As Ukraine crisis deepens, Russia's neighbours boost defences

By Andrius Sytas and Pawel Bernat

VILNIUS/WARSAW (Reuters) - U.S. fighter jets go to Lithuania as the crisis in Ukraine deepens. Poland talks about modernising its military. Latvia calls for more defence spending. Traditionally neutral Sweden calls for a "doctrinal shift" in defence.

After a sense of playing second fiddle for years while NATO's eyes were on wars such as Afghanistan, some European countries near Russia's borders are now planning to spend more money on defence as well as hoping for more NATO resources.

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Ukraine's language divide is political and socio-economic, not ethnic, says @juliaioffe.

Eastern Ukraine Is Still Fighting Its Past: Life under Stalin's long shadow

In the last tense months, the conflict in Ukraine has been described as a fight over Ukrainian identity—in terms of language, territory, and great-power influence. Maps on television and in newspapers show a country conveniently cleaved in half between Ukrainian speakers in the pro-Yulia Tymoshenko west and Russian speakers in the Yanukovych east. The former love Europe; the latter love Russia. The former have been oppressed for centuries by the latter, who want to see a return to the days of the USSR.

But the truth is more complicated, as it always is. The real split is generational. Unlike Cherkashin, his students were all born after 1991, in an independent Ukraine, and they see their country’s close relationship with Russia very differently than their older professor. In fact, Cherkashin’s own research confirms this division. The younger a citizen of Donetsk, the more likely she is to view herself as Ukrainian. The older she is, the more likely she is to identify as Russian. And this is the crux of it all: What we are seeing today is the reverberation of what happened more than 20 years ago. This is still the long post-Soviet transition. And this is what it’s like to wander in the desert, waiting for the old generation to die off.

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Western officials reacted with disappointment Thursday after Crimea's parliament voted to join Russia, setting a referendum for the move for 10 days from now.

Politician and opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko spoke out forcefully against the move, warning that "a referendum at gunpoint" would undermine Ukrainian and global stability. U.S. President Barack Obama, meanwhile, ordered sanctions on parties responsible for Russia's military move into Ukraine. The president also asserted that a referendum on Crimea "would violate the Ukrainian constitution and violate international law."

In an address in Rome today, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. wants "to be able to continue the instense discussions with both sides in order to try to normalize and end this crisis."

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Kerry has wrapped his statement.

The Ukrainian people, we are convinced beyond any doubt whatsoever, want nothing more than the right to determine their own future: Kerry

The choices that RUssia has made escalated this situation and we believe that Russia has the opportunity [...] to make the right choices in order to de-escalate: Kerry

Kerry is expected to begin statement momentarily.

I'm calling on Congress to follow up these words with action: Obama

There is a way to resolve this crisis that respects the interest of Russia: Obama

With Crimean appeal, Putin goes head-to-head with West over Ukraine

Almost certainly orchestrated by Vladimir Putin, Crimea's appeal to join Russia pits the president directly against the West in a standoff that has increasingly high stakes and unpredictable consequences.

The vote by the Crimean parliament gives Putin the upper hand in the crisis over Ukraine, but risks antagonising the pro-Western leaders in Kiev who have refused until now to resort to military action and increase tensions in Ukraine's Russian-speaking south and east.

"We are at a very dangerous point, and it threatens to push a political crisis in the direction of a military situation," said former Kremlin spin doctor Gleb Pavlovsky.

He said there was now a greater danger of shots being fired in Crimea, a Ukrainian region with an ethnic Russian majority, adding: "Russia is encouraging the action of 'local forces'."

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NATO Chief Rasmussen calls on Russia to withdraw its forces from Crimea: Reuters

Kerry describes talks today as "very productive," without "raising hopes that are inappropriate to raise."