Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk will visit Washington this week for talks as tensions build over Russian forces' seizure of the Crimea, a White House official confirmed on Sunday. No other details about the talks were immediately available from Washington officials. Earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said he would go to the United States this week to discuss the standoff with Russia over Ukraine's southern region of Crimea.
"I am going to the United states to hold top-level meetings on resolving the situation unfolding in our bilateral and multilateral relations," Yatseniuk said at the start of a government meeting in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
He did not immediately give any dates and provided no other details of the visit.
This comes as Russian forces took control of a Ukrainian border guard post in western Crimea on Sunday, trapping about 30 personnel inside, a border guard spokesman said.
He said by telephone that the Chernomorskoye base on the western edge of the Back Sea peninsula had been taken over without bloodshed at around six a.m. (0400 GMT).
The spokesman, Oleh Slobodyan, said Russian forces now controlled 11 border guard posts in Crimea.
Russian forces' seizure of the southern Ukrainian region, which began 11 days ago, has been bloodless. Ukrainian troops are trapped in a number of bases but have offered no armed resistance. On another note, Interfax news agency quoted Acting Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh as saying that Ukrainian troops are performing training exercises in base but there are no plans to send the country's armed forces to the Crimea region, Responding to media speculation about Ukrainian military movements after Russian forces took control of Crimea, Tenyukh said the only troop movements that might be seen would be from one base to another to take part in the training exercises. "No movements, no departures for Crimea by the armed forces are foreseen. They are doing their routine work which the armed have always had," he said.
Gazprom: Russia's Gazprom is likely to increase the price Ukraine pays for its gas supplies to $368.5 per 1,000 cubic meters in the second quarter of this year, Interfax news agency quoted the Ukrainian energy minister as saying on Sunday. Russia agreed in December to cut gas prices for Ukraine to $268.50 per 1,000 cubic meters from around $400, as part of a bailout package following Kiev's decision to reject closer ties with the European Union and turn to Russia instead. The overthrow of Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich as Ukraine's president and the new government's pro-Western policies have put that deal in doubt. "From Russia we expect to pay about $368.5 in the second quarter," Fuel and Energy Minister Yuri Prodan was quoted as telling reporters.