LibriumArcana.Games

European Union foreign ministers have agreed to impose sanctions on Ukrainian officials "responsible for violence and excessive force".

In a statement, they said targeted sanctions including asset freezes and visa bans would be introduced "as a matter of urgency".

At least 21 anti-government protesters died in clashes in Kiev on Thursday.

Officials said that one policeman had also died and that 67 police had been captured by protesters.

"No circumstances can justify the repression we are currently witnessing," the statement from EU foreign ministers said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the "prime responsibility" to get talks between the two sides under way lay with President Viktor Yanukovych.

Speaking after an emergency meeting of EU foreign minsters in Brussels, she said ministers had expressed their "dismay" at the latest violence and had agreed to "suspend export licences for equipment for internal repression".

Implementation of the measures "will be taken forward in light of developments in Ukraine", she added.

The EU has until now refrained from imposing sanctions on Ukraine, preferring to emphasise dialogue and compromise.

The US state department had already announced visa bans on 20 members of the Ukrainian government but has not provided any names.

Live rounds
At least 21 protesters were killed by security forces in Kiev on Thursday following the breakdown of a truce the previous day. Officials say 67 people have now died in violence since Tuesday.

Witnesses have told the BBC that some died as a result of single gunshot wounds, typical of sniper fire.

The authorities said that one policeman had died and that 67 police had been captured by protesters.

Eyewitnesses have told international news agencies that they have counted between 21 and 27 protesters' bodies after clashes in Kiev.

Video footage has emerged apparently showing snipers firing on demonstrators who had been trying to retake their protest camp in Independence Square.

Officials said more than 20 policemen had also been injured.

Witnesses reported live rounds, petrol bombs and water cannon being used at Independence Square during Thursday morning's clashes.

Protesters - some of them armed - asked hotel guests for blankets to use as bandages.

A statement on the presidential website blamed the opposition for starting the violence, saying the "calls for a truce and dialogue were nothing but a way of playing for time to mobilise and arm militants from Maidan [Independence Square]".

Opposition leaders called the violence "an act of provocation" by the authorities.

Earlier the foreign ministers of France, Poland and Germany conducted several hours of discussions with Mr Yanukovych on a "roadmap towards a political solution" before going on to talks with opposition leaders.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Mr Yanukovych had expressed willingness to hold early elections this year.

The protests first erupted in November when President Yanukovych rejected a landmark association and trade deal with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia.

Since then, the protests have spread across Ukraine, with the demonstrators' main demand being snap presidential and parliamentary elections.

Hours after President Viktor Yanukovych and several opposition leaders reportedly agreed to a truce in Kiev's Independence Square, clashes resumed between demonstrators and police, who only dug themselves in further in preparation for a longer fight.

The Latest:

Ukraine's Parliament voted late on Thursday to withdraw security forces from Independence Square. The measure is intended to avoid further bloodshed after Kiev's worst day of protests yet, and a rebuke to how Yanukovych has handled the protests until now. While this development is certainly a promising one, some observers have cautioned that it was around this time last night the president's office announced that he'd brokered a "truce" with opposition leaders.

The AFP reports that President Viktor Yanukovych has indicated he's willing to hold elections later this year. That news comes via the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the EU has agreed to sanctions against Ukraine, including asset freezes and some visa bans.

The White House released a strong statement condemning the violence against Ukrainian protesters on Thursday:
We are outraged by the images of Ukrainian security forces firing automatic weapons on their own people. We urge President Yanukovych to immediately withdraw his security forces from downtown Kyiv and to respect the right of peaceful protest, and we urge protesters to express themselves peacefully. We urge the Ukrainian military not to get involved in a conflict that can and should be resolved by political means. The use of force will not resolve the crisis -- clear steps must be taken to stop the violence and initiate meaningful dialogue that reduces tension and addresses the grievances of the Ukrainian people. The United States will work with our European allies to hold those responsible for violence accountable and to help the Ukrainian people get a unified and independent Ukraine back on the path to a better future.

According to Ukraine's Interior Ministry, protesters have disarmed and captured up to 67 policemen during today's conflict. Footage appearing to show some disarmed police officers walking with protesters was previously distributed in the Russian media. Here's another photo, showing the officers being led away in a line.

Death toll: The toll from today's deadly clashes is still variable depending on who you read. The latest numbers from NBC News are at least 64 dead, and over 550 injured.

Live ammunition: after days of debate over whether police (and protesters) were firing live rounds or not, the Ukrainian government acknowledged on Thursday that it had distributed combat weapons to police to use against the protesters "in accordance with the law."

Editor's Note: The Kyiv Post has been covering the anti-government, pro-democracy EuroMaidan protests from their very beginning on Nov. 21, when President Viktor Yanukovych rejected a political and trade association agreement with the European Union. The protests are in their 93rd day on Feb. 21. Nearly 100 people have been killed since the demonstrations started and thousands injured in clashes between protesters and police. Demonstrators are demanding Yanukovych's resignation and early presidential and parliamentary elections.

Turchynov says Yanukovych resigned, then backtracked

Feb. 22, 5:30 p.m. Oleksandr Turchynov, the opposition leader now appointed as parliament speaker and acting prime minister, said that Viktor Yanukovych had agreed to resign as president. But then after consulting with advisers, he disavowed the decision and even a pre-recorded resignation statement. Turchynov said that Yanukovych abandoned his duties and his location is unknown. Therefore, parliament went ahead to impeach him for leaving his post and set early presidential elections at May 25.

Valentyn Nalivaychenko unanimously appointed head of Security Service of Ukraine

Feb. 22, 5:32 p.m -- Valentyn Nalivaychenko, who head the state's powerful Security Service of Ukraine under President Viktor Yushchenko, won unanimous approval by parliament to take the job again.

Parliament votes 328-0 to impeach Yanukovych

Feb. 22, 5:19 p.m. -- Accusing him of massive human rights violations and abandonment of his duties, parliament voted unanimously today to impeach Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine's fourth president. The vote came as reports surfaced that Yanukovych had resigned and even pre-recorded his resignation statement, but then changed his mind and issued a defiant video promising not leave Ukraine or resign.

Rinat Akhmetov says Ukraine has to stay united

Feb. 22, 5:05 p.m. -- Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest billionaire, released the following statement: "My position remains unchaged: I am for a strong, independent and united Ukraine. Today I place a special focus on the word "united" as this has never been more important."

Army says it will honor oath to people

Feb. 22, 5:03 p.m "In this difficult time for the country we, the employees of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, strtess that were and remain loyal to the military oath, the Constitution of Ukraine and continue to follow the requirements of the statutes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the laws that regulate the activities of the Defense Ministry. We deeply mourn the loss of life and hope that this will never happen again in our country," said the statement released on the Defense Ministry website.

No coup d'etat in Kyiv, says Sikorski

Feb. 22, 4:50 p.m. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in his Twitter that there is no coup d'etat in Kyiv, and backed most of the decisions taken by Ukraine's parliament. "No coup in Kiev. Government buildings got abandoned. Speaker of Rada elected legally. President Viktor Yanukovych has 24h to sign 2004 Constiturtion. into law."

