US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said Russia was not “fooling anybody” over the crisis in Ukraine after Vladimir Putin denied Russian forces were operating on the flashpoint Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.
In a show of support for the new interim leaders in Kiev, visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned Russia’s “act of aggression” and accused Moscow of “working hard to create a pretext for being able to invade further”.
Pro-Kremlin forces are in de facto control of the strategic, majority-Russian Crimean peninsula where Ukrainian troops remain blocked inside their barracks in the most serious stand-off between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War.
Amid the tensions, Russia carried out a successful test launch of an “advanced” intercontinental ballistic missile, state news agencies reported. The US was informed of the test earlier this week, a US defence official said, Yahoo informs.
