The Russian occupation of Crimea will prove to be a “big miscalculation” in the long run, William Hague warned today, urging Moscow to attend peace talks with Kiev in an attempt to resolve the stand-off.
As he conceded that sanctions alone may not be enough to force Russian troops out of the Ukrainian peninsula, the Foreign Secretary said that discussions to reduce the reliance on gas from Russia by switching to the US as a major supplier were already under way.
He denied, however, that there is a “tacit acceptance” of the military takeover of Crimea, whose people are due to vote in a week’s time in a referendum on becoming part of Russia.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Hague said: