By Vladimir Soldatkin and Alexei Anishchuk MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin delivered a robust defense of Russia's actions in Crimea and said on Tuesday that he would use force in Ukraine only as a last resort, easing market fears that East-West tension over the former Soviet republic could lead to war. Russian forces fired warning shots in a confrontation with Ukrainian servicemen at an air base, and Russian navy ships were reported to have blockaded the strait separating the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula from Russia. At his first news conference since the crisis began, Putin said Russia reserved the right to use all options to protect compatriots who were living in "terror" in Ukraine but that force was not needed for now. His comments, coupled with the end of Russian war games near Ukraine's borders, lifted Russian bonds and stock markets around the world after a panic sell-off on Monday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-military-force-last-resort-ukraine-010221462–finance.html

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2014 at 1:03 am and is filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.