Obama warns Russia over 'Invasion'

T-34 Soviet tank, Source: AFP

US President Barack Obama says he is deeply concerned about reports of Russian military activity in Ukraine and warns there would be costs to any infringement of its sovereignty.

“The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine,’’ Mr Obama told reporters at the White House.

”We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine.’’

Obama recognised that Russia had interests and cultural and economic ties with Ukraine, after the exit of the pro-Moscow government in Kiev, and also had a military facility in Crimea.

But he said any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be “deeply destabilising’’.

The president did not say whether the United States had intelligence as to whether reports quoting a Ukrainian official that 2000 Russian troops had landed in the Crimea were correct.

But he warned a Russian military intervention in the post-Soviet state would “represent a profound interference in matters that must be determined by the Ukrainian people’’.Ukrainian authorities say they have regained control of two Crimean airports seized during an “armed invasion” by Russian forces that prompted the country’s new pro-EU leaders to appeal for protection from the West.

The spiralling tensions in a nation torn between the West and Russia took another dramatic turn on Friday, when ousted president Viktor Yanukovych emerged from hiding to insist he had not been overthrown and would continue to fight for the future of Ukraine.Mr Yanukovych told reporters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in his first public appearance for almost a week that he had been “compelled to leave” Ukraine after he received threats to his security.

“I have not been overthrown by anyone, I was compelled to leave Ukraine due to an immediate threat to my life and the life of those close to me,” he said, sitting at a desk alongside a senior editor from the ITAR-TASS news agency in front of three Ukrainian flags.

“I intend to continue the fight for the future of Ukraine against those who try to saddle it with fear and terror.”

Mr Yanukovych, who fled after being impeached by parliament on Saturday, savaged the anti-Kremlin and pro-EU forces who have now taken power.

“Power in Ukraine has been taken by nationalist, pro-fascist young people who represent the absolute minority of people in Ukraine.”

“This is anarchy, terror and chaos,” he added.His comments came as Swiss authorities ordered a freeze on his assets and those of his multi-millionaire son and launched a criminal probe into alleged money-laundering by the pair.

Mr Yanukovych and his coal magnate son Oleksandr are on a list of 20 Ukrainian officials including former ministers being targeted by the authorities in Switzerland.

Liechtenstein followed suit on Friday and also froze the bank accounts of the same officials.

Austria announced it also had moved against 18 Ukrainian officials suspected of violating human rights and involvement in corruption.

Austrian media reported the group included former ministers but said it was not known if Mr Yanukovych or his family had any funds in the country.Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine’s security and defence council said Russian soldiers and local pro-Kremlin militia were responsible for the dawn raids on Crimea’s main airport and another base on the southwest of the peninsula where pro-Moscow sentiment runs high.

A spokesman for Russia’s Crimea-based Black Sea Fleet denied any involvement in the airport occupations. But Ukraine’s parliament immediately appealed to the US and Britain to uphold a 1994 pact with Russia that guaranteed the country’s sovereignty in return for it giving up its Soviet nuclear arms.

Both MPs and UN Security Council chair Lithuania said they would also ask the world body to address the Crimea crisis at its next session — a request that would need to gain support from veto-wielding members such as Russia.In Kiev, interim president Oleksandr Turchynov attempted to regain control over unravelling security in the vast nation of 46 million by sacking the armed forces chief appointed by Mr Yanukovych at the height of deadly protests last week.

Western governments have been watching with increasing alarm as Kiev’s new rulers grapple with the dual threats of economic collapse and secession by Russian-speaking southern and eastern regions that had backed Yanukovych.Russian President Vladimir Putin this week stoked concerns that Moscow might use its military might to sway the outcome of Ukraine’s three-month standoff by ordering snap combat drills near the border involving 150,000 troops and nearly 900 tanks.

US Secretary of State John Kerry attempted to relieve diplomatic pressure in a crisis that has increasingly assumed Cold War overtones by announcing that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had assured him Moscow “will respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine”.

Mr Putin also appeared to take a more conciliatory approach on Thursday by vowing to work on improving trade ties and promising to support international efforts to provide Kiev with funds that could keep it from declaring a debt default as early as next week.

But tensions were soaring by the hour in Russian-speaking Crimea — a scenic Black Sea peninsula that has housed Kremlin navies for nearly 250 years and was handed to Ukraine as a symbolic gift by a Soviet leader in 1954.

Source: news.com.au