(February 28 BBC News Europe) Ukraine's acting President Oleksander Turchynov
has accused Russia of deploying troops to Crimea and trying to provoke Kiev
into "armed conflict". In a TV address, he said Moscow wanted the new
interim government to react to provocations so it could annex Crimea. Russia's
UN ambassador said any troop movements in Crimea were within an existing
arrangement with Ukraine. US President Barack Obama warned of the
"costs" of any Russian intervention in the Ukraine. President Obama:
"Any violation of Ukraine sovereignty would be deeply destabilising".
In a statement from the White House he said: "Any violation of Ukraine's
sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilising, which is
not in the interests of Ukraine, Russia or Europe." He said Washington
stood by Ukraine's new interim government and commended "its restraint and
its commitment to uphold its international obligations". President
Turchynov appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to "stop
provocations and start negotiations". He said Russia was behaving as it
did before sending troops into Georgia in 2008 over the breakaway regions of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have large ethnic Russian populations. "They
are implementing the scenario like the one carried out in Abkhazia, when after
provoking a conflict, they started an annexation of the territory,"
President Turchynov said.
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