NATO leaders warned Wednesday that Russian forces massed near the country’s border with Ukraine are in a high state of readiness and that any incursion across the frontier would be a “historic mistake.”
The presence of as many as 40,000 soldiers along Ukraine’s eastern border is fueling concern that Russia is poised to invade on the pretext of protecting Russian-speaking inhabitants of eastern and southern Ukraine. Backed by state-run media, President Vladimir Putin says the Kiev-based government is influenced by anti-Russian extremists and hasn’t done enough to stop them from persecuting Russian-speakers.
“We have seen a very massive Russian military buildup along the Ukrainian borders,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after a two-day meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Brussels. “We also know that these Russian military armed forces are at very high readiness.”
Earlier Wednesday, Russia pressed Ukraine to disarm nationalists it says are oppressing its compatriots there, echoing comments it made in the run up to its military occupation of Crimea and its annexation last month after a Kremlin-backed referendum. Ukraine’s government denies that Russian-speakers are at risk.
“We urge the Ukrainian authorities not to limit themselves to sham statements about the fight against radical forces in Ukraine and to take decisive measures to disarm the militants,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.
Russia is pressuring Ukraine to change its constitution to cede more autonomy to its regions and enshrine Russian as a second official language.
After a deadly clash between Ukrainian police and far-right activists as well as confrontations between pro-Russian and pro-Kiev protesters last month, Ukraine’s parliament voted Tuesday for a resolution backing the immediate disarmament of illegal military groups.
NATO ministers vowed Tuesday to boost support for eastern nations unnerved by Russia’s actions. On Wednesday, Rasmussen restated that the alliance hasn’t seen signs of a significant reduction in Russian military forces along Ukraine’s border.
“This is really a matter of grave concern,” he said. “If Russia were to intervene further in Ukraine, I wouldn’t hesitate to call it a historic mistake.”
Potential objectives include an incursion into southern Ukraine to establish a land corridor to Crimea, pushing beyond the Ukrainian port of Odessa or moving toward Transnistria, a breakaway pro-Russian region of Moldova, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove was reported as saying by The Wall Street Journal.
Shrugging off U.S. and European sanctions, Putin has justified the annexation of Crimea, a region with a majority of Russian-speakers with historic ties to Moscow, away from Ukraine as righting a historical wrong that split the province from Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.
NATO has decided to halt “all practical cooperation” with Russia, Rasmussen said Tuesday. Russia condemned the NATO decision, saying it would hurt joint efforts to fight terrorism, piracy and other global problems.
As Russian forces dig in along the border, the U.S. said it may send a warship to the Black Sea in the next few days to conduct exercises with allies. The deployment would be in “direct response to the circumstances in Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said.
Other options being considered by Breedlove include beefing up previously scheduled NATO drills and improving the readiness of the alliance’s 13,000-member rapid-response force, according to an American defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military planning.
Meanwhile, deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych said Wednesday that he intends to press Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine.
“Crimea is a tragedy, a major tragedy,” he said from Russia, where he sought sanctuary in February after he fled Kiev as protesters massed, calling for him to step down.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula after backing pro-Russians who seized the parliament building in the Crimean regional capital Feb. 27. A March 16 referendum there resulted in a decision to join Russia - an election considered illegitimate by most of the rest of the world.
Moscow has moved quickly to solidify its control over the region, issuing passports and installing the Russian legal system.
Yanukovych, 63, said Wednesday that he had been wrong to ask for Russian intervention in the region. Crimea, he said, would not have been lost had he remained in the presidency. He said he had spoken to Putin since his arrival in Russia, calling the conversation “difficult.”
Information for this article was contributed by James G. Neuger, Gopal Ratnam, Henry Meyer, Bryan Bradley, Patrick Donahue, Volodymyr Verbyany, Konrad Krasuski, David Lerman, Tony Capaccio and Sandrine Rastello of Bloomberg News and by Kathy Lally of The Washington Post.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 04/03/2014