The
United States warned Russia on Wednesday against military intervention
in Ukraine and said any incursion could lead to a broad international
backlash.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry also pledged $1 billion in emergency
U.S. loan guarantees to help Ukraine’s new, temporary government as it
reels from the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych last weekend.
“I don’t think there should be any doubt whatsoever that any kind of
military intervention that would violate the sovereign territorial
integrity of Ukraine would be a huge — a grave — mistake,” Kerry said in
a roundtable interview with reporters.
The United States, United Nations and others would react, Kerry said, without specifying how.
The Obama administration is trying to avoid a confrontation with Russia
over the fate of the former Soviet republic, whose Russian-speaking
eastern areas identify strongly with Moscow, while also firmly defending
the former opposition figures now at the helm in Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered large-scale military exercises,
raising fears that the decision was a prelude to invasion. The restive
Crimean region on the Black Sea, once part of Russia proper, is seen as a
potential flash point.
Kerry suggested it would be hypocritical for Russia to send in forces
after objecting so forcefully to outside military action in Syria and
Libya, but he also stressed that Washington is not looking for a fight.
“This is not ‘Rocky IV.’ It is not a zero-sum game,” Kerry told
reporters. “We do not view it through the lens of East-West or
Russia-the U.S. or anything else. We view it as an example of people
within a sovereign nation who are expressing their desire to choose
their future.”
The White House said President Obama and Putin had agreed on the
importance of all sides refraining from violence in Ukraine when the two
spoke by phone late last week. Kerry said he will see Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov next week.
Those who threw off the Yanukovych “kleptocracy” now
badly need international help, Kerry said. He urged Ukraine to stick to
a fast calendar for elections, while undertaking difficult fiscal
reforms and anti-corruption measures that would allow wider investment
by the International Monetary Fund.
The $1 billion U.S. loan guarantees would allow quick loans from the IMF
or other international financial institutions. They would be followed
by a much larger international aid package that is expected to include
European and U.S. contributions and international loans.
“There’s got to be some reality here,” Kerry said. “I don’t think it’s
enough for us to be heralding the advent of democracy and to applaud the
courage and conviction of the people who brought about this transition
and then just not do anything. I think that’s unconscionable.”
Ukraine’s deep fiscal crisis is one of the roots of three months of
political upheaval that culminated in the abrupt ouster of Yanukovych.
He had walked away from a European Union economic alliance last fall in
favor of a short-term bailout from Moscow, setting off street protests
and demands for his resignation.
Kerry also cautioned the former opposition not to overreach. The new
government must answer to the people, or “they could then find
themselves opposed by the very people who were pushing for these
changes.”
Separately, Kerry predicted confidently that even if Afghan President
Hamid Karzai continues to boycott a security agreement with the United
States, his successor will agree to it. The agreement would allow a
small number of U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan after this year.
“It will be signed,” Kerry said.
