WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama warned Russia on Friday
that any military intervention in Ukraine would lead to unspecified
"costs," and expressed deep concern about reports of Russian military
movements inside Ukraine.
Obama made a hastily arranged appearance in the White House
briefing room to try to head off Russia after reports that armed men had taken
over two airports in the Crimea region of southern Ukraine.
"We are now deeply concerned by reports of military
movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine," he told
reporters.
Obama said any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and
territorial integrity would be "deeply destabilizing."
"The United States will stand with the international
community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention
in Ukraine," he said.
It was unclear how Washington might respond to rapidly
changing events in Ukraine days after pro-Western protesters prompted
pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovic to flee to Russia.
Armed men took control of two airports in the Crimea region
in what the new Ukrainian leadership described as an invasion by Moscow's forces,
and Yanukovich surfaced in Russia a week after he fled Kiev.
Ukraine fell into political crisis last year when Yanukovich
spurned a broad trade deal with the European Union and accepted a $15 billion
Russian bailout that is now in question.
The crisis has presented Obama with a difficult challenge.
Obama supports the pro-Western demonstrators who forced
Yanukovich out of power, and his administration is working on an urgently
needed aid package for Ukraine.
He is also engaged in a veiled struggle for influence in
Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has wanted to keep Kiev in
Moscow's orbit and for whom the Russian naval base at Ukraine's Black Sea port
of Sevastopol is a vital asset.
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