Hague warns of violent conflict if Putin advances
FOREIGN secretary William Hague issued a stark message to Russia yesterday, warning there is a “great danger of a shooting conflict” if Putin moves troops out of Crimea and into mainland Ukraine.
Hague reiterated the threat of UK sanctions against President Putin’s nation after armed personnel carriers were seen rolling into the country on Saturday. Putin has consistently denied that Russian troops are occupying areas of Ukraine.
But the foreign secretary admitted that there is very little that can be done by the international community to reverse what Hague described as Russia’s carefully prepared plan to occupy Crimea.
“We have commended all of their restraint so far,” the foreign secretary said of Ukrainian forces in Crimea. Asked if the UK would urge Ukraine to take up arms against Russian troops he added: “It is not really possible to go through different scenarios with the Ukrainians and say: in these circumstances you shoot and in these you don’t.”
Over the weekend there were further reports of the Russian military occupying buildings in Ukraine amid fears that Putin plans to move further into the troubled state. Yesterday troops took control of a border post in western Crimea, while pictures of pro-Russian protestors taking over government buildings in Luganske in eastern-Ukraine circulated on social media.
On the eve of talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, David Cameron spoke to Putin over the telephone and urged him to de-escalate tensions in the Crimean region. A Number 10 spokesman said: “The PM made clear that we, along with our European and American partners, want to work with Russia to find a diplomatic solution.”
“President Putin agreed that it is in all our interests to have a stable Ukraine. He said that Russia did want to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis and that he would discuss the proposals on the contact group with Foreign Minister Lavrov.”