2014/03/01/Ukraine alleges Russian invasion of Crimea as Obama warns of costs

title/short::Ukraine alleges Russian invasion of Crimea as Obama warns of costs Obama’s White House statement came shortly after the “interim government” installed in Ukraine by the Western powers appealed for United States and Britain to come to its aid, accusing Russia of mounting an “invasion.”
 * when: when posted::2014/03/01
 * author: author::Chris Marsden
 * source: site::World Socialist Web Site
 * topics: topic::Ukraine topic::Russia topic::Obama-Biden administration
 * keywords
 * link: URL::https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/03/01/ukra-m01.html
 * title: title::Ukraine alleges Russian “invasion” of Crimea as Obama warns of “costs”
 * summary: US President Barack Obama issued a statement Friday evening denouncing “reports of military movements” taken by Russia in Ukraine, warning that “there will be costs for any military intervention.” The comments come as the US/European-stoked regime change operation in Ukraine threatens to develop into a conflict between Western powers and Russia.

Arsen Avakov, the new interior minister and member of Fatherland, the party of oligarch Yulya Tymoshenko, alleged that the international airport in Sebastopol in the Crimea had been blocked by Russian forces. He wrote on Facebook, “I regard what is happening as an armed invasion and occupation in violation of all international treaties and norms. This is a direct provoking of armed bloodshed on the territory of a sovereign state.”

His choice of words aims to provide a casus belli justifying Western military intervention in Ukraine. He is invoking terms of a 1994 agreement, the Budapest Memorandum—signed by US President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister John Major, Russia’s Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma for Ukraine—promising to uphold the territorial integrity of Ukraine in return for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons. Discussion: Google+