The United States and the European Union on Monday hit high-level Russian and Ukrainian officials linked to the crisis in Crimea with travel bans and asset freezes.
The sanctions came after Sunday’s internationally criticized referendum in Crimea, in which almost 97 per cent of those who voted supported leaving Ukraine to join to Russia.
Washington targeted seven Russian officials with sanctions, including one aide and one advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with members of Russia’s State Duma.
The White House said in a statement the measure are meant “to send a strong message to the Russian government that there are consequences for their actions that violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” The US Treasury Department also announced sanctions on four Ukrainians, including ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and Sergei Aksyonov, Crimea’s Moscow-backed prime minister.
In Brussels, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose travel bans and asset freezes on 21 individuals - 13 Russians and eight Ukrainians - which are to go into effect later Monday.
The EU sanctions target “persons responsible for actions which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” the bloc’s foreign ministers said in a statement.
They warned of “additional and far-reaching consequences for relations in a broad range of economic areas” between the EU and Russia, should it take any further steps to destabilize the situation in Ukraine.
“What we are aiming to do is to demonstrate resoluteness with respect to a Russian decision that is unacceptable and, at the same time, open the tracks of dialogue to prevent an escalation,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
The EU’s top diplomats also confirmed plans to sign the political chapters of an association agreement with Ukraine at a summit of EU leaders on Thursday.
“It is a day in which clear messages need to happen,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
In Moscow, Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Russia would sign a treaty with Crimea to recognize it as an independent state.
Putin will respond to the request in an address to parliament on Tuesday, his office said.
Tensions between Moscow and the West have reached fever pitch, after thousands of suspected Russian troops began controlling access to Crimea’s airports and blocking local Ukrainian military bases in late February.
Moscow argues that the Crimean population, 60 per cent of which is made up of ethnic Russians, has a right to self-determination. But the West rejects its referendum as illegal.
The United States had earlier imposed visa restrictions on Russians and Crimeans accused of threatening Ukraine’s stability, while the EU has suspended negotiations with Moscow on a new cooperation agreement and the easing of visa rules.
In Kiev, meanwhile, Ukrainian lawmakers backed a decree by interim President Oleksandr Turchynov to partially mobilize the country’s armed forces.
An overall 40,000 reservists will be called up, 20,000 each by the armed forces and the national guard, Andriy Parubiy, the head of the Ukraine’s security council, told parliament, according to local media.
Ukraine’s interim foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsia, said after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels that his country would ask the military alliance to supply technical military equipment.
He stressed that Kiev had not asked NATO for military intervention.
The Russian Foreign Ministry says it is ready to cooperate with the West on Ukraine if the country adopts a federal constitution and accepts Crimea’s secession.
A new Ukrainian constitution should decentralize power and introduce direct regional elections, the ministry said in a statement, which lists Russia’s demands for the formation of an international “support group for Ukraine.” It adds that the group must make Ukraine respect the right of Crimea to decide its fate according to Sunday’s referendum on joining Russia.
Ukraine should hold a referendum about the new constitution before holding national and regional elections and Russia, the EU and the US should back a UN Security Council resolution guaranteeing Ukraine’s statehood, the ministry adds.
Crimean lawmakers also voted Monday to introduce Moscow time - currently two hours ahead of Ukraine’s - by the end of the month.
Local officials said that the Russian rouble would soon replace the Ukrainian hryvna as currency.