Yanukovych says speaker Rybak attacked, Party of Regions lawmakers defected due to threats

Feb. 22, 4:19 p.m. In televised interview today, a defiant President Viktor Yanukovych said that he has not resigned. He said, apparently from Kharkiv or somewhere in eastern Ukraine, that parliament speaker Volodymyr Rybak was attacked and that lawmakers from his Party of Regions defected due to threats made against them. He likened the moves by opposition lawmakers and others in parliament today to coup d'etat. -- Christopher J. Miller

Feb. 22, 4:05 p.m. Opposition leader and businessman Petro Poroshenko in parliament has said that President Viktor Yanukovych has changed his mind about his earlier decision to resign. -- Katya Gorchinskaya

Opposition member of parliament Oleh Liashko on Feb. 22 addresses a crowd that has formed outside the Verkhovna Rada. With reports that President Viktor Yanukovych has fled Ukraine, parliament moved to fill the leadership vacuum by freeing ex-Prime MInister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison and appointing Oleksandr Turchynov, her former deputy, as acting prime minister. Parliament is also set to consider Yanukovych's impeachment today
Yatseniuk adviser confirms opposition leader spoke to Yanukovych and the president had resigned

Feb. 22, 3:43 p.m. Ostap Semerak, an advisor to Batkivshchyna leader Arseniy Yatseniuk, confirmed to the Kyiv Post that the opposition leader had spoken to President Viktor Yanukovych, who said he had resigned. -- Katya Gorchinskaya

Maidan Self-Defense member guard parliament on Feb. 22.
Feb. 22, 2:13 p.m. -- A member of the Afghanistan veterans who is guarding Independence Square in Kyiv says the national revolution will continue. "Everyone in the government and parliament must get away. It's too bad that President Viktor Yanukovych ran away. He should have been caught and brought here, to Maidan." When asked about Rada's latest decisions, making Oleksandr Turchynov acting prime minister and Arsen Avakov interior minister in charge of police, he said: "Let's give them a chance and we'll see. Someone has to take care of the mess now." -- Olga Rudenko

Feb. 22, 2:12 p.m. -- On his way out of Mezhyhyria this morning, President Viktor Yanukovych evidently tried to get rid of a lot of documents kept at the luxurious estate. Opposition leaders who are now in control of the mansion say they fished documents out of the Kyiv Sea that leads to the Dnipro River and are drying them in a hangar. Some of them reportedly involve journalist Tetyana Chornovol, who blames Yanukovych for ordering her Dec. 25 beating in retaliation for her investigative reports of his alleged corruption. The treasure trove also reportedly includes expense invoices for construction work at Mezhyhyria, a blacklist of journalists and a list of license plate number of cars that Chornovol drives-- Vlad Lavrov

Leaders of mainly Russian-speaking regions of eastern Ukraine that are loyal to President Viktor Yanukovich challenged the legitimacy of the national parliament on Saturday and said they were taking control of their territories.

The move appeared to increase the possibility of a split in the sprawling former Soviet republic of 46 million, despite denials by the leaders that this was their intention.

The Kiev parliament has passed a series of measures that would reduce the president's powers and pave the way to the formation of a national unity government and early presidential elections.

Mikhaylo Dobkin, Governor of Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, told regional leaders meeting in the city: "We're not preparing to break up the country. We want to preserve it."

But a resolution adopted at the meeting said: "The decisions taken by the Ukrainian parliament in such circumstances cause doubts about their ... legitimacy and legality."

It added: "The central state organs are paralysed. Until the constitutional order and lawfulness are restored ... we have decided to take responsibility for safeguarding the constitutional order, legality, citizens' rights and their security on our territories."

One speaker urged the creation of civilian patrols to restore order. Another said those gathered should fear reprisals if anti-Yanukovich protesters in Kiev seize power in the whole of the country.

With people at the meeting chanting "Russia! Russia!", the atmosphere contrasted with the mood in the capital Kiev where protesters want the Moscow-backed Yanukovich to resign.

Yanukovich said he had no intention of quitting or leaving Ukraine and declared all moves taken by parliament on Saturday to be illegal and amounting to a "coup d'etat", Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing a television interview.

A day after Yanukovich signed an agreement with the opposition to relinquish some of his powers, his opponents were in control of the presidential administration and the Interior Ministry responsible for the police turned its back on him.

The regions represented at the meeting - Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Lugansk and Crimea - have a population of 14.4 million. Most are important industrial centres and Russia's Black Sea fleet is based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

TALK OF A SPLIT

Many politicians have warned of a looming partition in Ukraine, which broke peacefully from the Soviet Union in 1991, since people took to the streets late last year to protest against Yanukovich for spurning political and trade deals with the European Union. Western Ukraine is broadly pro-EU.

Some Ukrainians are also worried by calls in Crimea for the region to again become Russian territory, nearly six decades after Kremlin leader Nikita Khrushchev - who was a Ukrainian - redrew internal Soviet boundaries to make a gift of the peninsula to Ukraine.

"The revolution has been won in Kiev, in part of Ukraine, but not in the whole of Ukraine. We still have many risks," said Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst at the Kiev-based Penta think-tank.

"If Yanukovich appears and ... proclaims an alternative power in Kharkiv or in Donetsk - it will mean that we have two countries. The most serious risk now is the possible division of the country. The crisis is not yet over."

Russia has strong cultural, historical and economic ties with eastern Ukraine, and some factories there have contracts with the Russian military. Some Russians do not think of Ukraine, the cradle of Russian civilisation, as outside Russia.

Alexei Pushkov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin and chairman of the foreign affairs committee of Russia's lower house of parliament, attended the meeting in Kharkiv.

"If there is stability anywhere in Ukraine right now, it's in those regions that are represented here today," he said.

This, he said, was in contrast to "western regions where buildings have been seized, where there are weapons, APCs (armoured vehicles) and the destruction of authority."

Andriy Sadovy, mayor of Lviv in the west, voiced concern that Ukraine could lose control of some of its territory and told a news conference: "We won't give up one centimetre of Ukrainian land to anyone."

Putin has made clear he does not want Ukraine to move out of what he considers Russia's sphere of influence, and agrement on a $15-billion Russian bailout plus a cut in how much Ukraine pays for Russian gas helped persuade Yanukovich to pull out of the planned deals with the EU at the last minute in November.

A Kremlin aide, Sergei Glazyev, has floated the idea that Ukraine could become a federation giving more power to its regions - a move, he said, that might enable eastern regions to join a trading bloc led by Russia.

That call has been taken up by parliamentarians in Moscow, fuelling speculation that this - or some form of annexation of Russian-speaking areas - may have the Kremlin's backing.

rhoenix wrote:Holy shit, this is turning into a spectacular shitstorm.

A top Ukrainian opposition figure assumed presidential powers Sunday, plunging Ukraine into new uncertainty after a deadly political standoff — and boosting long-jailed Yulia Tymoshenko's chances of a return to power.

Related Stories

Ukraine: president's whereabouts unknown Associated Press
Ukraine's Tymoshenko rallies protesters in Kiev Associated Press
Ukraine protesters take Kiev; president says coup Associated Press
Political changes come fast, furious in Ukraine Associated Press
Clashes in Ukraine leave 4 dead; deadline looms Associated Press
The whereabouts and legitimacy of President Viktor Yanukovych are unclear after he left the capital for his support base in eastern Ukraine. Allies are deserting him one by one, even as a presidential aide told The Associated Press on Sunday that he's hanging on to his presidential duties.

The newly emboldened parliament, now dominated by the opposition, struggled Sunday to work out who is in charge of the country and its ailing economy. Fears percolated that some regions such as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea might try to break away. Three months of political crisis have left scores of people dead in a country of strategic importance to the United States, European nations and Russia.

Ukraine is deeply divided between eastern regions that are largely pro-Russian and western areas that widely detest Yanukovych and long for closer ties with the European Union.

Yanukovych set off a wave of protests by shelving an agreement with the EU in November, and the movement quickly expanded its grievances to corruption, human rights abuses and calls for Yanukovych's resignation.

The Kiev protest camp at the center of the anti-Yanukovych movement filled with more and more dedicated demonstrators Sunday, setting up new tents after two days that saw a stunning reversal of fortune in the political crisis.

