The Verkhovna Rada parliament unanimously backed the creation of a new force of up to 60,000 volunteers who could keep Russian troops from advancing beyond the Crimean peninsula they seized at the start of the month. The dramatic decision to bolster Ukraine's defences with people outside the army came shortly after US President Barack Obama
I inhaled. That was the point...
threw his full weight behind Ukraine's new pro-European leaders in their Cold War-style standoff with the Kremlin.
National Security and Defence Council chief Andriy Parubiy said the new National Guard would "ensure state security, defend the borders, and eliminate terrorist groups" -- a term many in Kiev use to call the well-armed militias who patrol Crimea alongside Russian troops. Ukraine's conventional army of 130,000 soldiers -- half of them conscripts with ageing equipment -- is dwarfed by a 845,000-strong Russian force that has the backup of nuclear weapons. The flaring crisis on the eastern edge of Europe was sparked by the ouster last month of a pro-Kremlin regime that prompted President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...to seek and win the right to use force against a neighbour for the first time since a brief 2008 war with Georgia.
The more nationalist and Western-leaning team that rose to power on the back of a deadly popular revolt is viewed with derision by Putin and increasing warmth by Washington and EU states. Putin's March 1 decision to order troops into Crimea for the "protection" of the Russian-speaking majority there now threatens to bring down a host of political and economic sanctions that could leave the Kremlin more isolated from the West than at any point since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as
Mom...
-- a fluent Russian speaker whose upbringing in Communist East Germany shaped both her cautious approach to Moscow and understanding of the importance of keeping relations with the Kremlin on track -- delivered her most ominous warning to date in an appearance before the German parliament.
"If Russia continues its course of the last weeks, it would not only be a catastrophe for Ukraine," she told the chamber. "It would not only change the relationship of the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
as a whole to Russia. No, it would also, and I am firmly convinced of this, massively damage Russia both economically and politically." Merkel accused Russia of using the "failed" expansionist tactics of the previous two centuries. Russia's parliament is still due to consider legislation next week simplifying the process for the annexation of Crimea -- a strong possibility after the Black Sea region holds a hotly disputed referendum on Sunday on switching over to Kremlin rule. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said meanwhile that it had postponed the process for the Russian Federation to join its 34-member organization. The European Union will debate travel bans and asset freezes on Monday against Russian officials held responsible for threatening Ukraine's territorial integrity.