ABOUT TO EXPLODE: Ukraine on Edge After Russia's Upper Parliament OKs Putin's Military Intervention Plan
Armed servicemen wait in Russian
army vehicles outside a Ukranian border guard post in the Crimean town
of Balaclava on Saturday.
The Russian parliament’s upper house
unanimously approved President Vladimir Putin’s request for a military
intervention in Ukraine, according to a Kremlin statement Saturday,
setting off alarm bells in Kiev.
The
approval came within two hours of Putin appealing to parliament, saying
the move is needed to protect ethnic Russians and the personnel of a
Russian military base in Ukraine's strategic region of Crimea, a
peninsula the size of Massachusetts where three out of four people speak
Russian.
However, the vote does
not specify that Russian troops are authorized to enter Crimea; instead,
it states Russia's military force can enter "Ukraine," giving
themselves a legal cloak to target more than Crimea.
That created panic in Kiev, where the new, inexperienced and untested government is still trying to gain its footing.
But
Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Grigory Karasin — who
Putin appointed as the
official representative on the military action
proposal — said Russian force in Ukraine may not be used quickly.
Karasin
did not give a timeframe for military action and it was unclear whether
Putin's announcement was merely intended to send a message to
international powers that Russia would not back down over the future of
Ukraine.
Hours before Putin's
statement, Western foreign ministers issued calls for Russia to
de-escalate the crisis in Crimea — echoing a similar warning from President Barack Obama on Friday that armed intervention would have "costs."
The request, made to the Russian Senate, follows a letter from the upper house to Putin appealing for the same.
The
statement said: "Due to the extraordinary situation in Ukraine and the
threat to the lives of Russian citizens and compatriots, and the
personnel staff of Russia’s military forces based in Ukraine (Crimea),
according to international agreement ... I submit a request to the
Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for
the use of military forces of the Russian Federation on the territory
of Ukraine until the social and political situation in the country
normalizes."
Earlier Saturday,
Ukraine accused Russia of sending 6,000 additional troops into Crimea
Saturday, deepening a crisis in which both sides accused each other of trying to destabilize the region.
Source: REUTERS
