KIEV, Ukraine - A Ukrainian air force commander was being held after his base in Crimea was stormed by pro-Russian forces, and the acting president called for his release Sunday.
Col. Yuliy Mamchur is the commander of the Belbek air force base near Sevastopol, which was taken over Saturday by forces who sent armored personnel carriers smashing through the base’s walls and fired shots and stun grenades. One Ukrainian serviceman was reported wounded in the clash.
It was unclear if the forces, who didn’t bear insignia,were the Russian military or a local pro-Russian militia.
Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov, in a statement, said Mamchur was “abducted” by the forces. He didn’t specify where Mamchur is thought to be held.
However, prominent politician Vitali Klitschko said Sunday that Mamchur is being held by the Russian military in a jail in Sevastopol, the Crimean city that is the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
Klitschko was one of the leaders of the three months of protests in Ukraine that culminated in late February with President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing the country and interim authorities taking power before a May 25 presidential election. The protests were triggered by Yanukovych’s decision to reject a deal for closer ties with the European Union and turn to Moscow instead.
Yanukovych’s ouster was denounced by Russia and much of Ukraine’s ethnic Russian population as a coup. Soon thereafter, Russian forces took control of Crimea, and the region held a referendum to break off from Ukraine and join Russia.
Russia formally annexed Crimea last week, a move that Western countries say is illegitimate. The U.S. and the EU have imposed sanctions on Russia in the dispute, but Moscow appears unmoved.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said the chances of war with Russia are increasing as thousands of Russian troops gather on his country’s border.
“We are ready to respond,” Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia said in an interview Sunday on ABC’s This Week program.
“The Ukraine government is trying to use all the peaceful and diplomatic means to stop Russians, but the people are also ready to defend their homeland,” he said.
With President Barack Obama scheduled to travel to Europe today to consult with allies, U.S. intelligence and military officials said Russian troops are massed along virtually the entire Ukrainian border.
The Kremlin on Saturday agreed to international monitors arriving in Ukraine for a six-month mission meant to cool tensions in the standoff between Russia and the West.
The number of troops is about double what it was when Moscow’s Defense Ministry announced that armed forces would hold exercises near Ukraine, the officials said.
A top White House aide said it’s possible that Russia could invade eastern Ukraine, and even U.S. military assistance would be unlikely to prevent it.
“It’s deeply concerning to see the Russian troop buildup along the border,” U.S. deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken said in an interview on CNN’s State of the Union.
“It creates the potential for incidents, for instability,” Blinken said. “It’s likely that what they’re trying to do is intimidate the Ukrainians. It’s possible that they’re preparing to move in.”
He said the U.S. is looking at providing military assistance to Ukraine. But he also said “it’s very unlikely to change Russia’s calculus and prevent an invasion.”
U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove said the buildup of Russian troops on the country’s border with Ukraine means NATO forces need to reposition themselves and increase their readiness.
Russian troops massing at the border are “very, very sizable and very, very credible,” Breedlove, the top NATO commander, said Sunday at the German Marshall Fund conference in Brussels. “We need to think about our allies, the positioning of our forces in the alliance and our readiness of our forces in the alliance, such that we can be there to defend against them if required, especially in the Baltics and other places.”
Russia’s defense chief has told U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Russia had no intention of crossing into Ukrainian territory.
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry said the Russian flag was now flying over 189 military facilities in Crimea. It didn’t specify whether any Ukrainian military operations there remained under Ukrainian control.
U.S. intelligence and military officials said there are now Russian troops on virtually all of the country’s border with Ukraine. Some units have moved within 31 miles of the border, said the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss classified intelligence reports.
Russian troops in some sectors, including near corridors leading to major Ukrainian cities, have been reinforced with armor, attack planes and helicopters, the officials said. There are also signs that the troops are receiving substantial logistical support, which could signal preparations for sustained operations, they said.
Russia has no intention of entering other parts of Ukraine, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union, Vladimir Chizov, said in an interview with BBC TV. “Nobody has anything to fear from Russia, nobody in this world,” he said.
Russia wants its neighbor to adopt a federal constitution that guarantees political and military neutrality, grants powers to Ukrainian regions and makes Russian a second official language. Ukraine’s government signed the political chapters of an association accord with the EU on Friday.
At a Ukrainian marine base in Feodosia, troops were negotiating with Russian forces about handing over the base, Lt. Anatoly Mozgovoi said. The marines were loading .50-caliber machine guns into armored personnel carriers to take them to the base armory, but Mozgovoi said they hope to hold on to heavy weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades and cannons.
“I think from my personal opinion, the Russian Federation has enough weapons,” he said.
In Donetsk, one of the major cities in eastern Ukraine, about 5,000 people demonstrated in favor of holding a referendum on secession and absorption into Russia.
Eastern Ukraine is the country’s industrial heartland and was Yanukovych’s support base. Donetsk authorities on Friday formed a working group to hold a referendum, but no date for it has been set.
Russia has deployed thousands of troops in its regions near the Ukrainian border, and concerns are high that it could use unrest in the east as a pretext for crossing the border.
On Sunday, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the number of Russian troops in the area of the Ukrainian border does not exceed international treaty limits.
Meanwhile, as Russian President Vladimir Putin completed the annexation of Crimea, Western nations and Russia exchanged economic sanctions, raising concern about an escalation of the crisis.
U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, called for an “urgent re-examination” of U.S. and European policies toward Russia.
U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican on the Armed Services Committee, called for increasing sanctions on Russia and sending small arms and other military aid to Ukraine.
“What we can do is strengthen NATO’s presence, particularly in the countries surrounding Ukraine, and also provide assistance to the Ukrainian military,” Ayotte said on CBS’ Face the Nation while on a visit to Kiev.
While there’s no need to consider American troops on the ground in Ukraine, Ayotte said, the U.S. should provide communications equipment, technical assistance and small arms.
Obama has imposed sanctions on 27 Russian officials and four Ukrainians. He has also authorized, though not implemented, potential future penalties on Russian industries, including financial services, energy, metals and mining, defense and engineering.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said the chamber will take up a Ukraine aid bill today when it returns to Washington from a week-long recess.
The bill, which includes about $1 billion in loan guarantees, has been held up over partisan fights on a proposed restructuring of the International Monetary Fund and new Internal Revenue Service rules governing political activity by some nonprofit groups.
Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who had called Russia the greatest geopolitical threat to the U.S., accused Obama on Sunday of displaying “naivete with regards to Russia” and showing “faulty judgment” about its intentions.
“They thought resetting relations with Russia, handing out gifts to Russia, would somehow make Russia change its objectives,” Romney said on CBS. “Well, that certainly wasn’t the case.” Information for this article was contributed by Jim Heintz, Yuras Karmanau, Adam Pemble and staff members of The Associated Press, and by David Lerman, Greg Giroux, Daryna Krasnolutska, Aliaksandr Kudrytski, John Walcott, Julianna Goldman, Margaret Talev, Torrey Clark, Ilya Arkhipov, Ksenia Galouchko, Olga Tanas, Stepan Kravchenko, Ewa Krukowska, Patrick Donahue, Ian Wishart, James G. Neuger,Thomas Penny, Catherine Dodge, Volodymyr Verbyany, Daria Marchak and Kateryna Choursina of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 03/24/2014