PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCES SANCTIONS IN RESPONSE TO RUSSIA'S ACTIONS IN UKRAINE

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Statement by the President on Ukraine

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

10:45 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  In recent months, as the citizens of Ukraine have made their voices heard, we have been guided by a fundamental principle -- the future of Ukraine must be decided by the people of Ukraine.  That means Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected, and international law must be upheld.

And so, Russia’s decision to send troops into Crimea has rightly drawn global condemnation.  From the start, the United States has mobilized the international community in support of Ukraine to isolate Russia for its actions and to reassure our allies and partners.  We saw this international unity again over the weekend, when Russia stood alone in the U.N. Security Council defending its actions in Crimea.  And as I told President Putin yesterday, the referendum in Crimea was a clear violation of Ukrainian constitutions and international law, and it will not be recognized by the international community.

Today, I’m announcing a series of measures that will continue to increase the cost on Russia and on those responsible for what is happening in Ukraine.  First, as authorized by the executive order I signed two weeks ago, we are imposing sanctions on specific individuals responsible for undermining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and government of Ukraine.  We’re making it clear that there are consequences for their actions.

Second, I have signed a new executive order that expands the scope of our sanctions.  As an initial step, I’m authorizing sanctions on Russian officials -- entities operating in the arms sector in Russia and individuals who provide material support to senior officials of the Russian government.  And if Russia continues to interfere in Ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions.

Third, we’re continuing our close consultations with our European partners, who today in Brussels moved ahead with their own sanctions against Russia.  Tonight, Vice President Biden departs for Europe, where he will meet with the leaders of our NATO allies -- Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  And I’ll be traveling to Europe next week.  Our message will be clear.  As NATO allies, we have a solemn commitment to our collective defense, and we will uphold this commitment.

Fourth, we’ll continue to make clear to Russia that further provocations will achieve nothing except to further isolate Russia and diminish its place in the world.  The international community will continue to stand together to oppose any violations of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and continued Russian military intervention in Ukraine will only deepen Russia’s diplomatic isolation and exact a greater toll on the Russian economy.

Going forward, we can calibrate our response based on whether Russia chooses to escalate or to de-escalate the situation.  Now, I believe there’s still a path to resolve this situation diplomatically in a way that addresses the interest of both Russia and Ukraine.  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, which has indicated its openness to pursuing constitutional reform as they move forward towards elections this spring.

But throughout this process, we’re going to stand firm in our unwavering support for Ukraine.  As I told Prime Minister Yatsenyuk last week, the United States stands with the people of Ukraine and their right to determine their own destiny.  We’re going to keep working with Congress and our international partners to offer Ukraine the economic support that it needs to weather this crisis and to improve the daily lives of the Ukrainian people.

And as we go forward, we’ll continue to look at the range of ways we can help our Ukrainian friends achieve their universal rights and the security, prosperity and dignity that they deserve.  Thanks very much.  And Jay, I think, will be available for questions.  Thank you.

END
10:49 A.M. EDT

SECRETARY KERRY'S PRESS AVAILABILITY IN ROME, ITALY

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Press Availability in Rome, Italy

Press Availability

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Rome, Italy

March 6, 2014

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SECRETARY KERRY: (In Italian.) Good evening, everybody. It’s a great pleasure for me to be back in Rome. I’m especially pleased to be here in Rome at a time when Italy is making a transition in a – with a new government and making progress, important progress, on growing its economy and tackling unemployment. Tonight, I will have the pleasure of meeting with Italy’s new foreign minister, Foreign Minister Mogherini, and I’m hopeful – we were supposed to also be joined by the prime minister, but he’s on his way back from Brussels, may be a little bit delayed, but we hope he can make it.

I want to assure our Italian friends that the United States intends to continue to deepen our economic and security partnership with this government, including our shared commitment to negotiating an ambitious transatlantic trade and partnership – investment partnership agreement. We believe that such an agreement would be enormously helpful to all of our economies – good for Europe, good for the United States. It will create jobs. It can help create wealth. And at this time, the global economy needs that kind of trade partnership. President Obama, as you know, will be here shortly at the end of March, and I look forward to joining him here at that time in order to talk about these valuable partnerships and many other issues.
The reason that my counterparts and I came to Rome today was to demonstrate our commitment all together – the huge number of countries that came together to demonstrate our commitment to Libya’s democratic transition. And we recognize that this is really a pivotal moment for Libya as it drafts a post-revolution constitution and moves towards national reconciliation and elections. I can tell you that we in America, who are still perfecting our democracy and working and struggling to make it work as effectively as possible, and it goes up and down as we all know – we very well know from our own history the difficulties we had centuries ago in developing our constitution and giving it full bloom that this is hard work. It doesn’t happen overnight. And it is something that takes devotion and commitment and courage. And I think today, we heard from the prime minister and the president of Libya their dedication to helping to make this transition work.

We also know that Libyans did not risk their lives in the 2011 revolution just to slip backward into thuggery and violence. And as I told President Abu Sahmain today as well as Prime Minister Zeidan, we have no illusions about the challenges ahead, but we are committed to work very, very closely with the Government of Libya, but also with our partners, and Italy is one of the central partners in the effort to help Libya in this transition together with France, Great Britain, Germany, and others. And we will continue to work closely to fight terrorism, to prevent the spread of conventional weapons and to secure those weapons where they should be secured, and to build democratic institutions.

Now, let me say a word about a subject that I know is on everybody’s mind, and that’s the question of Ukraine. Just a few moments ago, President Obama spoke in Washington and laid out the steps that he has ordered with respect to this situation at this time, which are in keeping with precisely what we said last week we would do as a consequence of the steps that Russia decided to take with respect to Crimea. As you have heard me say all week, the choices that Russia has made escalated this situation, and we believe that Russia has the opportunity now – together with the rest of us – but Russia particularly has the opportunity now to make the right choices in order to de-escalate.

The United States also has choices to make, and President Obama has been clear that we cannot allow Russia or any country to defy international law with impunity. There’s no place in the community of nations for the kind of aggression and steps that we have seen taken in Crimea in Ukraine in these last days.

So today, as we announced we would last week, we have taken specific steps, and the State Department also has taken specific steps in response to what has occurred. Starting today, at President Obama’s direction, the State Department is putting in place tough visa restrictions on a number of officials and other individuals. And the United States will not grant visas to those who threaten the sovereignty or territorial integrity of Ukraine, and if they already have one, it will be revoked in those individual cases.

Now, let me remind you that this decision comes on top of our existing policy to deny visas to those who are involved in human rights abuses or political oppression in Ukraine. And it is also on top of other steps that the United States has already taken which we have announced. Now, at the same time, President Obama has issued an executive order that gives the Treasury Department the legal framework to sanction those who threaten Ukraine’s sovereignty, security, and democracy, those who contribute to the misappropriation of Ukraine’s state assets, and just as importantly, those who try to assert government authority over any part of Ukraine without authorization from the legitimate government in Kyiv.

I want to emphasize – and there’s a reason why only the legal framework was put in place and not the specific designations – and that reason is that even as we will keep faith with what we have said we would do, we want to be able to have the dialogue that leads to the de-escalation. We want to be able to continue the intense discussions with both sides in order to try to normalize and end this crisis. And we will absolutely consider, if we have to, additional steps beyond what we’ve done. But our preference – and the President has said this and I have said this – is to emphasize the possibilities for the dialogue that can lead to the normalization and defusing of this crisis.

