(VOVworld) – Chairman of the Russian State Duma Sergei Naryskhin said there was no need yet to deploy Russian armed forces into Ukraine, during an interview on Russian TV Channel Rossiya-24 on Monday. He said recent warnings from US State Secretary John Kerry over Ukrainian intervention were “short-sighted”, because they could only lead to escalating tension, not a solution for the current crisis.
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| Pro-Russian protesters hold Russian flags as they rally in front of the Crimean parliament in Simferopol. (Photo: AFP) |
At the same time, Russia denied the claim that they had issued an ultimatum to invade Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. A Black Sea fleet’s officer said the information was “nonsense”. He said that they were used to accusations of using their troops to oppose their Ukrainian brothers and that propaganda was never effective.
In response to questions from the press, Speaker of the Supreme Council of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov said on Monday the Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Nikolaev were willing to join an autonomous republic of Crimea. He said several political forces in Sevastopol supported the city as part of the autonomous republic and the Crimean people highly welcomed it, but the choice depended on the people of Sevastopol. The Crimean people will hold a referendum to decide on Crimea’s independence on March 30th as scheduled.