Many political cartoons have emerged on the internet satirizing the Ukrainian uprisings
Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has asked Russia to deploy troops across the border to protect civilians as violence in the Crimean region of Ukraine continues.
On Saturday Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s envoy to the UN, has told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that Viktor Yanukovych, who is no longer president, requested Russia’s armed forces to enter Ukraine and establish order.
Putin had already established his troops close to the Ukrainian border, ordering ‘special drills’ in case violence escalated but Ukraine’s UN envoy Yuriy Sergeyev says Russia has deployed about 16,000 troops to the peninsula.
Reading a statement on Monday he said was from the fugitive president, Churkin said the request came because “as the legitimately elected representative” Yanukovych believes “Ukraine is on the brink of civil war.”
Churkin quoted Yanukovych as saying “the life and security and the rights of people, particularly in the southeast part in Crimea, are being threatened” and that there were “open acts of terror and violence”.
Ukrainian defence sources have accused Russia’s Black Sea Fleet chief Aleksander Vitko of threatening a full-scale assault if they did not surrender by dawn on Tuesday.
A Russian spokesman later denied that any ultimatum had been issued.
Ukrainian military personnel besieged in their bases waited nervously for the deadline to pass. Many are expecting an attack from Russian troops and pro-Moscow militias but do not appear to be considering surrender.
The West is facing its biggest confrontation with Moscow since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the right to use force in its neighbour forcing Ukraine’s military to be put on alert. Ukrainian border guards have said that Russia has started a build-up of armoured vehicles on the Russian side of a narrow stretch of water between Russia and Crimea.
A letter from Ukraine’s UN mission circulated during the emergency meeting stating thousands of Russian troops have continued to pour over the border on Monday and took positions outside military installations in the peninsula; they called for international help.
Moscow has defended their actions and have refused to adhere to international demand for Russia’s withdrawal from Crimea. Speaking at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister justified the use of troops in Crimea as a necessary protection for his country’s citizens living there.
Western ambassadors refused to accept Russia’s justification, continuing to accuse Moscow of violating international law.
“Russian mobilisation is a response to an imaginary threat,” said US envoy Samantha Power, “Military action cannot be justified on the basis of threats that haven’t been made and aren’t being carried out.”
Barack Obama, the US president, said that Russia had violated international law in its military intervention in Ukraine, and said Washington will look at a series of economic and diplomatic sanctions that would isolate Moscow.