Now, yesterday in Paris, we had lengthy discussions and we met also, obviously, with our Ukrainian counterpart, the foreign minister of Ukraine, and discussed with him Ukrainian thoughts about what should form the centerpiece of our approach to this effort to negotiate. And with the Ukrainian view in mind and with the input of all of our allies in the European community, we have made suggestions to Foreign Minister Lavrov which he is currently taking personally to President Putin in Sochi, I believe, and we have agreed to stay in close touch in order to see if there is a way forward, and try to get to the negotiating table with the parties necessary to be able to stabilize this.

We’ve been in very close touch all day with our European counterparts – both those who were here in Rome as well as by telephone for those who were in Brussels. And we agreed that over the course of the next hours, next days, there is an imperative to try to move quickly in order to prevent a mistake or misinterpretation or any other measures that might preclude our opportunity to be able to find the political solution that we believe is the best way to proceed.
The Ukrainian people, we are convinced beyond any doubt whatsoever, want nothing more than the right to determine their own future, and they want to be able to live freely in a safe and prosperous country where they can make the choices that people make in other countries around the world. And they have the international community’s full support, and while we reserve the right to take steps beyond those things that were announced today, we want President Putin and Russia and everyone to understand our preference is to get back to a normality and get back to a place where the rights of the people of Ukraine will be respected and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation will be respected.

The United States will continue to stand with the Ukrainian people, as will our allies and friends in the European community and elsewhere, in order to stand up for the values that we all believe in our fellow – that define our fellow democracies. So thank you very, very much, and I look forward to the opportunity to take a couple questions.

MS. HARF: Great, thank you. The first question is from Elise Labott of CNN.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. You said that the Ukrainian people have the right to determine their own future. Does that include the people of Crimea? Don’t they have the right to determine their own future? Are there any conditions under which the U.S. might accept a referendum as part of the solution?

And then on your meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov, Minister Fabius said that he’s forming this contact group and that the Russians might agree. Did you talk about this with the minister, and do you see this as a useful mechanism that might happen in the coming days?
And lastly, I’m wondering if you talked to him about the fact that he told you last week that the exercises that the Russians were doing had nothing to do with Ukraine. We now know that that was a pretext to mask the Russian intervention.

SECRETARY KERRY: What was the first part of that question? I’m sorry.

QUESTION: Well, we understand that --

SECRETARY KERRY: We now know what?

QUESTION: Well, we know that the – this exercise did have a lot to do with the Ukraine and perhaps it was a pretext for Russia to go into the Crimea. I’m just wondering – you’ve invested a lot in your relationship with Minister Lavrov, and I’m wondering if you feel misled by him at all and whether you spoke with him about that. Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, let me take the first part of that question. Crimea is part of Ukraine. Crimea is Ukraine. And we support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the Government of Ukraine needs to be involved in any kind of decision with respect to any part of Ukraine. Any referendum on Ukraine is going to have to be absolutely consistent with Ukrainian law. And it’s my understanding that the constitution of Ukraine requires all – requires an all-Ukraine referendum; in other words, every part of Ukraine, all Ukrainians, would have to be part of a referendum with respect to the territory of Ukraine. So therefore, the proposed referendum would violate the constitution of Ukraine and international law and the sovereignty of Ukraine itself.

QUESTION: But if it was a Ukraine-wide referendum --

SECRETARY KERRY: If it were – if it adheres to the constitution of Ukraine, it’s up to Ukrainians to define that. It’s not up to the United States or Russia to make that decision. Ukrainians need to live by Ukrainian law and according to the constitution, and their constitution would require precisely what I just said. So that is, I think, critical to anything that would flow.
Secondly, with respect to a contact group and where we’re proceeding, frankly, I think everybody has been working to put a contact group together. I think it’s been a general assumption of all of us in unity that we would like to see if a contact group can be put together. And I think that the key here is whether or not that is going to be something that will work in the context of Russia’s willingness to do this, and obviously Ukrainian views about this.
Thus far, the Ukrainian Government has expressed their desire to have the support of a contact group, providing, of course, that the government – that Russia is dealing with them in that context. This can’t be in lieu of the respect for the existing Government of Ukraine, and we don’t intend for it to be, and none of us who have been part of the discussions about a contact group view this as anything except supportive of the process. But I believe there is a way to structure this, and that is obviously part of what we are now engaged in discussions with Russia through Foreign Minister Lavrov and to Mr. Putin.