View galleryIn this Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 photo, former Ukrainian …
In this Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 photo, former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko is helped ou …
"We need to catch and punish those with blood on their hands," said Artyom Zhilyansky, a 45-year-old engineer on Independence Square on Sunday, referring to those killed in clashes with police last week.

Tymoshenko, the blond-braided and controversial heroine of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, increasingly appears to have the upper hand in the political battle, winning the backing Sunday of a leading Russian lawmaker and congratulations from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. senators on her release.

Tymoshenko's name circulated Sunday as a possibility for acting prime minister pending May 25 presidential elections, but she issued a statement Sunday asking her supporters not to nominate her.

She may want to focus her energies instead on campaigning for president and building up strength after her imprisonment. She spoke to an excited crowd of 50,000 in central Kiev Saturday night from a wheelchair because of a back problem aggravated during imprisonment, her voice cracked and her face careworn.

A spokeswoman for Tymoshenko, Marina Soroka, said Sunday it's too early to talk about a presidential run. Tymoshenko met with several foreign diplomats Sunday, then headed to visit her mother and will return to work after that.

View galleryA sticker depicting Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych …
A sticker depicting Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is placed on a burned military truck in Ki …
Susan Rice, President Barack Obama's national security adviser, said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a telephone conversation Friday that a political settlement in Kiev should ensure the country's unity and personal freedoms.

But Rice also said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that it would be a "grave mistake" for Russia to intervene militarily in Ukraine.

European diplomats helped negotiate a short-lived peace deal last week and the chief EU diplomat is coming to Kiev on Monday.

Russia's position will be important for the future of this country because the two have deep and complicated ties. Moscow in December offered Ukraine a $15 billion bailout, but so far has provided only $3 billion, freezing further disbursements pending the outcome of the ongoing political crisis.

The Kremlin has been largely silent about whether it still supports Yanukovych. Putin, who is presiding over the close of the Sochi Olympics, has not spoken about recent events in Kiev. He had developed a productive working relationship with Tymoshenko when she was Ukraine's prime minister.

View galleryA youth draped in Ukraine's flag passes by a memorial …
A youth draped in Ukraine's flag passes by a memorial to protesters killed in clashes with the p …
Russian legislator Leonid Slutsky said Sunday that naming Tymoshenko prime minister "would be useful for stabilizing" tensions in Ukraine, according to Russian news agencies.

Russia's finance minister on Sunday urged Ukraine to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund to avoid an imminent default.

Tensions mounted in Crimea, where pro-Russian politicians are organizing rallies and forming protest units and have been demanding autonomy from Kiev. Russia maintains a big naval base in Crimea that has tangled relations between the countries for two decades.

A crowd of pro-Russia demonstrators in the Crimean city of Kerch, following a rally Sunday at which speakers called for Crimea's secession, marched toward city hall chanting "Russia! Russia!" and tore down the Ukrainian flag. Marchers scuffled with the mayor and police officers who tried but failed to stop the crowd from hoisting a Russian flag in its place.

The political crisis in this nation of 46 million has changed with blinding speed repeatedly in the past week.

View galleryProtesters guard the Ukrainian government building …
Protesters guard the Ukrainian government building in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014. The Kiev …
The parliament, in a special session Sunday, voted overwhelmingly to temporarily hand the president's powers to speaker Oleksandr Turchinov. He is one of Tymoshenko's most loyal allies, who stuck with her even as others deserted her in her roller coaster political career.

Tymoshenko is a divisive political survivor who drew criticism even as masses cheered her from the protest camp. Posters appeared Sunday equating her with Yanukovych, reading "people didn't die for this."

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko warned that getting the country under control won't be easy, and hinted at possible turmoil to come.

"If new government falls short of expectations, people can come out and sweep them out of office," he told journalists in parliament.

The legitimacy of the parliament's flurry of decisions in recent days is under question. The votes are based on a decision Friday to return to a 10-year-old constitution that grants parliament greater powers. Yanukovych has not signed that decision into law, and he said Saturday that the parliament is now acting illegally.

View galleryA protester guards the Ukrainian government building …
A protester guards the Ukrainian government building in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014. The Ki …
However, legal experts said that de facto the parliament is now in charge.

Presidential aide Hanna Herman told The Associated Press on Sunday that Yanukovych was in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as of Saturday night and plans to stay in power. Still, Herman sought to distance herself from him Sunday.

So did members of his party, apparently seeking to save their political hides in a country suddenly in the hands of a pro-Western parliament.

The mayor of the eastern city of Kharkiv, Hennadiy Kernes, described Yanukovych on Sunday as "history." A day after defending the president, the mayor said on Ukrainian television, "The country has no president."

Ukrainians' loyalties remain divided.

View galleryA man passes by a small memorial dedicated to people …
A man passes by a small memorial dedicated to people killed in clashes with the police at Independen …
Protesters smashed portraits of Yanukovych and took down statues of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in several towns and cities. On Sunday, some pro-Russian protesters took up positions to defend Lenin statues in Donetsk and Kharkiv. Statues of Lenin across the former U.S.S.R. are seen as a symbol of Moscow's rule.

The past week has seen the worst violence in Ukraine since the breakup of the Soviet Union a quarter-century ago — 82 dead according to the Health Ministry, more than 100 according to protesters.

Thousands of Ukrainians flocked to the Kiev protest camp known as the Maidan to pay their last respects to the scores killed in clashes with police, bearing flowers and lighting candles while Cossacks beat drums.

Nadezhda Kovalchuk, a 58-year-old food worker on the square, said they died "so that we would be free, for our freedom, so that we, our children and grandchildren would live well."

Although I’m deep into the reporting of my next story about the Silicon Valley Techtopus, it’s hard for me not to get distracted by events in Ukraine and Russia.

I haven’t lived in that part of the world since the Kremlin ran me out of town, so I’m not going to pretend that I know as much as those on the ground there. Still, I’ve been driven nuts by the avalanche of overconfident ignorance that stands for analysis or commentary on the wild events there. A lethal ignorance, a virtuous ignorance.

Virtuous ignorance about world affairs used to be the exclusive domain of neo-con pundits, but now it’s everywhere, especially rampant on the counter-consensus side — nominally my own side, but an increasingly shitty side to be on.

Nearly everyone here in the US tries to frame and reify Ukraine’s dynamic to fit America-centric spats. As such, Ukraine’s problems are little more than a propaganda proxy war where our own political fights are transferred to Ukraine’s and Russia’s context, warping the truth to score domestic spat points. That’s nothing new, of course, but it’s still jarring to watch how the “new media” counter-consensus is warping and misrepresenting reality in Ukraine about as crudely as the neocons and neoliberals used to warp and Americanize the political realities there back when I first started my Moscow newspaper, The eXile.

So, yes, I wanted to comment on a few simplifications/misconceptions about Ukraine today:

1. The protesters are not “virtuous anti-Putin freedom fighters,” nor are they “Nazis and US puppets”

In fact, the people who are protesting or supporting the protesters are first and foremost sick of their shitty lives in a shitty country they want to make better—a country where their fates are controlled by a tiny handful of nihilistic oligarchs and Kremlin overlords, and their political frontmen. It’s first and foremost a desire to gain some control over their fate. Anger at Kremlin power over Ukraine is not necessarily anti-Russian—although the further west you go in Ukraine, the more this does become about nationalism, and the further east you go—including Crimea and Odessa—the more the politics are a fearful reaction against west-Ukraine nationalism.

