Thursday 13 March 2014

Ukraine creates National Guard ahead of Crimea vote

A Russian flag flies outside a Ukrainian military base as Armed men believed to be Russian military patrol outside on 12 March 2014 in Simferopol, UkraineThe vote came ahead of Sunday's referendum in Crimea, now controlled by pro-Russian forces, on whether citizens want to join Russia.

The US has threatened action if Russia does not remove its troops from Crimea.

Germany's Angela Merkel has said Moscow faces "massive" political and economic damage if it refuses to change course.

Russia was exploiting the weakness of neighbouring Ukraine, rather than acting as a partner for stability, the chancellor said on Thursday, adding that there was no military solution to the crisis.

The Russian military and pro-Russian armed men moved in to seize key sites in Crimea - an autonomous region of Ukraine whose population is mainly ethnic Russian - in late February after the fall of President Viktor Yanukovych.
'Serious measures'

The German chancellor has threatened an escalating series of EU measures if Russia does not relax the tension in Ukraine.

In a statement to the Bundestag, she said political and diplomatic measures, rather than military action, were the way to resolve the crisis.

"If Russia continues on its course of the past weeks, it will not only be a catastrophe for Ukraine," she said...


From BBC News

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