With respect to the relationship with Foreign Minister Lavrov, it’s professional, as all of my relationships are with any foreign minister. There are moments in the course of a meeting over a year where you may be able to laugh at something, and there are moments where you disagree and disagree very strongly. And we work professionally, both of us, to represent our countries, represent our point of views, and try to get the work of diplomacy done.
This is obviously a moment where we have disagreement, as we do on some other issues. But where we can, we try to find a way forward, whether it’s been on chemical weapons in Syria or with respect to Iran and P5+1, or the enforcement of the START treaty and other kinds of issues, Afghanistan and other things.

So we will continue to work in a professional manner in order to try to resolve those issues that come to us and to try to do so in a way that advances the global interests of peace and stability and security. And that’s what I’m trying to do.

So another question.

MS. HARF: Great. Our final question comes from Oliviero Bergamini from TG1. Thank you.

QUESTION: Buonasera, Mr. Secretary. Are you satisfied with the way the European Union is dealing with this crisis? Because there seems to be quite a distance between countries like Poland that are really close to the position of the United States, and countries like Germany, and Italy to some extent, they get a lot of their energy supplies from Russia, they seem to be much softer on the theme of economic sanctions and so on. That’s actually the reason why Prime Minister Renzi might be late for dinner because they are not finding an agreement right now in Brussels.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, actually, they did announce an agreement in Brussels, and --

QUESTION: Okay. Yeah, there was something. So do you – how do you see the attitude of the European Union?

SECRETARY KERRY: I think the European Union has been extremely cooperative and has been a partner in this thoroughly. There’s been a complete and total communication and sharing of information and sharing of ideas. I do not believe there is a gap. There may be some differences of opinion about timing or about one particular choice versus another. That’s not unusual when you have as many countries working together as we do.

But fundamentally with respect to the question of what has happened and the need to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, there is no difference whatsoever. With respect to the need to have some sanctions as a result of what has happened in Crimea, there is no difference whatsoever. And Europe on its own tonight has made its announcement through its own process and own debate that they have taken some steps.

Now, Europe joins us in absolutely believing that we are all better served by getting back to a normality and a stability that will come through good diplomacy and good efforts to try to find a path forward that can protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine, protect legitimate interests where they exist of ethnic Russians and/or of other agreements like the base agreement and other things that Russia has that are in law. Those are things that we can deal with. And our hope is that together – Europe, the United States, and others, Canada, Japan – there are a lot of countries interested in what is happening. And I think they all want to be supportive for a process that de-escalates, that reduces tension.

We have a lot of things to do together. We do not need to be distracted or split apart by virtue of what has happened in Ukraine. I think it is fair to say, and I have said that Russia does have some interests in the region. But they need to be dealt with according to law and in a proper way, and dealt with in a way that can respect the integrity of the country, and that’s what we’re trying to do.

At the same time, the Ukrainian people have an overriding interest, a paramount interest here in having their rights protected, their sovereignty protected, their hopes and aspirations which they died to achieve, that needs to be respected. And that’s the tension here, and that’s the – that’s what we’re trying to balance as we approach a diplomatic and peaceful resolution of this, rather than an escalation that could harm the efforts of a lot of other initiatives that we all are focused on.

Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STATEMENT ON RUSSIAN INTERVENTION IN UKRAINE

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Statement by the President on Ukraine

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

1:05 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Before Jay takes some of your questions, I wanted to provide a brief update on our efforts to address the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Since the Russian intervention, we’ve been mobilizing the international community to condemn this violation of international law and to support the people and government of Ukraine.

