The Forgotten Treaty Which Could Drag the US and UK into WAR with Russia if Putin’s Troops Intervene in Ukraine
A
treaty signed in 1994 by the US and Britain could pull both countries
into a war to protect Ukraine if President Putin’s troops cross into the
country.
Bill Clinton, John
Major, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma – the then-rulers of the USA, UK,
Russia and Ukraine – agreed to the The Budapest Memorandum as part of
the denuclearization of former Soviet republics after the dissolution of
the Soviet Union.
Technically it means that if Russia has invaded Ukraine then it would be difficult for the US and Britain to avoid going to war.
The revelation
comes as reports suggest the Kremlin was moving up to 2,000 troops
across the Black Sea from Novorossiysk to their fleet base at
Sevastopol.
At least 20 men wearing the uniform
of the Russian fleet and carrying automatic rifles surrounded a
Ukrainian border guard post in a standoff near the port on February 27,
2014.
It is still unclear the exact scale
of Russian boots on the ground in Crimea or the identity of gunmen who
have taken over airports in Simferopol and Sevastopol – though reports
suggest they are Russian marines or Moscow- controlled militias.
The action came as President Obama delivered blunt warnings to Moscow.
‘We are now deeply concerned by
reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of
Ukraine,’ he told reporters at the White House.
‘Any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing,’ he said in a brief appearance.
‘The United States will stand with
the international community in affirming that there will be costs for
any military intervention in Ukraine.’
U.S. officials also said the
President could scrap plans to attend an international summit in Russia
and take negotiations on deepening trade ties with the country off the
table in response to Russian involvement in the Ukraine.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel added: “This could be a very dangerous situation if this continues in a provocative way.”
Asked about options in a CBS News
interview, he said that “We’re trying to deal with a diplomatic focus,
that’s the appropriate, responsible approach.”
Both the U.S. and the UK are advising against all non-essential trips to Ukraine – especially Crimea.
NATO also asked Russia not to take
action that could escalate tension. However Moscow responded by telling
the organization to ‘refrain’ from provocative statements on Ukraine and
respect its ‘non-bloc’ status.
Sir Tony Brenton, who served as British Ambassador from 2004 to 2008, said that war could be an option ’if we do conclude the [Budapest] Memorandum is legally binding.’
It promises to protect Ukraine’s borders, in return for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons.
Kiev has demanded the agreement is activated after insisting their borders had been violated.
In response Mr Brenton said in a
BBC radio interview: ‘If indeed this is a Russian invasion of Crimea and
if we do conclude the [Budapest] Memorandum is legally binding then
it’s very difficult to avoid the conclusion that we’re going to go to
war with Russia’.
Ukraine accused Russia of a
‘military invasion and occupation’, saying Russian troops have taken up
positions around a coast guard base and two airports on its strategic
Crimea peninsula.
Russia kept silent on the accusations, as the crisis deepened between two of Europe’s largest countries.
Any Russian military incursion in
Crimea would dramatically raise the stakes in Ukraine’s conflict, which
saw pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych flee last weekend after
three months of anti-government protests. Yanukovych vowed
Friday at a news conference in Russia to ‘keep fighting for the future
of Ukraine,’ though he called any military action ‘unacceptable.’
Moscow has vowed to protect
Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Crimea, where it has a major naval base,
and Ukraine and the West have warned Russia to stay away.
Tensions rising: A Russian soldier on
an armoured personnel carrier halted on a road in Ukraine around 20
miles from Sebastapol, where there is a large Russian military presence
Armed Russian navy servicemen surround a Ukrainian border guard base in Balaclava, in the Crimea region
Russia did not confirm its troops were involved in Friday’s action in Crimea, which would be a major escalation.
In Kiev, Ukraine’s parliament
adopted a resolution demanding that Russia halt steps it says are aimed
against Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and called for a
U.N. Security Council meeting on the crisis.
‘I can only describe this as a
military invasion and occupation,’ Ukraine’s newly named interior
minister, Arsen Avakov, wrote in a Facebook post.
The chief of Ukraine’s security
council, Andriy Parubiy, seemed to strike a less strident tone later in
the day, saying gunmen had tried to ‘seize’ the airports in the Crimean
cities of Simferopol and Sevastopol but insisting in comments to the
Interfax news agency that ‘de-facto the airports are controlled by the
law enforcement bodies of Ukraine.’
Ukraine’s State Border Guard
Service also said about 30 Russian marines from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet
– which is based in Sevastopol – had taken up position outside the
Ukrainian Coast Guard base in the area. It said the marines said they
were there to prevent any weapons at the base from being seized by
extremists.
