Russia says it will do 'everything to prevent bloodshed' in Ukraine as the crisis continues in the country.
On alert ... Russian forces look out at the Ukrainian navy ship Slavutich in the harbor of the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol. Source: AFP
- EU commits $15 billion in aid
- Top diplomats meet in Paris
- Putin steps back from brink of war
- Ukraine says war is now unlikely
THE European Union prepared $15 billion in aid to Ukraine and top diplomats from the West and Russia gathered in Paris to defuse tensions over the Russian military takeover of the strategic Crimean Peninsula.
NATO prepared to take up the issue directly with Russia in an extraordinary meeting of the military alliance, originally created as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union, and an international team of military observers headed to tense Crimea.
The ultimate goal in Paris is to get the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers in the same room, negotiating directly in the fast-moving dispute that has raised tensions to nearly Cold War levels.
Paris meeting ... US Secretary of State John Kerry, waves to the media as he arrives for a meeting on the Ukraine crisis in Paris. Source: AP
"It will be a test this afternoon of whether Russia is prepared to sit down with Ukraine, and we will strongly recommend that they do so,'' British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
The Paris gathering, originally scheduled to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis, came after Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to step back from the brink of war, but the crisis is far from resolved.
"This is my first trip to such an important venue where the Ukrainian future, maybe the future of the region, will be decided,'' Andriy Deshchytsia, Ukraine's foreign minister, said of the meetings in Paris. "We want to keep neighborly relations with the Russian people. We want to settle this peacefully.''
On the flight from Kiev to Paris, Deshchytsia told reporters that Ukraine was unlikely to go to war to prevent Russia from annexing Crimea but said doing so wouldn't be necessary because Russia would be unwilling to suffer the resulting economic penalties and diplomatic isolation.
Back from brink ... Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris for a diplomatic meeting dedicated to the situation in Lebanon. Source: AFP
The $15 billion European Union offer matched the Russian bailout for fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych. Mr Yanukovych took the Russian loans instead of a wide-ranging trade and economic agreement with the EU, which fuelled the protests that eventually led to his ouster.
The United States has pledged to financially prop-up Ukraine and Mr Putin denied invading the country as his troops ransacked an air base, his ships were repositioned to block a harbour and his troops took over the border checkpoints to the country.
Both Washington and the Kremlin have agreed on formal talks on the future of the now more than 16,000 Russian backed troops on the Crimea.
ROUNDUP OF KEY EVENTS FROM UKRAINE'S CRISIS
These talks to also involve Germany's leader Angela Merkel could see a cap of 11,000 Russian troops work with international monitors on the ground in Crimea to ensure no human rights are abused by either side.
In a show of support for Ukraine's interim government, the US Air Force One arrived in the capital Kiev with Mr Kerry holding high level talks with the new leadership.
Diplomatic tour ... US Secretary of State John Kerry walks at the barricade at the Shrine of the Fallen of anti-government protesters in Kiev. Source: AFP
The US administration said Congress was close to finalising economic sanctions against Russia for its passive invasion of the southern Ukraine state of Crimea in support of ousted Ukrainian president Mr Yanukovych.
Mr Kerry toured a street near Maidan Independence Square where the people's revolution overthrew the Yanukovych regime with 95 people killed in clashes and 500 others injured.
He lay a bunch or red roses and a shrine close to where protesters were gunned down by police snipers two weeks ago.
"We will be helping," he told locals who had gathered about him.
"We are helping. President Obama is planning more assistance."
Helping hand ... US President Barack Obama comments on the situation in Ukraine. Source: AFP
The US has also pledged to provide Ukraine with technical expertise to track down the billions of dollars Mr Yanukovych and his senior ministers are believed to have laundered out of the country.
Meanwhile about the same time Mr Putin broke his one week of silence to accuse the West of having driven Ukraine to anarchy and supporting the coup to rid Mr Yanukovych who he still considered the real president.
But then in a baffling series of denials and half moves toward reconciliations, Mr Putin said he was pulling back from the brink of war but reserved the right to use force if Russians in the Ukraine were threatened.
In his declarations, he denied Russia had sent any forces to Crimea, said force was a "last resort" only and described the ousting of Mr Yanukoych as an "anti-constitutional takeover and armed seizure of power".
"We reserve the right to use all available means. And we believe that this is fully legitimate. This is a last resort,'' he said.
Keeping us guessing ... Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during a press conference in his country residence of Novo-Ogaryova outside Moscow. Source: AFP
"We cannot stand aside if we see that they start to persecute or destroy. We very much hope that it does not come to this."
He said the Kremlin had given Mr Yanukovych sanctuary because otherwise he would have been killed.
On Ukrainian and US estimates of 16,000 Russian troops on the ground in Ukraine, Mr Putin said this was wrong and indeed he had none.
"You can go into a shop and buy any kind of uniform. These were local (pro-Russian) self-defence forces,'' Mr Putin claimed.
"Thank God that this was done without a single shot and everything is in the hands of the Crimean people."
But as he came up with that bizarre claim, Russian forces, many of whom have declared their status now, remained in control of Crimea and today the first shots were fired at a column of unarmed Ukrainian soldiers marching back to their air base.
A tense stand-off ensued as the reported Russian troops fired several rounds into the air over the Ukrainian heads and demanded they turn around.
Under orders ... Pro-Russian soldiers guard Ukraine's infantry base in Perevalne, Ukraine. Source: AP
At another air base near Yevpatoria 150 Russian troops broke in, while Russian navy ships have blocked off the Kerch Strait which separates Ukraine's Crimea region and Russia, the Ukrainian border guard service said on Tuesday.
The border guards have said that Russian servicemen are in control of the Crimean side of the narrow channel and that Russian armoured vehicles have been sighted on the Russian side.
"The Kerch Strait is blocked by two Russian ships — from the north and from the south," Pavel Shishurin, the deputy head of the border guards, told reporters.
The Russian military has not confirmed his comments.
The Kerch Strait provides access to the Black Sea for ships carrying grain and other commodities from southern Russian regions.
In the east of the country, troops forced border guards at checkpoints to abandon their posts.
In an unrelated but provocative event, the Russian also chose yesterday to test long range missiles on their home soil.
Sticking together ... people take part in a rally in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don in support of ethnic Russians in the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. The posters read: "No to Fascism in Ukraine!" "We are together with Ukraine!" "Ukraine without Nazis!" "We stand for Russian Crimea!" "Stop Fascism!" "Don't betray Crimea and Russians!" "Shame on Stepan Bandera's successors!" Source: AFP
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