatriots, about protection of the most fundamental of the human rights — the right to live, and nothing more.”