Obama and Putin clash over Ukraine

    
US President Barack Obama has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that his dispatch of troops to Ukraine flouted international law and warned he was courting political isolation if the incursion continues.

Obama also spelled out the right of the Ukrainian people to chart their own destiny and symbolically began to line up the long-time Western alliance against Russia, calling the leaders of France and Canada.

US Secretary of State John Kerry also hosted a joint conference call with six other foreign ministers from Europe and Canada as well as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and the Japanese envoy to the US “to coordinate on next steps.”

Obama’s 90-minute telephone call with Putin represented the kind of direct confrontation between the men who run the White House and the Kremlin rarely seen since the end of the Cold War, the AFP news agency reported.

The White House account of the call was unusually detailed and blunt, hinting at tense exchanges as fractures deepened in a relationship that has been deteriorating since Putin returned as president in 2012.

“President Obama expressed his deep concern over Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the White House said.

Obama told Putin his actions were a “breach of international law, including Russia’s obligations under the UN Charter, and of its 1997 military basing agreement with Ukraine.”

Kerry also warned in a later statement that Moscow was risking the peace and security not just of Ukraine, but also the wider region.

If Russia did not de-escalate tensions, it would have a “profound” effect on ties with the US, said Kerry, who is due to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of talks in Rome next week.

Asked about the tone of the call, a senior US official resorted to diplomatic parlance indicating an uncomfortable conversation, describing it as “what you’d expect: candid and direct.”