Russia’s defense ministry had no comment.
Yanukovych made his first public
appearance since fleeing Ukraine in the southern Russian city of
Rostov-on-Don, not far from the Ukrainian border. It was the first
confirmation that he had left the country, and he said he was ‘forced’
to do so only after his family received threats.
‘I intend to keep fighting for the future of Ukraine,’ he said.
Yanukovych said he supports
Crimea’s residents who are worried about ‘nationalists’ in Kiev and
added that Russia cannot stand by while events in Ukraine unfold. He
denied, however, that this amounts to a call for military intervention.
‘Any military action in this situation is unacceptable,’ he said.
The prosecutor-general’s office in Kiev
said it would seek Yanukovych’s extradition to Ukraine, where he is
wanted on suspicion of mass murder in last week’s violent clashes
between protesters and police, during which over 80 people were killed.
Associated Press journalists
approaching the Sevastopol airport found the road leading up to it
blocked by two military trucks and a handful of gunmen wearing
camouflage uniforms and carrying assault rifles.
A car with Russian military plates
was stopped at the roadblock. A man wearing a military uniform with a
Russian flag on his sleeve got out of the car and was allowed to enter
on foot after a brief discussion with the gunmen.
At the airport serving Simferopol,
commercial flights were landing and taking off despite dozens of armed
men in military uniforms without markings patrolling with assault
rifles. They didn’t stop or search people leaving or entering the
airport, and refused to talk to journalists.
Russian military forces are
blockading an airport in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea, an
act Ukraine’s new interior minister has announced branded an ‘armed
invasion’
One man who identified himself only
as Vladimir said the men were part of the Crimean People’s Brigade,
which he described as a self-defense unit ensuring that no ‘radicals and
fascists’ arrive from other parts of Ukraine. There was no way to
verify his account.
The airport deployments came a day
after masked gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles
seized the parliament and government offices in Simferopol and raised
the Russian flag. Ukrainian police cordoned off the area but didn’t
confront the gunmen. They remained in control of the buildings Friday.
The Russian foreign and defense
ministries had no comment. Russia’s state RIA Novosti and Interfax cited
an unnamed official from the Russian Black Sea Fleet denying
involvement, saying Russian servicemen stationed in Crimea have not
moved into the airports and denying that the Russian military was in
control there.
Tensions between the two countries
were high, however. Russia continued with massive combat readiness
exercises involving most of its troops in western and southern Russia
that it said were unrelated to the Ukraine conflict. The moves were
reminiscent of Cold War brinksmanship.
Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings were seen patrolling the airport in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea
The Kremlin, in a statement
published late Thursday, said President Vladimir Putin had instructed
the government to ‘maintain contacts with the counterparts in Kiev in
what concerns trade and economic ties between Russia and Ukraine.’
Moscow has been sending mixed
signals about Ukraine but pledged to respect its territorial integrity.
Putin has long dreamed of pulling Ukraine, a country of 46 million
people considered the cradle of Russian civilization, closer into
Moscow’s orbit.
Meanwhile, Swiss prosecutors
announced they had launched a criminal investigation against Yanukovych
and his son Aleksander over ‘aggravated money laundering.’
They said police and Geneva’s chief
prosecutor conducted a search and seized documents Thursday at the
premises of a company owned by Aleksander Yanukovych.
Switzerland and Austria both said they would freeze any assets Yanukovych and his entourage might have in those countries.
Ukraine’s population is divided in
loyalties between Russia and the West, with much of western Ukraine
advocating closer ties with the European Union while eastern and
southern regions look to Russia for support.
Crimea, a southeastern peninsula of
Ukraine that has semi-autonomous status, was seized by Russian forces
in the 18th century under Catherine the Great, and was once the crown
jewel in Russian and then Soviet empires.
It became part of Ukraine in 1954
when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred jurisdiction from
Russia, a move that was a mere formality until the 1991 Soviet collapse
meant Crimea landed in an independent Ukraine.
In a bid to shore up Ukraine’s
fledgling administration, the International Monetary Fund has said it is
‘ready to respond’ to Ukraine’s bid for financial assistance; Ukraine’s
finance ministry has said it needs $35 billion over the next two years
to avoid default.
The European Union is also
considering emergency loans for a country that is the chief conduit of
Russian natural gas to western Europe.
And Putin, in his statement, asked
his government to ‘hold consultations with foreign partners including
the IMF and the G8 nations to provide financial aid to Ukraine.’
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