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Ukraine’s exiled President Viktor Yanukovich on Friday pushed for a vote to let each of the country's regions determine its own status — a call serving Moscow’s desire to turn Ukraine into a loosely knit federation.
The statement from Yanukovich – a longtime Moscow ally who fled to Russia in February after three months of anti-government protests forced him out – raised the threat of more unrest in Ukraine's Russian-speaking eastern provinces, where many resent the new, West-leaning Ukrainian government.
"As a president who is with you with all my thoughts and soul, I urge every sensible citizen of Ukraine: Don't give in to impostors! Demand a referendum on the status of each region within Ukraine," Yanukovich said in an address to the people of Ukraine.
On Saturday, Crimea's ethnic Tartars will hold a vote on whether to push for self-rule following Russia's annexation of the region.
The Tatars – an indigenous Muslim population – were deported under Soviet leader Josef Stalin to Central Asia and only began returning from exile about two decades ago.
An emergency meeting was held in the town of Bakhchisaray to decide the fate of about 300,000 ethnic Tartars.
"There comes a moment in the life of every people when a choice must be made that will determine its future," said Tartar leader Refat Chubaroy.
He urged the audience to vote for a draft resolution calling for the "launch of political and legal procedures [for the] national and territorial autonomy of the Crimean Tartar people on their historical territory, Crimea."
Tartars, who make up about 12 percent of Crimea's population, strongly opposed and largely boycotted the hastily organized March 16 referendum in which Crimea's mostly ethnic-Russians voted to join the Russian federation.
A day after Putin reached out to President Barack Obama in a phone call to discuss Ukraine, the U.S. initiated a call to Russia Saturday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry discussed Ukraine over the phone and also talked about the timing of further contact, Lavrov said in a statement.
Obama spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone Friday, urging the Russian leader to work out a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, according to a White House statement.
Also on Friday, Obama and his advisors warned that Russia may have “additional plans” for Ukraine, saying a Russian buildup of an estimated 40,000 troops on the Ukrainian border was out of the ordinary.
"You've seen a range of troops massing along that border under the guise of military exercises," Obama told CBS in an interview in Vatican City. "But these are not what Russia would normally be doing."
Obama said the buildup might be no more than an effort to intimidate Ukraine, but also could be a precursor to other actions. "It may be that they've got additional plans," he said.
U.S. intelligence agencies have told the Obama administration and congressional staffers that there is “mounting evidence that Russia is putting the pieces in place for an invasion of Eastern Ukraine,” Foreign Policy magazine reported Friday, citing the steadily increasing troop levels and reports of food and medical supplies arriving along the border.
On Friday, Putin congratulated the Russian armed forces for their role in the Crimea takeover, acknowledging for the first time that the occupying troops were in fact Russian. He had previously described the forces who took Crimea as "local self-defense forces," although it appeared that Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Crimea, was heavily involved in the takeover.
The U.S. and its allies have hoped sanctions would be enough to deter further Russian incursion in Ukraine, but to date, economic retaliation and geopolitical exclusion have not been enough.
On Thursday, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a nonbinding resolution invalidating Crimea’s referendum.
Obama on Friday reiterated his interpretation that Putin viewed the confrontation in Ukraine as a front of the renewed Cold War, and that Russia was acting aggressively to counter perceived Western encroachment in its neighbors.
“What I have said repeatedly is that he may be entirely misreading the West, [and] certainly misreading American foreign policy," he said. "[The U.S.] has no interest in encircling Russia or Ukraine beyond letting the people make decisions about their own lives.”
Al Jazeera and wire services
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