This is kind of obvious to anyone who’s spent time in that part of the world. I’ll quote from Jake Rudnitsky’s great piece about the Orange Revolution published in The eXile nearly a decade ago, which aptly describes both what an awful political figure Yanukovych is, what role the US played in that “revolution,” and the aspirations of most Ukrainians who took to the streets. It’s amazing how little has changed in this dynamic:

“Almost all of Ukraine’s oligarchs are from the east or Kiev, and they almost exclusively lined up in support of Yanukovych, a Donetsk native. There are a few exceptions, notably Petro Poroshenko, the owner of car and candy factories and a ship-building yard. He also owns Channel 5, which was an invaluable tool in helping Yushchenko [the pro-West leader of the Orange Revolution] compete….A large part of [Channel 5] programming consists of watching Yanukovych’s team make asses of themselves. They often repeat a speech Yanukovych gave where he was gesturing with his fingers in the air, “paltsami,” a classic bandit gesture. Still, the biggest and most powerful clans are still behind Yanukovych, who is their man.

“Yanukovych is a truly loathsome character. Most Ukrainians agree that if a more palatable candidate had been given the nearly unlimited access to “administrative resources” that Yanukovych had, he would have won handily. But Yanukovych twice served jail time in the Soviet Union, he has no charisma, and is obviously a tool of powerful Russian and Ukrainian interests. Yushchenko, on the other hand, is considered by most western Ukrainians to be something between Gandhi and Christ, while many people in the east worry he has it in for everyone who speaks Russian. Many people who voted for Yanukovych did so out of suspicion of Yushchenko, not because they like Yanukovych (except perhaps in his home turf, Donetsk).”

As for the US role in the Orange Revolution, what Rudnitsky wrote in 2004 applies to the US/EU role today:

“The protests have come under fire as an American-funded coup, particularly in the Russian media. And there’s some truth to it — the US has been bringing in Serbs and Georgians experienced in non-violent revolution to train Ukrainians for at least a year. One exit poll — the one finding most heavily in favor of Yushchenko — was funded by the US. The smoothness and professionalism of the protest, from the instant availability of giant blocks of Styrofoam to pitch the tents on to the network of food distribution and medical points, is probably a result of American logistical planning. It’s certainly hard to imagine Ukrainians having their act together that well. The whole orange theme and all those ready-made flags also smack of American marketing concepts, particularly Burson-Marstellar.

“But the crowds in Kiev, which can swell up to a million on a good day and are always in the hundreds of thousands, are there out of their own homegrown sense of outrage, not because some State Department bureaucrats willed them there. The meetings that happen every day in virtually every city in Ukraine (and in literally every western Ukraine village) are not the result of American propaganda. Rather, they are the result of the democratic awakening of a trampled-on people who refuse to be screwed by corrupt politicians again.”

2. About Ukraine’s neo-fascists:

They’re definitely real, they’re a powerful minority in the anti-Yanukovych campaign—I’d say the neo-fascsists from Svoboda and Pravy Sektor are probably the vanguard of the movement, the ones who pushed it harder than anyone. Anyone who ignores the role of the neo-fascists (or ultranationalists, take your pick) is lying or ignorant, just as anyone who claims that Yanukovych answered only to Putin doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The front-center role of Svoboda and the neo-fascists in this revolution as opposed to the Orange Revolution is, I think, due to fact that the more smiley-face/respectable neoliberal politicians can’t rally the same fanatical support they did a decade ago. Eventually, even the co-leader of the Orange Revolution, Viktor Yushchenko, moved from “respectable” pro-EU neoliberalism to rehabilitating western Ukraine’s fascist mass-murderer, Stepan Bandera, which I wrote about in The Nation.

What role the neo-fascists and descendants of Bandera will play in the near-term future is the big question. Their role in the protest’s vanguard is definitely scaring a lot of people in the east of Ukraine and Crimea, and could precipitate a violent split. On the other hand, by far the most likely scenario is that the neo-fascist/ultranationalists in Svoboda will be absorbed into the pro-West coalition and politics, as they’re still a minority in the coalition. Neoliberalism is a big tent that is happy to absorb ultranationalists, democrats, or ousted president Yanukovych.

The power that the neo-fascists already have is bad enough, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a ton of bullshit hype and propaganda about the neo-fascist threat. A perfect example of fascist-hype propaganda was recently published in Ha’aretz, headlined: “Ukrainian rabbi tells Kiev’s Jews to flee city”:

“Fearing violence against Ukraine’s Jews, the Jewish community asks Israel for assistance with the security of the community.

“Ukrainian Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, called on Kiev’s Jews to leave the city and even the country if possible, fearing that the city’s Jews will be victimized in the chaos, Israeli daily Maariv reported Friday.

“‘I told my congregation to leave the city center or the city all together and if possible the country too,’ Rabbi Azman told Maariv. ‘I don’t want to tempt fate,’ he added, ‘but there are constant warnings concerning intentions to attack Jewish institutions.’”

Sounds scary in a Schindler’s List sorta way, doesn’t it?

Later that day, Ha’aretz published this correction, admitting it’d been duped by a Kremlin tool:

“Correction (Feb. 22, 4:20 P.M.): An earlier version of this report incorrectly described Rabbi Azman as the chief rabbi of Ukraine. Azman is not the country’s chief rabbi, but one of two rabbis challenging the official chief rabbi, Yaakov Bleich, in Kiev, and like most Chabad rabbis, is aligned with the Kremlin.”

(If you want to read more about Chabad, read Yasha Levine’s investigative report on the right-wing Jewish cult, and its role in Cory Booker’s rise to power.)

The point is this: What’s happening in Ukraine is not a battle between pro-fascists and anti-fascists. There are fascists on both sides; the opposition happens to like fascist costume parties more, but watch this video of Yanukovych’s snipers murdering unarmed protesters and tell me who the real fascists are in this fight…

3. Everything you think you know about Ukraine is wrong.

Everyone looking for a proxy side to support or oppose in the Ukraine political dynamic will be disappointed. Ukraine politics go by their own rules. Today’s neoliberal ultranationalist could be tomorrow’s Kremlin ally, and visa-versa. Just look at what happened to the Orange Revolution—nothing. To wit:

a) One Orange Revolution leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, wound up turning against her partner Viktor Yushchenko and allying with Yanukovych to strip Yushchenko of presidential powers; later, Tymoshenko allied with the Kremlin against Yushchenko; now she’s free from jail and the presumptive leader of the anti-Yanukovych forces.

b) The other Orange leader—the pro-EU, anti-Kremlin Viktor Yushchenko—wound up allying with pro-Kremlin Yanukovych to jail Yulia Tymoshenko.

c) John McCain has been the big driving force for regime change against Yanukovych, but McCain’s 2008 campaign chief’s lobby firm, Davis Manafort, managed Yanukovych’s political campaigns and his lobbying efforts in the US.

d) Anthony Podesta, brother of President Obama’s senior advisor John Podesta, is another Yanukovych lobbyist; John Podesta was the chief of Obama’s 2008 transition team.

4. Yanukovych was not fighting neoliberalism, the World Bank, or oligarchy — nor was he merely a tool of the Kremlin.

There’s another false meme going around that because the World Bank and IMF are moving in to “reform” Ukraine’s economy — for the umpteenth time — that somehow this means that this was a fight between pro-neoliberal and anti-neoliberal forces. It wasn’t.

Yanukovych enthusiastically cooperated with the IMF and pledged to adhere to their demands. Six months after Yanukovych was elected president, the headline read “International Monetary Fund approves $15 billion loan to Ukraine”. As the AFP reported,

“President Viktor Yanukovych had made restoring relations with the IMF a major priority on taking office.”

Later that year, the Wall Street Journal praised Yanukovych’s neoliberal reforms as “truly transformational” and gushed that Yanukovych “may soon become Europe’s star economic liberalizer.”

The problem was that last November, the Kremlin offered Yanukovych what he thought was a better deal than what the EU was offering. He bet wrong.

