Russia and Ukraine yesterday tried to draw a line under the Ukrainian crisis after US President Barack Obama and his allies agreed to refrain from additional economic sanctions if Moscow does not go beyond the annexation of Crimea.
Describing Russia as a "regional power" and not the biggest threat to the national security of the United States, Obama said that there will be no military removal of Russian forces from Crimea, but that the annexation of that Black Sea region is not a "done deal" because the international community will not recognize it.
"It is up to Russia to act responsibly and show once again that it is willing to abide by international norms ... and if it violates them, it will pay a certain price," he told a news conference at the end of a nuclear security summit in The Hague.
After a defiant response to Obama and his Western allies' decision to boycott June's Group of Eight summit in Sochi and hold the G7 without Russia, the Kremlin said it wants to continue contacts with G8 partners.
"The Russian side is still ready to maintain such contacts at all levels, including the highest," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax.
Obama said he was concerned about the possibility of further Russian "intrusions" into Ukraine and that he believed Putin was still "making a series of calculations."
He urged Putin to allow Ukrainians to decide their own fate without intimidation, saying he was sure they would choose good relations with both the EU and Moscow.
"Russia is a regional power that threatens some of its closest neighbors, not from strength but from weakness. We (the US) have considerable influence over our neighbors. We generally don't need to attack them to have a cooperative relationship."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met for the first time with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Deshchytsia, although Russia does not recognize the Kiev government.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Deshchytsia protested against the annexation of Ukraine. Lavrov said that Russia does not intend to use force in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, and "the two sides agreed not to encourage further escalation of the Crimean problem, which could cause casualties," the statement said.
On Monday, Ukraine ordered its remaining forces in Crimea to withdraw for its own security. Ukraine's parliament yesterday sacked interim defense minister Igor Tenjuh over his handling of the crisis after it emerged that less than a quarter of Crimean soldiers plan to stay in the army.
Yesterday, Russian forces attacked the last Ukrainian ship in Crimea, said the spokesman of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Vladislav Seleznyov.
At the Perevalnoye base, 25 km southeast of Simferopol, Ukrainian soldiers, grim-faced, loaded furniture, clothes and kitchen appliances into a truck.
"We are not running away, but going to the mainland, where we will continue to serve," a soldier who identified himself as Sviatoslav told Reuters. "You can't be a soldier without a country and we have to move," he added.
However, at Belbek Air Base, which the Russians stormed four days ago, officers and soldiers are refusing to leave until the Russian military frees their commander, Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, who has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in Crimea.
According to his associates, Mamcur is being held in Sevastopol, the port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
European diplomats estimate that hints that Putin will not go beyond Crimea may be a reflection of concerns about the consequences for the economy.
The crisis is taking its toll in Western Europe as well. Reuters writes that business morale in Germany fell for the first time in five months in March. The Ifo Institute from Munich announced that companies in Europe's largest economy have begun to worry that the standoff with Russia and additional sanctions over Ukraine will hit them in the key market.
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