[There were reports
Sunday evening that the newly appointed Ukrainian Navy chief, Rear Adm. Denis
Berezovsky, had sworn allegiance to “the people of Crimea” and its new
government. A YouTube video showed an anxious, sweating Admiral Berezovsky,
eyes downcast, quickly pledging to protect the region and its people —
ostensibly against the Kiev government. Embarrassed officials in Kiev
immediately removed him and said they would investigate him for treason.]
By Steven
Erlanger
KIEV, Ukraine — With small military standoffs around
Ukrainian bases continuing in Russian-controlled Crimea and deepening anxiety
about Russian intentions in eastern Ukraine, British Foreign Secretary William
Hague on Monday called Ukraine “the biggest crisis in Europe in the 21st
century.”
Visiting the new
government in Kiev, Mr. Hague urged Russia to pull back its forces in Crimea or
face “significant costs,” echoing comments made by President Obama and
Secretary of State John Kerry, who is due here on Tuesday.
Mr. Hague, speaking to
the BBC from here, emphasized diplomacy. “There are diplomatic measures which
we have started on already,” he said. “There are a range of other significant
costs. I don’t want to anticipate at the moment what those will be, those will
be discussed among my fellow E.U. foreign ministers today. They are also for
discussion with the United States, Japan, Canada, other nations. But be in no
doubt that there would be such costs. The world cannot just allow this to
happen. The world cannot say it’s O.K. in effect to violate the sovereignty of
another nation in this way.”
European Union foreign
ministers are to meet in another emergency session in Brussels later on Monday,
while the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is also meeting
and has sent two observers to Crimea. Washington has proposed sending monitors
to Ukraine under the flag of either the United Nations or the O.S.C.E.
The government in Kiev
also faces significant economic problems, and a team of economists from the
International Monetary Fund is reportedly due here on Monday to analyze the
budget situation. Officials in Kiev have said that they need $15 billion in new
loans this year alone and a total of $35 billion over two years. But the fund
director, Christine Lagarde, has said that there is no cause for panic and that
the agency will await the report of the economists.
The uncertainty hit
the Russian stock market and the ruble hard on Monday morning. The Russian
central bank raised its key lending rate 1.5 percentage points after the ruble
fell 2.5 percent to an all-time low against the dollar at the opening of
exchange trading on Monday, while the Micex benchmark index of Moscow stocks
sank 10 percent to 1,294 points. Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly that
supplies Europe through Ukraine, was down more than 13 percent.
Mr. Kerry warned on
Sunday that Russia risked losing its seat at the Group of 8 industrialized nations,
but Germany disagreed and Mr. Hague demurred. Western countries, however, have
suspended preparations for the scheduled meeting of the G-8 in Sochi, Russia,
as part of their response to Russia’s move on Crimea.
The situation in
Crimea remained one of a tense standoff. Russian troops, wearing no badges on
their uniforms, and pro-Russian “self-defense” forces surrounded Ukrainian
bases, neutralizing and essentially imprisoning the soldiers and sailors there.
But there continued to be no real violence.
Ukraine said Russia
was moving more armored vehicles to its side of a narrow stretch of water near
Crimea, while Russian forces took over the headquarters of the Ukrainian border
control in Simferopol. Trucks outside had no license plates but at least one car
had Russian military plates.
Ukraine’s government
worked to stem protests in the east, recruiting wealthy eastern businessmen to
become provincial governors in an effort to dampen secessionist sentiment
there.
In Kharkiv, the
eastern city that is the country’s second largest, a sprawling pro-Russian
protest camp occupied the central square, and Russian flags were on display.
Many protesters said they would even prefer that Russian troops invade the
city, just 20 miles from the border, rather than submit to Kiev’s rule.
“I would welcome them
with flowers,” said Aleksandr Sorokin, 55, a pensioner walking by a phalanx of
riot police officers guarding the administration building in Kharkiv. “We do
not want to spill blood, but we are willing to do so.”
There were reports
that two pro-government supporters died from injuries suffered on Saturday in
Kharkiv, where there was a major pro-Russian demonstration and an attempt to
take over government buildings.
Even as Kiev’s
pro-Western government called up its army reserves and vowed to fight for its
sovereignty, calling Russia’s invasion of Crimea a “declaration of war,” it
mustered a mostly political response to demonstrations in the east.
The office of
President Oleksandr V. Turchynov announced on Sunday the dispatch of two
billionaires — Sergei Taruta in Donetsk and Ihor Kolomoysky in Dnipropetrovsk —
and more were reportedly under consideration for positions in the eastern
regions.
The strategy is
recognition that the oligarchs represent the country’s industrial and business
elite, and hold great influence over thousands of workers in the east.
Officials said the hope was that they could dampen secessionist hopes in the
east and keep violent outbreaks — like fighting between pro-Western and
pro-Russian protesters in Kharkiv that put at least 100 people in the hospital
on Saturday — from providing a rationale for a Russian invasion in the name of
protecting ethnic Russians.
At the same time,
Ukrainian officials sought international help after a rapid Russian invasion of
Crimea over the weekend turned into a celebration of pro-Kremlin sentiment in
the streets there.
Hundreds of troops
acting in the name of the provisional pro-Russian government in Crimea fanned
out to persuade the thin Ukrainian forces there to give up their arms or swear
allegiance to the new authorities, while the new government in Kiev tried to
keep their loyalty but ordered them not to shoot unless under fire.
There were reports
Sunday evening that the newly appointed Ukrainian Navy chief, Rear Adm. Denis
Berezovsky, had sworn allegiance to “the people of Crimea” and its new
government. A YouTube video showed an anxious, sweating Admiral Berezovsky,
eyes downcast, quickly pledging to protect the region and its people —
ostensibly against the Kiev government. Embarrassed officials in Kiev
immediately removed him and said they would investigate him for treason.
What began in Ukraine
three months ago as a protest against the government of President Viktor F.
Yanukovych has now turned into a big-power confrontation reminiscent of the
Cold War and a significant challenge to international agreements on the
sanctity of the borders of post-Soviet nations.
But even as Western
leaders warned that Russia would face political and economic penalties, and
reiterated their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, it was difficult to see
what immediate penalties could persuade the Kremlin to retreat from Crimea and
stop exerting pressure through its supporters in eastern Ukraine.
Russia on Sunday kept
up its propaganda campaign in defense of the Crimean takeover, citing undefined
threats to Russian citizens and proclaiming large defections of Ukrainian
forces in Crimea, which Western reporters said appeared to be unfounded.
Instead, the scenes
were of Ukrainian troops in the peninsula being bottled up in their bases,
surrounded by heavily armed soldiers without insignia.
Reporting was contributed by Andrew
Roth from Kharkiv, Ukraine; Andrew Kramer from Kiev; Alison Smale, David M.
Herszenhorn, Noah Sneider and Patrick Reevell from Simferopol, Ukraine; Andrew
Higgins from Sevastopol; Stephen Castle from Brussels; and Somini Sengupta from
the United Nations.
