Leaders hopeful diplomacy will resolve Crimea crisis

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be flying to Kyiv this Friday. Today he announced more sanctions against Russia after what he calls Moscow’s “illegal, dangerous and unilateral” actions in Crimea over the weekend.

Harper met with the Ukrainian ambassador to Canada in Ottawa this afternoon:  “It’s my strong belief that we must keep the pressure on — and we must continue to maintain sanctions and continue putting in place other steps to dissuade this behaviour.”

Yesterday, people who live in Crimea voted overwhelmingly to break away from Ukraine and join Russia. Today all 85 Crimean lawmakers officially asked to join the Russian Federation, and applauded themselves after the motion was read.

In Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, people accused Russia of stealing the region. Ukraine’s parliament voted to mobilize 40,000 reservists to counter what it called blatant aggression.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk:  ” I still believe that there is only one solution of this crisis, a peaceful one. But we offer peace and Russia offers war.”

The economic sanctions and travel bans Canada is instituting follow similar steps taken by the U.S. and European Union. Both announced sanctions that include asset freezes and travel bans on a number of Russian individuals for their roles in the Crimean takeover. But the E.U. and U.S. also say there is still time to resolve the crisis.

U.S. President Barack Obama believes the situation can be dealt with diplomatically. “That includes Russia pulling its forces in Crimea back to their bases, supporting the deployment of additional international monitors in Ukraine and engaging in dialogue with the Ukrainian government.”

E.U. foreign affairs representative Catherine Ashton: “We want to underline clearly that there are still time to avoid a negative spiral and to reverse the current developments and we call on the Russian leadership not to take steps to annex Crimea and instead to take steps to de-escalate this crisis.”

As the sanctions were being announced, Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Sochi giving out awards to paralympians. He spoke to the group for some time but did not mention the results of the Crimea referendum.

The Ukrainian takeover has boosted Putin’s popularity at home, despite the risks that Russia will suffer an economic downturn.