This morning I signed an executive order that authorizes sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, or for stealing the assets of the Ukrainian people.

According to my guidance, the State Department has also put in place restrictions on the travel of certain individuals and officials.  These decisions continue our efforts to impose a cost on Russia and those responsible for the situation in Crimea.  And they also give us the flexibility to adjust our response going forward based on Russia’s actions.

We took these steps in close coordination with our European allies.  I’ve spoken to several of our closest friends around the world, and I’m pleased that our international unity is on display at this important moment.  Already, we’ve moved together to announced substantial assistance for the government in Kyiv, and today in Brussels, our allies took similar steps to impose costs on Russia.  I am confident that we are moving forward together, united in our determination to oppose actions that violate international law and to support the government and people of Ukraine.

And that includes standing up for the principle of state sovereignty.  The proposed referendum on the future of Crimea would violate the Ukrainian constitution and violate international law.  Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include the legitimate government of Ukraine.  In 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders.

While we take these steps, I want to be clear that there is also a way to resolve this crisis that respects the interests of the Russian Federation, as well as the Ukrainian people.  Let international monitors into all of Ukraine, including Crimea, to ensure the rights of all Ukrainians are being respected, including ethnic Russians.  Begin consultations between the government of Russia and Ukraine, with the participation of the international community.  Russia would maintain its basing rights in Crimea, provided that it abides by its agreements and respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.  And the world should support the people of Ukraine as they move to elections in May.

That's the path of de-escalation, and Secretary Kerry is engaged in discussions with all of the relevant parties, including Russia and Ukraine to pursue that path.  But if this violation of international law continues, the resolve of the United States, and our allies and the international community will remain firm.  Meanwhile, we’ve taken steps to reaffirm our commitment to the security and democracy of our allies in Eastern Europe and to support the people of Ukraine.

One last point -- there’s been a lot of talk in Congress about these issues.  Today, once again, I’m calling on Congress to follow up on these words with action, specifically to support the IMF’s capacity to lend resources to Ukraine and to provide American assistance for the Ukrainian government so that they can weather this storm and stabilize their economy, make needed reforms, deliver for their people, all of which will provide a smoother pathway for the elections that have already been scheduled in May.

Today the world can see that the United States is united with our allies and partners in upholding international law and pursuing a just outcome that advances global security and the future that the Ukrainian people deserve.  That's what we’re going to continue to do in the days to come until we have seen a resolution to this crisis.

Thanks very much.  And Jay and Ben and others will be happy to take your questions.

END

SECRETARY KERRY'S REMARKS IN KYIV, UKRAINE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Meeting With Staff and Families of Embassy Kyiv

Remarks

John Kerry
Secretary of State

Kyiv, Ukraine

March 4, 2014

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AMBASSADOR PYATT: I’ll just say, Mr. Secretary, let me present to you the team of Embassy Kyiv, the hardest working embassy in the U.S. Foreign Service today. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY KERRY: Wow. I’ll tell you, I go to some places and the ambassador says that and I say, “Okay.” (Laughter.) But here, you are the hardest working embassy in the world right now. Thank you very, very much for all that you are doing. Geoff, thanks so much for your leadership.

I think character is sometimes shown when the whole world is watching and people see character, but more often than not, real character is shown when people aren’t watching or when you don’t think they’re listening – and they’ve been listening to him. We all know that. But this guy is attentive to all of you, to staff, to family, to everybody’s concerns, and I hope you will join me in just saying thank you because I think we have a terrific ambassador here and a great leader here. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. And I see – you guys know we got a bunch of Marines here who help protect us. Thank you. Semper Fi and thank you for your service to our country, all of you in uniform, and some of you I know are not in uniform but you serve in the military or as attaches or otherwise. Thank you very much for your service, all of you. (Applause.) Thank you.
I guess we have, somewhere in the vicinity, about 100 Americans assigned here and several hundred, 300 or more, foreign nationals who work for us. And I just want to say a word to all of you, but let me speak first to the foreign nationals. How many of you are foreign nationals? How many of you are – thank you. We can’t do this without you. And so I want to say, profoundly, thank you to you, because you facilitate our ability to really understand what’s happening, to understand the country, and you are great ambassadors for us in the country because you can explain what we’re really all about and what we try to accomplish, so I thank you very, very much. I know sometimes somebody may criticize you or say, “What are you doing working with them,” and you put yourselves on the line, and we admire you enormously and everybody here thanks you for your service to us. We appreciate it. (Applause.)

