Ukraine seeks world help, says Russia has declared war

KIEV: Ukraine called on Sunday for “real steps” by world leaders to help his country, saying it was on the brink of disaster and that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions amounted to a declaration of war.
“Any attempt to attack military installations is in fact direct military aggression against our country and the Russian military and the Russian leadership will be held responsible,” acting President Oleksander Turchinov said.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk also warned that his crisis-hit country was on the “brink of disaster,” accusing Russia of declaring war in a bleak appeal to the international community.
“This is the red alert, this is not a threat, this is actually a declaration of war to my country,” he told reporters in English, a day after Russia’s parliament approved the deployment of troops to Ukraine.
“If President Putin wants to be the president who started a war between two neighboring and friendly countries, between Ukraine and Russia, he has reached his target within a few inches. We are on the brink of the disaster.”
US leader Barack Obama has branded Russia’s parliament vote a “violation of Ukrainian sovereignty” and told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call that Moscow’s reported deployment of troops outside bases that it leases from Ukraine in the Crimea peninsula had broken international law.
Yatsenyuk on Sunday appealed to the international community.
“We believe that our Western partners and the entire global community will support the territorial integrity and unity of Ukraine and will do everything they can in order to stop the military conflict provoked by the Russian Federation,” he said.
Ukraine earlier up all military reserves and ordered its armed forces to be combat-ready as soon as possible as Putin sent more troops to the troubled country’s Crimea region.
A day after Russia’s forces took over the strategic Black Sea peninsula without firing a shot, a convoy of hundreds of Russian troops headed toward the Crimea on Sunday.
Putin has defied calls from the West to pull back his troops, insisting that Russia has a right to protect its interests and the Russian-speaking population in Crimea and elsewhere in Ukraine.
Andriy Paruby, Secretary of the Security Council which groups top security and defense chiefs, said an order had also been given to the Foreign Ministry to seek US and British help in guaranteeing the security of Ukraine.
The decisions followed a vote by Russia’s upper house of parliament on Saturday which authorized President Vladimir Putin to deploy troops in Ukraine.
Reading out the order after a meeting of the council, Paruby said the Defense Ministry was to “organize and conduct training with the necessary amount of people of military age.”
Ukrainians up to the age of 40 are considered of military-age. In the southern region of Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and is home to a Russian naval base, armed groups have taken control of key buildings and installations.
The armed forces, he said, would step up security at energy facilities.
There has been no sign of ethnic Russians facing attacks in Crimea, where they make up about 60 percent of the population, or elsewhere in Ukraine. Russia maintains an important naval base on Crimea.
President Barack Obama spoke with Putin by telephone for 90 minutes on 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.”
The US also said it will suspend participation in “preparatory meetings” for the Group of Eight economic summit planned in June at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the Winter Olympics were held.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius agreed, saying on French radio Europe 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.
But the US and other Western governments have few options to counter Russia’s military moves.
NATO’s North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s political decision-making body, and the NATO-Ukraine Commission were to meet on Sunday. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the allies will “coordinate closely” on the situation in Ukraine, which he termed “grave.”
Ukraine is not a NATO member, meaning the US and Europe are not obligated to come to its defense. But Ukraine has taken part in some alliance military exercises and contributed troops to its response force.
On the road from Sevastopol, the Crimean port where Russia has its naval base, to Simferopol on Sunday morning, Associated Press journalists saw 12 military trucks carrying troops, a Tiger vehicle armed with a machine gun and also two ambulances.
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.” He also said he had ordered stepped-up security at nuclear power plants, airports and other strategic infrastructure.
On Crimea, however, Ukrainian troops have offered no resistance.
The new government came to power last week following months of pro-democracy protests against the now-fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, and his decision to turn Ukraine toward Russia instead of the European Union.
Ukraine’s population of 46 million is divided in loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the EU, while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support. Crimea, a semi-autonomous region that Russia gave to Ukraine in the 1950s, is mainly Russian-speaking.