By Li Hongmei
Nato's most senior military commander said on Sunday that Russia had amassed a large military force on Ukraine's eastern border, and warned that Moldova's separatist Trans-Dniester region could be the Kremlin's next target.
General Philip Breedlove, Nato's supreme allied commander, described the Russian force that began exercises 10 days ago as very, very sizeable and very, very ready.
"There is absolutely sufficient force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Trans-Dniester if the decision was made to do that. That is very worrisome," Breedlove said.
The White House also intimated that Russia may be readying for further action. Tony Blinken, Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser, described the troop build-up as deeply concerning. He told CNN the Moscow's evident goal was to intimidate the Ukrainians, and added: "It's possible that they're preparing to move in."
Following Russia's annexation of Crimea last week there is deep uncertainty as to what Vladimir Putin may do next. The Russian defence minister, Anatoly Antonov insisted on Sunday that Russian troops near Ukraine's border complied with international agreements. Vladimir Chizov, Moscow's ambassador to the EU, told the BBC that Russia did not have expansionist views.
European diplomats say that Putin's immediate post-Crimea goal is to destabilize Ukraine and to sabotage its pro-western government in Kiev. Beyond this, they add, they believe Putin's ambitions may include creating a zone of Russian influence in the south and east of Ukraine as far as Odessa, which borders Trans-Dniester, cutting off Kiev's access to the Black Sea.
Russia already has a military presence in Trans-Dniester, also known as Transnistria, a Russian-speaking separatist territory in western Moldova that broke away two decades ago. Trans-Dniester's communist leadership has appealed for Russia to annexe the region. Moldova's president Nicolae Timofti, meanwhile, has responded by urging the EU to bring forward the signing of an association agreement scheduled for early summer.
Ukraine's acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia struck a pessimistic note on Sunday, saying the chances of all out war between Kiev and Moscow were growing. "The situation is becoming even more explosive than a week ago," he told ABC News.
Addressing a rally in Kiev on Sunday, Ukraine's defense minister Andriy Parubiy claimed that Russian forces could attack at any moment. "Putin's aim is not Crimea but all of Ukraine," he said. In a show of national unity, demonstrators unveiled a giant yellow and blue Ukrainian flag on the Maidan, the scene of Ukraine's uprising last month.
Crimea leader asks Ukraine Russians to fight Kiev
Crimea's rebel leader urged Russians across Ukraine yesterday to rise up against Kiev's rule and welcome Kremlin forces whose unrelenting march against his flashpoint peninsula has defied Western outrage.
The call came amid growing anxiety among Kiev's Western-backed rulers that Russian President Vladimir Putin will imminently order an all-out attack on his ex-Soviet neighbor after being hit by only limited European Union and US sanctions for taking the Black Sea cape.
"The aim of Putin is not Crimea but all of Ukraine," Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council chief Andriy Parubiy told a mass unity rally in Kiev.
"His troops massed at the border are ready to attack at any moment," he said a day after Russian forces used armored personnel carriers and stun grenades to capture Ukraine's main Crimean airbase.
The takeover came as the chill in East-West ties grew stiffer with a charge by Germany of a Kremlin attempt to "splinter" Europe along Cold War-era lines.
One of the biggest tests facing the besieged Western-backed leaders in Kiev now comes from restless Russians who have been stirring up violent protests and demanding their own secession referendums in the southeastern swaths of Ukraine.
The region's mistrust of the new team's European values lies from cultural and trade ties with Russia that in many cases are centuries old - a fact seized upon yesterday by Crimea's self-declared prime minister.
Sergei Aksyonov said in an impassioned address he posted on Facebook and read out on local TV that Crimea began facing a "sad fate" the moment three months of deadly protests involving a mix of nationalist and pro-Western forces toppled the pro-Kremlin government in Kiev.
"But we resisted and won! Our motherland, Russia, extended her hand of help," said Aksyonov. "So today, I appeal to you with a call to fight. I call on you to resist the choice made for you by a bunch of political mavericks who are being financed by oligarchs."
