Kiev: Ukraine’s new Prime Minister, in his first interview since taking office, said that Crimea must remain part of Ukraine, but may be granted more local powers. Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the AP that a special task force could be established “to consider what kind of additional autonomy the Crimean Republic could get.”
‘no control over pro-Moscow force in Crimea’
Madrid: Russia on Wednesday said it has no authority over pro-Moscow forces that have taken de-facto control of the Ukraine’s majority-Russian Crimean Peninsula. A day after US President Barack Obama said Russia was “not fooling anybody” over its role in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei lavrov insisted the armed troops were not taking orders from the Kremlin.
We don’t want to fight Russia: Ukraine, France
Paris: Ukraine’s interim Government and France on Wednesday played down the prospect of a full-blown conflict with Russia ahead of potentially crucial talks on the Crimea crisis in Paris. “We want to keep good dialogue, good relations with the Russian people,” Ukraine’s interim Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya said.
UN: Envoy was threatened, not kidnapped in Crimea
United Nations: The UN deputy secretary-general has denied reports from Ukrainian officials that a UN special envoy was kidnapped in Crimea. Jan Eliasson says special envoy Robert Serry was threatened by 10 to 15 armed men as he was leaving naval headquarters in Crimea but that he was not abducted.