And then – now I know we’re living right now under a sort of – one of those tricky moments where we have an authorized departure and some folks who are in Warsaw. And it’s hard. It’s hard even if you’re unaccompanied here. It’s hard to have family and loved ones separated. This is a difficult time. We are witnessing transformation globally. I cannot tell you how many embassies I go to that are sharing a level of tension today that makes being in the Foreign Service or Civil Service – civil servants but also working in tense situations, and our Marines all around the world know, given the experience of Benghazi, what we see in the attempted plots on many places in the world.

There are bad guys out there. There are bad folks out there who incidentally don’t have a program for educating people. They don’t have a program or complaint with the government about its healthcare system. They don’t have anything whatsoever to say about macroeconomic policy or how you develop jobs, how you’re going to take care of growing populations of young people who need opportunity. They don’t say anything about that. All they do is say, “You got to believe what I believe, and if you don’t, we’re going to kill you.” It’s the antithesis of everything that we have fought for since the days of the founding of our country. It’s an anachronism that runs against everything that we thought we had resolved in the course of the 20^th century in two great World Wars and several other wars where we learned about how we can best help people live a fuller life and have the right to fulfill their aspirations.

But we got some people out there who are ready to throw over whole governments or take over governments simply to say no – no to modernity, no to opportunity, no particularly to women in so many parts of the world, no to education for children. So this challenge is much bigger, folks, than a lot of people have really kind of focused on. And here, particularly, we are witnessing a real throwback to 19^th century behavior – imperialism. At the butt of a gun we’re going to impose our will and we’re going to deny you the right to be free. And particularly, some of those people I met today on Institutska Street when I was walking down there and I went over to talk to a few people, these women came up to me and pleaded and said, “Don’t let us go back to have to live under a man like Yanukovych who steals our future, who steals from us.” Met a man who said, “I went to Australia last year,” said, “I came back here, but I want to live like I saw people be able to live in Australia.”

People want respect, they want opportunity. That Tunisian fruit vendor who burned himself, burned himself because he was exhausted by the corruption of his government and the denial of his opportunity to be able to live his life, sell his fruit. We take a lot of things for granted unfortunately in America. We’re privileged to be able to, as much as I think we shouldn’t. You don’t. None of you do. Every one of you has chosen to be here because you’ve joined the Foreign Service or the Civil Service or you’re representing one of the other agencies that are represented in the Embassy because you want to make a difference and you believe you can make a difference. And I’m here tonight to tell you, you are making a difference – tough as it is sometimes, as small as the gesture may seem sometimes. Here in the consulate division and somebody walks in to get their visa – how they’re treated, how they’re greeted, how fast we react, how much we respect them may be their only contact with America or our values, particularly if they’re denied the opportunity to get the visa.

So everybody here is an ambassador, and I just want to thank you tonight for being willing to be on the front lines. Thank you on behalf of President Obama and our country for representing us on the front lines of a struggle now that could define a lot of things going forward. Whether or not we can peacefully make the institutions of rule of law work when a country is in violation of the UN Charter, the Final Act of Helsinki, its own basing agreement with Ukraine, as well as the 1994 Budapest agreement where we all agreed we would protect Ukraine from external attack, and here they are externally taking over and trying to annex Crimea.