The point is this: Ukraine is not Venezuela. This is not a profoundly political or class fight, as it is in Venezuela. Yanukovych represents one faction of oligarchs; the opposition, unwittingly or otherwise, ultimately fronts for other factions. Many of those oligarchs have close business ties with Russia, but assets and bank accounts—and mansions—in Europe. Both forces are happy to work with the neoliberal global institutions.

In Ukraine, there is no populist left politics, even though the country’s deepest problem is inequality and oligarchy. Memories of the Soviet Union play a big role in turning people off to populist-left politics there, for understandable reasons.

But the Ukrainians do have a sense of people power that is rare in the world, and it goes back to the first major protests in 2000, through the success of the Orange Revolution. The masses understand their power-in-numbers to overthrow bad governments, but they haven’t forged a populist politics to change their situation and redistribute power by redistributing wealth.

So they wind up switching from one oligarchical faction to another, forming broad popular coalitions that can be easily co-opted by the most politically organized minority factions within—neoliberals, neofascists, or Kremlin tools. All of whom eventually produce more of the same shitty life that leads to the next revolution.

Supreme Council of Crimea in the extraordinary plenary session on Thursday adopted a resolution to hold a national referendum on improvement of the status and powers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. As reported by "Interfax" the head of information-analytical department of the Secretariat of the Supreme Council Sulnikova Olga, for this decision voted 61 out of 64 deputies.

According to the decree, the ballot papers will be submitted to the question "Autonomous Republic of Crimea has a state independence and part of Ukraine on the basis of treaties and agreements (yes or no)."

Crimean parliament also decided to distrust the Council of Ministers of Crimea and the resignation of the cabinet, headed by Anatoly Mogilev. It was voted # 55 of 64 parliamentarians. By results of 2013 activities of the Crimean government was found to be unsatisfactory.

Meanwhile, the head of the Crimean branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine Andriy Krysko said the agency "Interfax-Ukraine", the exact number of MPs who voted at today's meeting, just can not be established. According Krys'ko, none of the employees of the Secretariat of the Crimean parliament in the room was not in the room were only deputies without means of communication.

Chairman of the Board of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) Oleksandr Chernenko said that a referendum on expanding the powers of autonomy would be contrary to the Constitution of Ukraine and will not be recognized by the international community.

According to the expert, the Supreme Council of the Republic is not subject to initiate a referendum, because, under the law, a referendum can be initiated only gathering of citizens. Also in Ukraine, according to Chernenko, no legal basis for local referendums.

"Clause 20 of the first part of Article 92 of the Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that the organization and procedure of elections and referendums are determined exclusively by the laws of Ukraine. Today law which shall determine the organization and procedure of the local referendum, no, because the law of Ukraine" On the national and local referendums " paragraph 4 of Section XIII "Final Provisions" of the Law of Ukraine "On a national referendum" on November 6, 2012 № 5475-VI declared invalid, "- says the decision of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine on February 13, 2014.

Earlier Thursday, a willingness to consider a referendum on the chairman of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov.

"The situation remains tense. Yesterday was provoked conflict. Radical elements have given us to hold an extraordinary meeting of the Supreme Council. Today I decided to organize its extraordinary session of the Supreme Council, which we will discuss the most pressing issues today for autonomy" - the chairman of the Crimean Parliament.

The change of government that took place in Ukraine as a result of the outbreak of violence in Kiev and disengagement of President Viktor Yanukovych, has caused excitement in the Crimea. In Sevastopol, Simferopol and other cities held rallies opponents of the new regime. Among the demands of the protesters - not to obey illegal, according to them, the decision of the new Ukrainian authorities.

In Simferopol unknown on Thursday night seized the Supreme Council of Crimea and hoisted the Russian flag on it. Before entering the parliament building erected a barricade out of everyday items. The building is cordoned off by police. A large number of law enforcement officials focused near the building of the Crimean Council of Ministers.

Crimean Prime Minister Anatoly Mogilev said that while capturing unknown showed no aggression towards people who were in the buildings, they were brought out into the street.

The night before the walls of the Crimean parliament clashes between supporters of the Crimea to Russia and supporters of maintaining the present status of autonomy. During clashes between opposing forces suffered about 30 people, six of them were hospitalized. Also officially confirmed the death of at least one person. According to preliminary data, he died of a heart attack.

Tug of War Over Ukraine Intensifies

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian and Western leaders tried on Sunday to dissuade President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia from overplaying his hand and ordering an invasion of eastern Ukraine, even as Russian forces and their sympathizers in the Crimean Peninsula worked to disarm or neutralize any Ukrainian resistance there.

What began in Ukraine three months ago as a protest against the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovych has now turned into a big-power confrontation reminiscent of the Cold War and a significant challenge to international agreements on the sanctity of the borders of post-Soviet nations.

The Russian incursion also poses a new crisis for the Obama administration, which embraced the new government in Kiev but now finds itself confronted with an ever more thinly veiled invasion of Ukraine.

American intelligence agencies tracked thousands of additional Russian troops arriving in Crimea on Sunday, bolstering the Russian forces already in the area, an American official said. The official gave no further detail about the types of forces, and did not say whether the Obama administration believes that Mr. Putin will send even more troops in the days to come.

A senior Obama administration official said Russian troops now have “complete operational control of the Crimean Peninsula, with some 6,000 airborne and naval forces there. The official confirmed that the Russians were flying in additional reinforcements to Ukraine Sunday, adding that the Russian military is “settling in” as an occupying force.

For the most part, Ukrainian military forces have stayed in their barracks and in some cases their weapons have been stored in an attempt to avoid an escalation, the official said.

After the newly appointed Ukrainian Navy chief, Rear Adm. Denis Berezovsky swore allegiance to the people of Crimea, who are decidedly pro-Russian, an embarrassed Kiev immediately removed him and said it would investigate him for treason.

A YouTube video showed an anxious, sweating Admiral Berezovsky, eyes downcast, quickly muttering a statement, saying: “I, Berezovsky Denis, swear allegiance to the Crimean people and pledge to protect it, as required by the regulations.”

Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Kiev on Tuesday to show United States support for Ukraine, another senior United States official announced Sunday evening.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany who spoke with Mr. Putin in a telephone call Sunday evening, accused Russia of violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine and breaking the Budapest Agreement of 1994 to respect the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine, according to a statement from Mrs. Merkel’s office.

Mr. Putin, the statement said, agreed to Ms. Merkel’s suggestion to send a “fact finding mission,” possibly led by the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to open a political dialogue.

The chancellor has maintained strong, if not always warm, ties with the Russian president and has often taken a leading role in Europe’s dialogue with Moscow. However, Germany, together with Poland, has also worked to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union.

The day began with Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, telling reporters in English, “This is the red alert — this is not a threat, this is actually a declaration of war to my country,"a reference to approval by Russia’s Parliament on Saturday of the deployment of troops to any part of Ukraine where Moscow deems Russians to be in danger. Mr. Yatsenyuk warned that Ukraine was on the “brink of disaster” and asked the international community to stand by his government in Kiev.

Mr. Kerry on Sunday condemned Russia for what he called an “incredible act of aggression” and threatened “very serious repercussions.” He suggested what many were saying as fact later in the day, that Russia was “trying to annex Crimea.”

Britain, France and Germany joined the United States in suspending participation in preparatory meetings for the summit of the eight industrialized nations that Mr. Putin is to host in June in Sochi. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France said on Europe 1 radio that Moscow must “realize that decisions have costs.” And Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said that “we are on a very dangerous track of increasing tensions,” but that “it is still possible to turn around. A new division of Europe can still be prevented.”

In Moscow, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, responded dismissively. “It’s not a minus for Russia,” he said. “It will be a minus for the G-8.”

Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, traveled to Kiev on Sunday evening to meet with the new government and express support, and he said that was is urging restraint from all parties.

