Some rumors yesterday had reported the news that the ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was hospitalized in serious condition in a Moscow clinic for a suspected heart attack. Today the former president announced, through the Itar-Tass news agency, that tomorrow he will make a statement in Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia.
Meanwhile, diplomacy is working and the Ukrainian interim premier, Arseniy Yatseniuk, will speak on Thursday before the UN Security Council, meeting to assess the situation in the country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has assured that Russia will present its proposals to Westerners for a solution to the Ukrainian crisis, but has rejected the ideas put forward by the USA. On the economic front, the World Bank has announced that it will provide a contribution of three billion dollars to Ukraine in support of the reform process and development projects.
In Crimea, Russian or pro-Russian troops control more and more air and naval bases of the Ukrainian army, ousting Kiev and advancing towards the borders. NATO responds by raising its AWACS radar planes over the skies of Poland and Romania to monitor the crisis in Ukraine, and Washington reiterates Kerry's requests, the first of which is the cessation of the Russian military advance.
A referendum on the territorial status of the region, which is part of Ukraine but has a Russian-speaking majority, will be held on Sunday. This could result in independence from Kiev and the probable association with the Russian Federation, and for this very reason the vote is strongly opposed by Westerners.
This does not stop the local authorities in Crimea, who want annexation to Russia: the municipal administration of Sevastapol, the second city and port where the Russian Black Sea fleet is stationed, has announced that all documents henceforth they will be in the Russian language and no longer in Ukrainian. There is a climate of tension between the Crimean authorities and the minorities, in particular the Tatars, the Turkish-speaking Muslim community who have announced a boycott of the referendum.
The deputy premier of the autonomous republic of Crimea said he was ready to collaborate with international observers to monitor the vote, but not with the "provocateurs". In recent days, about thirty OSCE military observers have been repeatedly rejected at the border.
