Crimean strife deepens Ukrainian crisis, Yanukovych lands in Russia
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Russia scrambled fighter jets to patrol its border and reportedly gave shelter to Ukraine’s fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych as pro-Russian gunmen stormed offices of Ukraine’s strategic region, deepening the crisis for the new Ukrainian government even as it was being formed.
The moves pose an immediate challenge to Ukraine’s new authorities as they seek to set up an interim government for the country, whose population is divided in loyalties between Russia and the West.
Ukraine’s new prime minister said the country’s future lies in the European Union but with friendly relations with Russia. Moscow, meanwhile, has launched a massive military exercise involving 150,000 troops and put fighter jets on patrol along the border.
A Russian news organization reported that Yanukovych, who was driven out of Kiev by a three-month protest movement, was staying in a Kremlin sanatorium just outside Moscow.
“I’ve to ask Russia to ensure my personal safety from extremists,” Yanukovych said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies yesterday. He said he still considers himself president and sees the new Ukrainian authorities as illegitimate.
Shortly after, the same three Russian news agencies quoted an unnamed Russian official saying that Yanukovych’s request for protection “was satisfied on the territory of Russia.”
Russian news agencies later reported that Yanukovych will hold a news conference today in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
Oleksandr Turchynov, who stepped in as acting president after Yanukovych’s flight, condemned the takeover of government buildings in Crimea as a “crime against the government of Ukraine.” He warned that any move by Russian troops off of their base in Crimea “will be considered a military aggression.”
“Unidentified people with automatic weapons, explosives and grenades have taken over the governmental buildings and the Parliament building in the autonomous region of Crimea,” he said. “I have given orders to the military to use all methods necessary to protect the citizens, punish the criminals, and to free the buildings.”
In Kiev, lawmakers chose Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the new prime minister. He will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability in a country that is not only deeply divided politically but on the verge of financial collapse. The 39-year-old served as economy minister, foreign minister and parliamentary speaker before Yanukovych took office in 2010.
Shortly before the lawmakers chose him as the leader of the new Cabinet, Yatsenyuk said Ukraine doesn’t want a fight with Russia, but insisted it wouldn’t accept the secession of the southern Crimea region.
He said Crimea “has been and will be a part of Ukraine.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry voiced concern yesterday about the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and vowed to protect their interests.
Russia has accused Ukraine’s interim leaders of failing to control radicals who threaten the Russia-speaking population in Ukraine’s east and south, which includes the Crimean Peninsula.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Crimea’s regional parliament, currently controlled by pro-Russian gunmen, voted yesterday to hold a referendum on May 25 on the region’s status in Ukraine, its press service said.
Legislators fixed the vote to determine whether to increase Crimea’s autonomy from Kiev.
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