Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the same day that he signed a treaty with Crimea claiming the territory as part of Russia, hinted at further moves into Ukraine — while at the same time denying that he wanted any more Ukrainian territory.
Putin’s ambiguous comments came as Ukraine leaders condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea as an action worthy of “Nazi Germany.” In Crimea, a Ukraine soldier at a military base was killed Tuesday, apparently by a Russian sniper, the first fatality of the Russian incursion into the territory on the coast of the Black Sea leading Ukraine’s prime minister to declare that the conflict had moved from a political to a “military” one.
In a speech to Russia’s parliament, Vladimir Putin sounded an imperial note, appearing to imply that he considered all of Ukraine within Russian territory.
“We’re one nation,” Putin declared, adding ominously, “Kiev is the mother of all Russian cities.”
“The blood of Ukrainian soldiers is on the leadership of the Russian Federation and specifically President Putin,” said interim Ukraine President Oleksandr Turchnynov.
“This is theft on an international scale, when under the cover of troops, one country has just come and robbed a part of an independent state,” said the country’s prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
In the United States, Vice President Joe Biden condemned the Vladimir Putin annexation of Crimea a “land grab,” called Putin “on the wrong side of history” and said that the United States may send troops to the Baltics, as an act of assurance against Russian aggression into Eastern Europe.
Whether the armed gunmen who attacked the military base in the main Crimea city of Simferopol were acting on orders from Vladimir Putin is not known, but the attack that claimed the life of a Ukranian serviceman came after Putin delivered his triumphant Kremlin speech which reportedly was interrupted by applause some 30 times in just 47 minutes.
As widely condemned as Vladimir Putin has been by the West for his actions against Ukraine, back home his aggressive stance has only bolstered his popularity .
“He’s doing it to strengthen his position back home,” said Alexei Malashenko of Moscow’s Carnegie Center. “It’s effective, it rallies the people around him, and it’s normal behavior.”
While in the same speech that he declared the Ukraine capital, Kiev, a “Russian city,” Putin stated that he had no intention of going after more Ukranian territory.
“Don’t believe those who try to frighten you with Russia, those who scream that other regions will follow after Crimea,” Vladimir Putin said. “We do not want a partition of Ukraine, we do not need this.”
But he added, “Russia will protect its interests,” and his promise was greeted with skepticism inside Ukraine.
“Every word of peace he spoke was really a word of war,” said Oleksiy Melnyk, a top military analyst in Ukraine. “The intent of western reaction, which is to ensure we don’t see a deepening crisis in Ukraine is missing the point. The west is now in a state of war with Russia. It’s time they realized it.”
Crimea had been part of Russia until 1954, when then-Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev transferred it to Ukraine which at the time was also part of the Soviet Union.
On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin declared the Kruschev move 60 years ago illegal.