Russia insists armed men in Ukraine territory not under its command
Moscow insists armed units in Ukraine territory are 'self-defence' forces not under its command
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 05 March, 2014, 11:40pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 06 March, 2014, 12:09am
Reuters in Paris and Kiev
Kerry (right) and Hollande (second right) with Lavrov before their meeting. Photo: AP
Russia said yesterday it could not order "self-defence" forces in Crimea back to their bases ahead of the first face-to-face talks with the United States on easing tensions over Ukraine and averting the risk of war.
Russia and the West are facing the most serious confrontation since the end of the cold war over Ukraine, after months of street protests led to the ousting of president Viktor Yanukovych, a Russian ally, and Russia's effective occupation of the Crimea, where its Black Sea fleet is based.
Speaking before meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated Moscow's assertion - ridiculed by the West - that the troops who seized control of the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula were not under Russian command.
"If you mean the self-defence units created by the inhabitants of Crimea, we give them no orders, they take no orders from us," Lavrov said in Madrid.
"As for the military personnel of the Black Sea Fleet, they are in their deployment sites. Yes, additional vigilance measures were taken to safeguard the sites ... We will do everything not to allow any bloodshed."
Russia did not attend a Paris meeting yesterday between Kerry, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia of the so-called Budapest group created to assure Ukraine's security after it abandoned nuclear weapons in 1994.
But Kerry and Hague said they would try to bring the Russian and Ukrainian ministers together later in the day.
Lavrov was also to meet Kerry as well as the German, British and French foreign ministers and France's President Francois Hollande on the sidelines of a conference on Lebanon attended by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Nato and Russia will hold parallel talks in Brussels amid concerns that a stand-off between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Crimea could still spark violence, or that Moscow could also intervene in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
In the US, a senior administration official said President Barack Obama had spoken to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday and discussed a potential resolution to the crisis. Under what officials called an "off-ramp" to the crisis, Russia would pull its forces in Crimea back to their bases, limit Russian troop numbers to a Ukraine-mandated ceiling of 11,000, and allow international monitors to ensure that the rights of ethnic Russians are protected.
It would also see Russia and the new Ukraine government negotiate a solution to the crisis through a "contact group" probably under the auspices of a pan-European security body.
But analysts say Russia is unlikely to withdraw its forces, forcing the US and Europe into a more limited strategy of trying to prevent Putin from making advances elsewhere in the former Soviet republic.
Putin on Tuesday defended Russia's actions in Crimea, and said he would use force only as a last resort. However, Moscow showed no signs of backing down yesterday with Russian forces partly seizing two missile facilities in Crimea.
As the talks went on in Paris, the EU unveiled aid worth at least €11 billion (HK$117 billion) to support Ukraine's new pro-Western leaders.
