Putin builds up armour near Crimea, Russian assets plummet
By Natalia Zinets and Alissa de Carbonnel
KIEV/BALACLAVA, Ukraine — Ukraine said Russia was building up armoured vehicles on its side of a narrow stretch of water near the Ukrainian region of Crimea after President Vladimir Putin said he had the right to invade his neighbour, prompting a sell-off in Russian assets.
Ukraine mobilised for war on Sunday and Washington threatened to isolate Russia economically after Putin’s declaration, provoking Moscow’s biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War.
The Russian central bank raised its key lending rate 1.5 percentage points after the rouble fell 2.5% to an all-time against the dollar at the opening of exchange trading on Monday, while the MICEX index of Moscow stocks tumbled 10% to 1,294 points.
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom , which supplies Europe through Ukraine, was down more than 13%. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, head of a pro-Western government that took power when former president Viktor Yanukovich, a Russian ally, fled on Feb. 21 after three months of street protests against his rule, said Putin had effectively declared war on his country.
A Ukrainian border guard spokesman said on Monday that Russian ships had been moving in and around the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea Fleet has a base, and that Russian forces had blocked mobile telephone services in some parts of Crimea.
He said the build-up of Russian armour was near a ferry port on the Russian side of what is known as the Kerch Strait, which separates the eastern edge of the Crimea peninsula and the western edge of the Taman Peninsula.
The strait is 4.5 km (2.8 miles) wide at its narrowest point and up to 18 metres (59 feet) deep.
“There are armoured vehicles on the other side of the strait. We can’t predict whether or not they will put any vehicles on the ferry,” the spokesman said by telephone.
The border guard spokesman did not say how many armoured vehicles had gathered in Russian territory, opposite the city of Kerch on the Ukrainian side of the strait.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian Defence Ministry.
RUSSIAN FLAGS FLYING
Putin secured permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine and told US President Barack Obama he had the right to defend Russian interests and nationals, spurning Western pleas not to intervene.
Crimea has an ethnic Russian majority.
Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea — an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow has a naval base.
On Sunday they surrounded several small Ukrainian military outposts there and demanded the Ukrainian troops disarm. Some refused, leading to stand-offs, although no shots were fired.
All eyes are now on whether Russia makes a military move in predominantly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow demonstrators have marched and raised Russian flags over public buildings in several cities in the last two days.
Russia has staged war games with 150,000 troops along the land border, but so far they have not crossed. Kiev says Moscow is orchestrating the protests to justify a wider invasion.
Ukraine’s security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert. However, Kiev’s small and underequipped military is seen as no match for Russia’s superpower might.
The Defence Ministry was ordered to stage a call-up of reserves — theoretically all men up to 40 in a country with universal male conscription, though Ukraine would struggle to find extra guns or uniforms for significant numbers of them.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned Russia for what he called an “incredible act of aggression” and threatened “very serious repercussions“. - Reuters
