Russia Seizes Gas Plant Near Crimea Border, Ukraine Says
Mar 15, 2014
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David M. Herszenhorn, Peter Baker, and Andrew E. Kramermarch, The New York Times
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SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Tensions mounted on the eve of a secession referendum here in Crimea as helicopter-borne Russian forces made a provocative incursion just beyond the peninsula’s regional border to seize a natural gas terminal while American and European officials prepared sanctions to impose on Moscow as early as Monday.
The military operation by at least 80 troops landing on a slender sand bar just across Crimea’s northeast border seemed part of a broader effort to strengthen control over the peninsula before a vote Sunday on whether its majority Russian-speaking population wants to demand greater autonomy from Ukraine or break completely and join Russia. Whatever its tactical goals, it sent a defiant message to the United States and Europe and underscored that a diplomatic resolution to Russia’s recent takeover of Crimea remains elusive.
The raid came as American and European diplomats essentially forced Russia to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution declaring the Sunday referendum illegal. Western diplomats hoped the result would reinforce Russia’s growing international isolation. Russia cast the only vote against the resolution; even China, its traditional ally on the Council, did not vote with Moscow but abstained, an indication of its unease with Russia’s violation of another country’s sovereignty.