Obama warns Russia of intervention in Ukraine

Barack Obama has warned Moscow “there will be costs” if Russia intervenes militarily in crisis-torn Ukraine.

The US president’s blunt message came after armed men described as Russian troops took control of key airports in Crimea yesterday and Russian transport planes were said to have flown into the strategic region – an ominous sign of the Kremlin’s iron hand in Ukraine.

Mr Obama did not say what the “costs” might be, but US officials said he may cancel plans to attend an international summit in Russia this year and could halt discussions on deepening trade ties with Moscow.

The sudden arrival of men in military uniforms patrolling key strategic sites prompted Ukraine to accuse Russia of a “military invasion and occupation” – a claim that brought an alarming new dimension to the crisis.

In a hastily-arranged statement delivered from the White House, Mr Obama said: “Any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilising.”

Such action by Russia would not serve the interests of the Ukrainian people, Russia or Europe, Mr Obama said, and would represent a “profound interference” in matters that must be decided by the Ukrainian people.

“The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine,” he added.

Earlier, Ukraine’s fugitive president resurfaced in Russia to deliver a defiant condemnation of what he called a “bandit coup”.

Appearing for the first time since fleeing the country last week, Viktor Yanukovych struck a tone both of bluster and caution – vowing to “keep fighting for the future of Ukraine,” while ruling out seeking Russian military help.

“Any military action in this situation is unacceptable,” he told reporters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, near the border with Ukraine.

At the United Nations, Ukrainian ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev said 10 Russian transport aircraft and 11 attack helicopters arrived in Crimea illegally and Russian troops had taken control of two airports there. He described the gunmen posted outside the two airports as Russian armed forces as well as “unspecified” units.

Serhiy Astakhov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border service, said eight Russian transport planes landed in the Crimea Peninsula with unknown cargo.

He said the Il-76 planes arrived unexpectedly and were given permission to land, one after the other, at Gvardeiskoye air base, north of the regional capital, Simferopol. Mr Astakhov said the people in the planes refused to identify themselves and waved off customs officials.

Russia kept silent on claims of military intervention, even as it maintained its hardline stance on protecting ethnic Russians in Crimea, a territory that was once the crown jewel in Russian and then Soviet empires and has played a symbolic role in Russia’s national identity.

Yesterday Associated Press journalists in Crimea spotted a convoy of nine Russian armoured personnel carriers on a road between the port city of Sevastopol, where Russia has a naval base, and Simferopol. Later the airspace was closed over the peninsula, apparently due to tensions at the two airports.

Russian armoured vehicles bearing the nation’s tricolour rumbled across Crimea and men described as Russian troops took position at airports and a coastguard base.

Oleksandr Turchynov, who stepped in as president after Mr Yanukovych fled Kiev last weekend, urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to stop “provocations” in Crimea and pull back military forces from the peninsula. Mr Turchynov said the Ukrainian military would fulfil its duty but would not be drawn into provocations.

In Kiev, Ukraine’s newly named interior minister accused Russia of military aggression. “I can only describe this as a military invasion and occupation,” Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post.

In recent conversations between US and Russian officials, including a lengthy telephone conversation between Mr Obama and Mr Putin just last week, Mr Obama said the US made clear that Russia could be part of an international community’s effort to support the stability and success of Ukraine.

But, he said yesterday “we are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine”.

Russia is supposed to notify Ukraine of any troop movements outside the Black Sea Fleet naval base it maintains in Sevastopol under a lease agreement with Ukraine.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the military vehicles were deployed to ensure the security of its base and did not contradict the lease terms.

At the airport, dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings patrolled the area. One man, who identified himself only as Vladimir, said they were part of the Crimean People’s Brigade, which he described as a self-defence unit ensuring that no “radicals and fascists” arrived from other parts of Ukraine. There was no way to verify his account.

The airport deployments came a day after masked gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles seized the parliament and government offices in Simferopol and raised the Russian flag.

In Kiev, the prosecutor-general’s office said it would seek Mr Yanukovych’s extradition to Ukraine, where he is wanted on suspicion of mass murder over the violent clashes last week between protesters and police that left more than 80 people dead.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s telecom provider, Ukrtelecom JSC, said unknown people seized several communications centres in Crimea last night, knocking out the company’s ability to connect the peninsula with the rest of the country. The company said there were almost no landline, internet or mobile services operating in the Crimea.

Ukraine’s population is divided in loyalties between Russia and the West, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the European Union while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support.

Crimea, a south-eastern peninsula of Ukraine that has semi-autonomous status, was seized by Russian forces in the 18th century under Catherine the Great. It became part of Ukraine in 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred jurisdiction from Russia, a move that was a mere formality until the 1991 Soviet collapse meant Crimea landed in an independent Ukraine.