So we got a lot of work to do, but rest assured there aren’t a lot of jobs around where you can get up in the morning and go to work and know that you’re doing something that’s bigger than yourself, that’s exciting, that may change day by day where you get as much intellectual input, as much information, as much opportunity to know people in other parts of the world, learn other languages, learn other cultures, and carry the values of the United States of America with you every single day.

So I say God bless you, thank you, we’re proud of you, keep up the good work, and we will ultimately achieve many of the goals if not all of the goals we’re chasing. Thank you. God bless. (Applause.)

REMARKS ON UKRAINE BY U.S. UN AMBASSADOR POWER

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks by Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, at a Security Council Stakeout on Ukraine
Samantha Power
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations 
New York, NY
March 1, 2014
AS DELIVERED

Good evening. Today in the Council, the United States renewed its call for the international community to support the newly formed government of Ukraine and prevent unnecessary violence.

Unfortunately, the Russian Federation Council's authorization of the use of military force in Ukraine is as dangerous as it is destabilizing. It is past time for the threats to end. The Russian military must pull back.

It is ironic that the Russian Federation regularly goes out of its way in the Security Council chamber to emphasize the sanctity of national borders and sovereignty. Today, Russia would do well to heed its own warnings. Russia's actions in Ukraine violate Russia's commitment to protect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of Ukraine, and pose a threat to international peace and security. We have said from the outset that we recognize and respect Russia's historical ties to Ukraine. But instead of engaging the government of Ukraine and international institutions about its concerns for ethnic Russians, it ignored both and has instead acted unilaterally and militarily.

The United States, again, calls for the immediate deployment of international observers from either the OSCE or United Nations to Crimea and other parts of Ukraine to provide transparency about the movement and activities of military and para-military forces in the region and to defuse the tension between groups. The best way to get the facts, to monitor conduct and to prevent any abuses is to get international monitors and observers - including from UN and OSCE - on the ground as soon as possible. We are also working to stand up an international mediation mission to the Crimea to begin to deescalate the situation, and to facilitate productive and peaceful political dialogue among all Ukrainian parties.

Less than one week since the sun set on the Sochi Olympics, we are at a critical moment. The United States considers the current actions by Russia in Ukraine as unacceptable behavior for a G-8 member. The United States will stand with the people of Ukraine and the Ukrainian government in Kyiv. And as the President has said, intervention by the Russian military will be both a grave mistake and have costs and consequences.

With that, I'll take a couple questions.

Reporter: James Bays from Al Jazeera. I know that President Obama has been speaking to President Putin. President Putin now has this authorization, but there's clearly now a gap before he decides whether he's going to use it. Just, explain to us if you can on camera what is the message from the U.S. to President Putin right now?

Ambassador Power: The message is, pull back your forces. Let us engage in political dialogue. Engage with the Ukrainian government which is reaching out to you for that dialogue. The occupation . . . the military presence in Crimea is a violation of international law and we all need to allow cooler heads to prevail and to negotiate a peaceful way out of this crisis. Military force will never be the answer to this crisis.

Reporter: Ambassador, what are those costs that the United States says that Russia will suffer; and secondly, as a champion of human rights, doesn't it trouble you that there are four senior members of this Ukrainian government who have come from very far right, extremist parties?

Ambassador: I think what you heard from President Obama in the readout that the White House issued is that the United States has already suspended its preparation for the G-8 Summit that was supposed to take place in Sochi. And what I can say is that, again, the political and economic isolation that that represents is only going to deepen as this crisis escalates. And that is why, again, it is incredibly important that an international observer mission get into Ukraine as soon as possible; that all countries embrace the prospect of international mediation, such as that offered by the UN Special Envoy Robert Serry; and that we embrace the fundamental tenets of the UN Charter: territorial integrity, sovereignty and unity of Ukraine, avoiding the use of force, and the threat of force, and returning to the path of peaceful dialogue.

Thank you.