Key Developments

• In an interview with the Associated Press, ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych admitted that he was wrong to invite Russian troops into Crimea and vowed to restore Crimea as a part of Ukraine.
   
• NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Philip Breedlove has warned that Russia could invade Ukraine and within three to five days could achieve a number of objectives, including establishing a land corridor connecting Russia to Crimea and even the Moldovan separatist region of Transniestria, and further seizing the Eastern and Southern parts of Ukraine.
   
• General Breedlove also informed the NATO foreign ministers that NATO intelligence has found no signs that Russian troops have begun to withdraw from the Ukrainian border; days after Russian President Vladimir Putin reassured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he was withdrawing some of the Russian troops.
   
• NATO has effectively halted all practical and military cooperation with Russia.  NATO foreign ministers have further directed the NATO military to develop measures to further reassure its Eastern European members.
   
• After meeting with his German and French counterparts, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters that Poland wanted NATO to deploy two brigades (with as many as 5,000 troops each) to the country.  Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk further expressed that the steps taken by NATO have fallen short of the expectations of its eastern members.
   
• Gazprom, the Russian state-owned natural gas company, has raised the price of natural gas sold to Ukraine by 44%.  While the company claims that the price increase stemmed from unpaid Ukrainian debt, Gazprom has previously used punitive pricing to punish countries at odds with Russia.
   
• Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has called on Ukraine to publicize the steps being taken to institute constitutional reform.
   
• The Ukrainian parliament has ordered security forces to disarm illegally armed groups after a shooting incident where three individuals were wounded in Kiev.

Government Statements

John Kerry, “Press Availability at NATO,” U.S. Department of State, 1 April 2014

“NATO takes measures to reinforce collective defence, agrees on support for Ukraine,” NATO, 1 April 2014

Articles

Carol Kriel and Vladimir Isachenkov, “AP Interview: Yanuykovych Hopes for Crimea’s Return,” Associated Press, 2 April 2014

“Russia steps up pressure on Ukraine to disarm far-right,” Reuters, 2 April 2014

David Frum, “Russia’s Plans to Partition Ukraine,” The Atlantic, 2 April 2014

“Ukraine Constitution reform unlikely without teamwork with society – Russian FM,” ITAR-TASS, 2 April 2014

Rajan Menon, “Why the Ukraine Crisis Won’t Save NATO,” The National Interest, 1 April 2014

Robert Farley, “No, F-22s Can’t Save Ukraine,” Medium – War is Boring, 1 April 2014

Adrian Croft, “Russia could achieve Ukraine incursion in 3-5 days: NATO general,” Reuters, 1 April 2014

Michael R. Gordon, “NATO to Firm Up Its Presence in Eastern Europe as It Halts Cooperation with Russia,” The New York Times, 1 April 2014

Andrew E. Kramer, “Russia Tightens Pressure on Ukraine with Rise in Natural Gas Price,” The New York Times, 1 April 2014

Tom Cohen, “Is Crimea Gone?  Annexation no longer the focus of Ukraine crisis,” CNN, 1 April 2014

Agnes Lovasz, “Dashed Ikea Dreams Show Decades Lost to Bribery in Ukraine,” Bloomberg, 31 March 2014

Alexander Kliment, “Putin’s Fairy Tale: Why Russia Will Try – and Fail – To Build a New Empire,” Foreign Affairs, 31 March 2014

Eugene Rumer, Andrew S. Weiss, Ulrich Speck, Lina Khatib, George Perkovich, and Douglas H. Paal, “What Are the Global Implications of the Ukraine Crisis?,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 27 March 2014