The NATO alliance held an emergency meeting in Brussels that was mostly designed to reassure members with Russian minorities, like the Baltics, and allies of Ukraine, like Poland, that NATO was ready to defend them. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, though it has some military and political cooperation with it.

Before the NATO meeting, its secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told Russia to stop its military activity and threats against Ukraine. “What Russia is doing now in Ukraine violates the principles of the United Nations Charter,” he said. “It threatens peace and security in Europe. Russia must stop its military activities and its threats.”

But it was difficult to see what immediate penalties would be put on Moscow to retreat on Crimea or to not broaden its military moves into eastern Ukraine. Mr. Putin seems to have decided that undermining the new, pro-European government in Kiev was worth most any plausible price in economic or diplomatic isolation, judging that the West would not react militarily.

In Moscow, there were some small protests of the military action, though they were quickly broken up by the police, even as many more demonstrated in favor of Mr. Putin’s actions.

Eastern Ukraine was relatively calm on Sunday, with the Ukrainian government making plans to reinforce its control by naming some prominent businessmen, with thousands of people dependent on them for work, as regional governors. Pro-Moscow demonstrators flew Russian flags on Saturday and Sunday at government buildings in cities including Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk. In places, they clashed with anti-Russian protesters and guards defending the buildings.

In Crimea, where pro-Russian authorities have announced a referendum on autonomy on March 30, Ukrainian forces were under tremendous pressure. Hundreds of troops acting in the name of the provisional pro-Russian government in Crimea fanned out to persuade the thin Ukrainian forces there to give up their arms or swear allegiance to the new authorities, while the new government in Kiev tried to keep their loyalty while ordering them not to shoot unless under fire.

The former Ukrainian chief of staff, Adm. Yuriy Ilyin, who left the post on Friday after a reported heart attack, told reporters in Crimea that Ukrainian soldiers unfortunately were “hostages” of the situation. Emotions were made more complicated by the strong ties between the two navies, since the Ukrainian one was formed in the division of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

In Crimea, fewer soldiers were visible on the streets. Some heavily armed soldiers without insignia had taken up positions around Ukrainian military bases, but did not try to enter them.

At Perevalnoe, about 15 miles south of Simferopol on the road to Yalta, hundreds of soldiers with masks, helmets and goggles, in unmarked uniforms, surrounded a Ukrainian marine and infantry base, using vehicles with Russian plates. Inside about two dozen Ukrainian soldiers could be seen, equipped with an old BMP armored personnel carrier.

The Ukrainian commander, Col. Sergei Starozhenko, 38, told reporters the unmarked troops had arrived about 5 a.m. and “they want to block the base.” He said he expected them to bring reinforcements and call for talks. Asked how many men he had at his command, he said simply, “Enough.” After 15 minutes of conversation with what appeared to be a Russian officer, he said, “There won’t be war,” and returned inside, while the standoff continued.

In Sevastopol, pro-Russian “self-defense” forces blocked the entrances of the main Ukrainian naval headquarters. There was no sign of Russian troops, Ukrainian officers were at work inside and armed Ukrainians guards were on patrol behind the closed gates.

Pro-Russia demonstrators put up a banner reading: “Sevastopol without Fascism,” and urged Ukrainian officers to come over to their side rather than serve the “illegal fascist regime” in Kiev. The demonstrators pushed packs of cigarettes, candy and bottles of water through the gate for the Ukrainian guards.

Outside, Sergei Seryogin, a pro-Russia activist, said, “They have to make a choice — they either obey the fascists in Kiev or the people.” Kiev, he said, “is illegal power” and should be ignored by all military and civil officials.

At the Balaklava offices of the Ukrainian coast guard and border police, the Russian troop trucks that effectively besieged it on Saturday were gone. A member of the Sevastopol Council, Sergei Nepran, said that there had been an agreement with the Russians that the Ukrainians would remain in the office and not be put out to sea. Mr. Nepran claimed that the Sevastopol police “have come over to the people” and are now under control of a new pro-Russian mayor, Anatoly Chaly. Mr. Chaly, he said, had replaced a Kiev-appointed mayor who was forced to resign.

A Ukrainian Marine base in the Crimean port of Feodosiya was also surrounded, with the soldiers refusing to disarm. While Ukraine pulled its coast guard vessels out of Crimean ports, Kiev said its naval fleet’s 10 ships were still in Sevastopol and remained loyal.

On Sunday, Russia kept up its propaganda campaign in defense of the takeover, citing undefined threats to Russian citizens and proclaiming “massive defections” of Ukrainian forces in Crimea, which Western reporters said appeared to be unfounded. The state-owned Itar-Tass news agency cited the Russian border guard agency claiming that 675,000 Ukrainians had fled to Russia in January and February and that there were signs of a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

Russia insists that its intervention is only to protect its citizens and interests from chaos and disorder following the still unexplained departure from Kiev of the Kremlin-backed president, Mr. Yanukovych.

“If ‘revolutionary chaos’ in Ukraine continues, hundreds of thousands of refugees will flow into bordering Russian regions,” the border service said, according to Tass, providing another unsubstantiated justification for Russian military intervention.

In Kiev, Mr. Yatsenyuk, the prime minister, said he was “convinced” Russia would not intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine, “since this would be the beginning of war and the end of all relations between Ukraine and Russia.”

The Group of Seven major industrialized nations on Sunday condemned Russia's intrusion into Ukraine and cancelled for now preparations for the G8 summit that includes Russia and had been scheduled to take place in Sochi in June, the White House said.

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission released a joint statement agreeing to "suspend our participation in activities associated with the preparation of the scheduled G8 Summit until the environment comes back where the G8 is able to have meaningful discussion."

Ukraine mobilized for war on Sunday and Washington threatened to isolate Russia economically, after President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbour in Moscow's biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War.

"This is not a threat: this is actually the declaration of war to my country," Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, head of a pro-Western government that took power when Russian ally Viktor Yanukovich fled last week, said in English.

Putin secured permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine and told U.S. President Barack Obama he had the right to defend Russian interests and nationals, spurning Western pleas not to intervene.

Can Russia keep its hands off Ukraine?
Ukraine in crisis: Key facts, major developments
Live blog: Ukraine's deadly crisis
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Russia's military incursion into Ukraine "an incredible act of aggression." Kerry will travel to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday to stress U.S. political and economic support.

Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea — an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow has a naval base. On Sunday, they surrounded several small Ukrainian military outposts there and demanded the Ukrainian troops disarm.

'Dangerous course of actions'

Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird condemned Russia's moves and called on Putin to stop his "provocative and dangerous course of actions," urging the Russian leader to withdraw his troops in the Crimea back to their bases. He reiterated that Canada had recalled its ambassador in Moscow and is boycotting the G8 preparations in Sochi, in a news conference Sunday from Toronto.

The minister sidestepped questions about a boycott and when questioned about sanctions, he spoke about Canada talking to allies, NATO and the UN about further steps.

"Non-participation in the G8 will hurt Russia," said NDP Leader Tom Mulcair at a Sunday news conference. "Having the international community condemn as one this totally illegal invasion of a sovereign country will help send a signal even to the most obtuse regime like the Putin regime."

Police detain a man demonstrating against the Russian military's actions in Crimea and developments in Russian-Ukrainian relations during an unsanctioned rally in St.Petersburg, Russia on Sunday, March 2, 2014.
1 of 23
In Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, Yatsenyuk said there was no reason for Russia to invade Ukraine and warned that "we are on the brink of disaster."

But so far, his new government and other countries have been powerless to stop Russia's military tactics. Armed men in uniforms without insignia have moved freely about the peninsula, occupying airports, smashing equipment at an air base and besieging a Ukrainian infantry base.

