Facts on the Ground

CNN speaks with Fareed [Zakaria]about the latest developments in Ukraine...

Before we get into the bigger picture questions, what is your reaction to the news about armed troops, maybe they are Russian, in two airports in the Crimea region? And also, as one correspondent was saying, even surrounding peacefully a TV station?It seems very unlikely that Russia has no hand in this “border patrol.” It's possible they are not Russian, actual Russian official troops. They may be some kind of paramilitary...But the Russian intelligence services have been active in Ukraine ever since the breakup between of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine. You have to assume that what they are trying to do is create facts on the ground – take over the key areas, which are the airport and government buildings. And then you have some kind of autonomous local government that is trying to act in a way that creates facts on the ground that Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, cannot do very much about.

That was  February 28th, 2014 at 06:32 PM ET.

At March 1, 2014 -- Updated 1605 GMT we read:

Russia's upper house of parliament voted unanimously Saturday to approve sending Russian military forces into Ukraine, amid mounting tensions in the country's Crimea region.
The vote followed a request from Russian President Vladimir Putin for approval to send Russian troops into Crimea to normalize the political situation there.Due to the "extraordinary situation in Ukraine," Putin said, there are threats to the lives of Russian citizens and Russian military personnel based in the southern Crimean region.
Ukraine's new government condemned the move.

And news about someone very inimical to Israel:

U.N. special adviser Robert Serry, sent to Ukraine to assess the situation, said he had not been able to get to Crimea and would instead go to Switzerland to brief U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday.

As for the United States:

U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Russia against any military intervention in Ukraine after the country's new leaders accused Moscow of deploying forces in the Crimea region..."We are now deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine," Obama told reporters in Washington.

Can Israel trust the United States under Obama toi "have Israel's back"?

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