- U.N. special envoy threatened, blocked by pro-Russian group in Crimea
- Ukraine refutes authority of Yanukovych to authorize Russia to use its military in Ukraine
- Canada to send observers to international Ukraine mission for Crimea
- Country’s new prime minister says Crimea will remain in Ukraine, but may get more powers
- Crowd waving Russian flags storms government HQ in Ukrainian city of Donetsk
PARIS – Prime Minister Stephen Harper condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Wednesday.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a clear violation of international law,” said Harper in a statement. “As such, today I am announcing that we are suspending our participation in the Canada-Russia Intergovernmental Economic Commission (IEC), established to promote economic relations between Canada and Russia.”
Harper confirmed that Canada will send observers to join an unarmed military mission in the Ukraine and will impose sanctions on the regime of fugitive President Yanukovych.
He told the House of Commons the observers will help to monitor the Russian military intervention in Crimea.
LISTEN: Global’s Paul Johnson on the U.N. envoy harassed in Simferopol and how Russian speaking Ukrainians react to tensions in Crimea
NATO suspends meetings, military mission with Russia
The head of NATO says it is responding to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine by suspending most of the military alliance’s meetings with Russia and reviewing all of its co-operation with Moscow.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday that ambassadors for NATO’s 28 member states decided after a meeting with their Russian counterpart to suspend plans for a joint mission as well as all civilian and military meetings.
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Rasmussen said because of Russia’s military action in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula “the entire range of NATO-Russia co-operation (is) under review.”
Rasmussen said the alliance will continue to meet with Moscow at the political level but insisted that halting all other co-operation “sends a very clear message to Russia.”
He also said NATO decided “to intensify our partnership with Ukraine.”
Russia has suggested that it will meet any sanctions imposed by Western governments with a tough response, and Putin has warned that those measures could incur serious “mutual damage.”
VIDEO: Ukraine PM likens situation in Crimea to a Russian-supported “coup”
Ukraine refutes authority of Yanukovych to authorize Russia to use its military
Ukraine is refuting the authority of fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych to authorize Russia to use its armed forces to restore peace and defend the Ukrainian population.
Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council that under the constitution “the parliament of Ukraine has an exclusive power to approve a decision on admission of foreign military forces into the territory of Ukraine.”
PM says Crimea will remain in Ukraine, but may get more powers
Ukraine’s new prime minister said Wednesday that embattled Crimea must remain part of Ukraine, but may be granted more local powers.
In the first interview since taking office last week, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for causing one of the sharpest international crises in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
A special task force could be established “to consider what kind of additional autonomy the Crimean Republic could get,” Yatsenyuk told The Associated Press.
Former Defence Secretary Gates ‘not optimistic’ about ending West-Russian rift over Ukraine
Former U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates says he’s “not optimistic” about a quick solution to the rift between the West and Russia over Ukraine.
The Republican onetime CIA chief says Putin “knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s trying to re-establish Russian influence and a measure of control over the former states of the Soviet Union.”
Gates says Obama has handled the crisis responsibly. But he says, quote, “I think the challenge the president faces is that our allies may not be as willing to go along with these sanctions as they should be.”
Associated Press writers Laura Mills in Moscow, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, and Lara Jakes and Greg Keller in Paris, and Juergen Baetz in Brussels contributed.
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