"Ukraine is calling up all army reservists, getting this country combat ready," CBC News correspondent Susan Ormiston said, reporting from Crimea. "We were at a naval base not far from the capital of Crimea, where hundreds of Russian troops have surrounded the base. They blocked the gates with the Ukrainian army inside, but no violence."

Ormiston said there are reports the Ukrainian army is trying to protect its own caches of munitions.

"The city feels like it's still functioning. The doors are open," CBC News correspondent Nahlah Ayed reported from Western-sympathetic Kyiv. "But there's definitely apprehension here. They don't know where it's going. But this isn't really tangible on the ground as you are travelling around Kyiv."

The BBC is reporting that Russian soldiers are digging trenches where the Crimea peninsula meets the mainland.


Ukrainian officials announced Sunday that the head of the country's Black Sea fleet has been removed and is under investigation for treason. They say Denis Berezovsky did not provide resistance when the Russian army seized the port of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Ukrainian naval forces.

Russia has long wanted to reclaim the lush Crimean Peninsula, which was part of Russia until 1954. Its Black Sea Fleet is stationed there and nearly 60 per cent of Crimea's residents identify themselves as Russian.

Ukraine's population of 46 million has divided loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the EU, while eastern and southern regions like Crimea look to Russia for support.

Unidentified troops pulled up to the Ukrainian military base at Perevalne on the Crimean Peninsula in a convoy that included at least 13 trucks and four armoured vehicles with mounted machine guns. The trucks carried 30 soldiers each and had Russian licence plates.

Standoff at Ukrainian military base

A dozen Ukrainian soldiers placed a tank at the base's gate, leaving the two sides in a tense standoff.

Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, announced late Saturday that he had ordered Ukraine's armed forces to be at full readiness because of the threat of "potential aggression."

Turchynov also said he had ordered stepped-up security at nuclear power plants, airports and other strategic infrastructure.

But the U.S. and other Western governments have few options to counter Russia's military moves.

Countries pulling out of pre-G8 meetings

In Brussels, NATO's secretary general said Russia had violated the UN charter with its military action in Ukraine, and he urged Moscow to "de-escalate the tensions."

Ukraine Protests
Ukrainian Maria, 23, right, and Vanui, 22, hold posters against Russia's military intervention in Crimea, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday. The poster in the right side reads in Ukrainian: "I am from Russia, please protect me and remove the weapons and soldiers from Ukraine." (Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke before a meeting Sunday of the alliance's political decision-making body to discuss the crisis and urged urging "all parties to urgently continue all efforts to move away from this dangerous situation."

Ukraine is not a NATO member, meaning the U.S. and Europe are not obligated to come to its defence. But Ukraine has taken part in some alliance military exercises and contributed troops to its response force.

Kerry, interviewed on Sunday news shows in the U.S., raised the possibility of boycotting the G8 summit, which is to be held in June in Sochi, the Russia resort that just hosted the Winter Olympics. He also discussed visa bans, asset freezes, and trade and investment penalties.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Putin by telephone for 90 minutes Saturday and expressed his "deep concern" about "Russia's clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House said. Obama warned that Russia's "continued violation of international law will lead to greater political and economic isolation."

In Moscow, thousands marched Sunday in a pro-invasion rally one day after Russia's parliament gave Putin a green light to use military force in Ukraine. At least 10,000 people bearing Russian flags marched freely through the city, while dozens of people demonstrating on Red Square against an invasion of Ukraine were quickly detained by Russian riot police.

The new Ukrainian government came to power last week following months of pro-democracy protests against a pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and his decision to turn Ukraine toward Russia instead of the European Union.

Yanukovych fled to Russia after more than 80 people died, most of them demonstrators killed by police. He insists he's still president.

Since then, tensions have risen sharply between the two capitals.

Referendum planned on Crimea's future

The Interfax news agency reported the speaker of Crimea's legislature, Vladimir Konstantinov, as saying the local authorities did not recognize the government in Kyiv. He said a planned referendum on March 30 would ask voters about the region's future status.

The White House said the U.S. will suspend participation in preparatory meetings for the Group of Eight economic summit planned.

Ukraine
Unidentified armed men patrol Sunday around a Ukrainian infantry base in Perevalne, a village in Crimea. (Darko Vojinovic/Associated Press)

CBC correspondent Susan Ormiston is in Ukraine. Follow her reports on CBC News Network during the day and each night on CBC's The National. You can follow her on Twitter @Ormistononline

Canadian athletes will still compete in the upcoming Paralympics in Sochi, the Prime Minister's Office said late Saturday. The games are set for March 7 to March 16.

Also on Saturday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada supports the United Nations sending international monitors to Ukraine and is also involved in multilateral talks to put together a financial aid package for the beleaguered country.

On Sunday, Britain said it will suspend its participation in preparations for a G8 meeting in Sochi. British Prime Minister David Cameron said U.K. cabinet ministers will stay away from the Sochi Paralympics due to the conflict in Ukraine.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Europe 1 radio that planning for the summit should be put on hold. France "condemns the Russian military escalation" in Ukraine, and Moscow must "realize that decisions have costs," he said Sunday.

"We are on a very dangerous track of increasing tensions," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement. "[But] it is still possible to turn around. A new division of Europe can still be prevented."

I have struggled to get an update on the Ukrainian bases under seige. Last I had heard there was no violence, but Russian troops couldn't get in and Ukrainian troops couldn't get out. At least one base has used a wall of bodies backed by the tank parked in front of the gates. Pictures of the wall of bodies and tank.

Medina is a Crimean Tatar. Crimean Tatars make up 15 percent of the Crimean peninsula’s ethnically-mixed population. And with the Russian troop presence in Crimea this past week, tensions are running high.

“The most popular subject for discussion for me and my friends is definitely the current situation here in Crimea,” Medina says. “We are always exchanging messages, updating each other on the situation. We’re worried.”

As the crisis over Crimea continues, everyone is on edge, but especially families like Medina's. Crimean Tatars are Muslims, the indigenous people of the peninsula. In 1944, Stalin deported the entire Tatar population of Crimea to Central Asia.

In the family’s living room, Medina's grandparents Zenife and Zavre watch the news. Her grandparents were among the first Crimean Tatars to return to Crimea in 1969. Thousands followed in the 1980s, even though discrimination against the Crimean Tatars continued until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Now, once again, fear has returned.

Zenife says in the past few days, a few of her Tatar neighbors found their houses marked with crosses. She says Crimean Tatars are scared of the dormant ethnic tensions that the Russian troop presence has stirred up.

“We have nowhere to go," she says. "Russians have Russia, Ukrainians can go to Ukraine, but Crimea is our only home.”

Every day, Zenife has been participating in peaceful protests against the Russian troops. Most of the demonstrators are women and children. They wave blue and yellow balloons, the color of the Ukrainian flag. “Crimea is Ukraine,” the women shout. Across the road, Russian troops in balaclavas stand in front of a Ukrainian military base, blocking the entrance.

Long ago, Crimean Tatars had their own state, but now they believe their best chance of survival is with Ukraine.

At a Crimean Tatar Television station called ATR, one of the top stories of the day is the visit of an official delegation of Muslims from Russia, who have come to meet with Crimean Tatars.

“We can see how actively the new Russia-backed government in Crimea is trying to get Crimean Tatars on their side,” says Linur Yunusov, a journalist at ATR. “They are promising financial packages and government posts. There has been a whole string of delegations from Russia's Muslim regions trying to negotiate with us because the future of this pro-Moscow government depends on whether Crimean Tatars support it or not.”

Tatars represent only a small piece of Crimea’s population, but, politically, they matter. Crimea's new pro-Moscow government plans to hold a referendum in May on greater autonomy for the peninsula from Kiev — and they need Tatar votes. On Thursday, they moved that referendum up to March 16.

