British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francoise Hollande on Monday also warned of repercussions for Russia over its “completely unacceptable” actions in Ukraine.
Predominantly ethnic Russian Crimea has come under de facto occupation by Moscow-backed forces who have taken control of government buildings and blocked Ukrainians troops inside their barracks across the peninsula.
“All military bases in Crimea are blocked,” a defence ministry spokesman told AFP. “They are surrounded.”
The tensions set off another frenzy of global diplomatic activity.
In New York, the UN Security Council held its third round of emergency talks on the crisis in four days, in a meeting called by Russia to set out its position in greater detail.
The Kremlin’s envoy to the United Nations told the gathering that it was the ousted Yanukovych who had formally asked Moscow to deploy troops in Ukraine.
“People are being persecuted for language and political reasons,” Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said, quoting from a letter claimed to have been sent by Yanukovych on Saturday.
“So in this regard I would call on the president of Russia, Mr Putin, asking him to use the armed forces of the Russian Federation to establish legitimacy, peace, law and order, stability and defending the people of Ukraine,” he read.
Churkin’s address provoked a stinging rebuke from the British, French and US ambassadors who said Russia was fabricating excuses to justify its violations of international law.
In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said ahead of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Madrid on Tuesday that the 28-nation bloc would “consider targeted measures” against Moscow.
A special European summit has been called for Thursday.
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