Eskandar Bariiev, a deputy in the Mejlis, the representative body for the Crimean Tatars, says he worries that the Russians will make an offer that the Crimean Tatars will find hard to refuse, a sort of autonomy that that they have always dreamed of.

“It will put us in an incredibly difficult position,” he says, but with memories of deportation still alive, he can't imagine Crimean Tatars aligning themselves with Russia.

Still, the pressure on the Crimean Tatars is increasing. They worry about what will happen if they continue to refuse to back the new regime.

At first, Rustem Kadyrov could barely make out the mark outside his house, in the Crimean town of Bakhchysarai, but it filled him with terror. It was an X, cut deep into the gray metal of the gate, and its significance cut even deeper, evoking a memory Kadyrov shares with all Crimean Tatars. Kadyrov, who is thirty-one, grew up hearing stories about marks on doors. In May of 1944, Stalin ordered his police to tag the houses of Crimean Tatars, the native Muslim residents of the peninsula. Within a matter of days, all of them—almost two hundred thousand people—were evicted from their homes, loaded onto trains, and sent to Central Asia, on the pretext that the community had collaborated with the Nazi occupation of Crimea.

Kadyrov’s grandmother, Sedeka Memetova, who was eight at the time, was among those deported. “The soldiers gave us five minutes to pack up,” she told me, when I visited the family on Thursday. “We left everything behind.” Memetova still has vivid memories of her journey into exile: the stench of the overcrowded train carriage, the wailing of a pregnant woman who sat next to her, and the solemn faces of the men who had to lower the bodies of their children off of the moving train—the only way, she said, to dispose of the dead. Four of her siblings were among the thousands of Crimean Tatars who never even made it to their final destination, Uzbekistan.

Starting in the nineteen-sixties, the Soviet Union began to allow survivors of the deportation to return. Memetova and her family came back to Crimea almost three decades ago, in 1987. This weekend, at around 3 P.M. on Saturday, Memetova’s forty-four-year-old daughter, Ava, looked out the window and saw four young men, strangers to the neighborhood, walking down the street, armed with batons. The men were also carrying pieces of paper, Ava told me—which she believes were lists of homes belonging to Crimean Tatars. Seventy years after Memetova’s deportation, her house had been marked once again. “Just as we thought we finally had a future,” she said. “How could anyone do this in the twenty-first century?”

When I walked up Chiisty Istochniki Street from the Memetovas’ house, I saw similar marks on four other houses, all of them residences of Crimean Tatars, Kadyrov said. The houses of their Russian neighbors, however, had not been touched. Similar markings have been reported in other parts of Bakhchysarai, and in some areas of the regional capital, Simferopol. Kadyrov told me that he called the police, who came out see his gate, but they refused to register a case. He was not surprised. “The police will not help us,” he said. “They told me Crimean Tatars are not a priority for them. Of course not—they are punishing us because we do not want Putin here.”

Kadyrov’s Russian neighbors have noticed the markings but dismissed his worries. “Whoever did it was just joking,” one woman, who did not wish to be named, told me. “We get along with our neighbors fine,” she continued. “But it would be helpful if Crimean Tatars stopped supporting Kiev.”

Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, claims that his country has an obligation to protect the Crimean peninsula’s Russians, a majority of its population, from what he called an “orgy of nationalists, and extremists, and anti-Semites” rampaging through the streets of Kiev. “What does that mean for us?” Kadyrov asked. “Who will protect us?”

Crimea is now firmly under the control of a new, pro-Moscow government, which does not recognize the authority of the new administration in Kiev. On Thursday, as the United States and European Union ramped up pressure on the Kremlin—announcing sanctions and visa restrictions against involved individuals—the regional parliament in Crimea voted unanimously to declare the peninsula part of Russia. A previously scheduled referendum on more autonomy for Crimea within Ukraine was moved up from March 30th to March 16th, and changed to a question about merging Crimea with Russia.

There are about three hundred thousand Crimean Tatars on the peninsula, and although they constitute only fifteen per cent of its population they have great political significance. If they do not back the upcoming referendum, it will be far more difficult for the pro-Moscow government in Crimea to legitimize what is in effect a Russian annexation of the peninsula. This, Crimean Tatars told me, is precisely why pressure is growing for them to turn their back on Kiev.

Over the past week, Moscow has sent a series of delegations to meet with the leaders of the Crimean Tatar community. On Wednesday, the President of Tatarstan, an autonomous Muslim republic in Russia, met with members of the representative body of Crimean Tatars, known as the Mejlis. Another member of his delegation, Ilshat Aminov—the head of Tatarstan’s state broadcaster—paid a visit on the same day to the journalists at a Crimean Tatar television channel, ATR, which has been openly supportive of the new government in Kiev.

I happened to be at ATR when Aminov arrived. His laughter echoed through the newsroom as he walked around, praising the station’s modern equipment and avoiding any discussion of the news. When I asked Aminov about the reason for his visit, he said, simply, “I am here to support my brothers in a time of trouble.” Linur Yunusov, a senior journalist at ATR, told me that while no Russian official had ever bothered to visit Crimean Tatars before, Moscow was now sending one delegation after another. “This sudden brotherly love is overwhelming,” he joked.

At one point, a journalist inside the newsroom called Aminov’s attention to a television screen, which showed masked Russian soldiers blocking the entrance to a military base outside Simferopol. “This is our live position,” the journalist said, provocatively. “A perfect view of the Russian occupation.” Aminov didn’t take the bait. “Which editing software do you use?” he replied.

The delegates visiting from Russia have made many promises to the Crimean Tatars to solicit their political support: seats in the new government, financial assistance, official language rights, and rural-development programs. These offers resonate, particularly as the community feels that its plight has been largely ignored by the government in Kiev for the past quarter century. Many Crimean Tatars remain bitterly disappointed that Kiev has not delivered on its many promises to pass laws that would recognize victims of Stalin’s deportation or establish Crimean Tatar-language schools.

“We are on a verge of losing our culture, our language, our identity,” Yunusov, the senior journalist, told me. And yet, like most of the Crimean Tatars I have interviewed, he believes that the community will be safer if the peninsula remains part of Ukraine. “For us, a European Ukraine is the only way of making sure that we survive as people,” he said. “We need European laws to protect our identity. After what happened in 1944, we can never trust the Russians.”

Eskandar Baiibov, a deputy in the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, told me firmly that his community is unanimous in its backing for the government in Kiev, and that Crimean Tatars would boycott any referendum on joining Russia. But he is also terrified, he admitted, of the price that they might have to pay for refusing to give the Kremlin the support it wants.

“We are already seeing signs that they are trying to intimidate us, to split us, to stir trouble,” Baiibov said. “Ukrainians are also vulnerable, but at least they have Ukraine to go to. Where will we go? Crimea is our only home.” After the regional parliament voted to merge Crimea into Russia on Thursday, the chairman of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, released a statement to the press, calling for the United Nations to “immediately consider” sending a contingent of international peacekeepers into Crimea, “in order to deëscalate the military conflict … which can lead to mass casualties among the entire civilian population of the peninsula.”

But the prospect of U.N. peacekeepers landing on the peninsula anytime soon is less than slim. And so, as Crimea prepares for a referendum on its future, its native people are preparing for the worst. In Bakhchysarai, Ava’s husband has cut up metal rods and placed them throughout the house so the family can use them to fight off any possible intruders. The men of Chiisty Istochniki Street now take turns patrolling the neighborhood at night, and Rustem Kadyrov has applied for travel documents for his children.

“Many of us want to get wives and children out of here, to somewhere safe,” Kadyrov told me. The men, he said, will stay.