Russian president Vladimir Putin justified the invasion of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula on the Black Sea, arguing that the end of the pro-Russian government led by Viktor Yanukovich on 22 February and its replacement by an interim administration made up of pro-European opposition figures represents a concrete threat to the Russian-speaking population. This group is the majority in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

This morning Putin held a press conference on Russia Today in which he said that "from a legal point of view Viktor Yanukovich is still the president of Ukraine" and that the new government is illegitimate. He also declared that Russia is not "considering the possibility of annexing Crimea, which has the same right to self-determination as Kosovo".

From Russia to Crimea with 16,000 troops

The occupation took place with 16,000 soldiers or paramilitary forces — as reported by Yuri Sergeyev, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations — without a single shot being fired. The region's two airports are occupied, numerous checkpoints are present on the roads, while Ukrainian military bases have been surrounded and soldiers confined inside them.

The absence of violence on the part of Russian troops, or the fall of the Yanukovich government following street protests in Kyiv, are not and cannot be plausible justifications for the invasion ordered by Putin after receiving authorisation from the upper house of the Moscow parliament. The approval to use the army, granted unanimously, is in theory not limited to the invasion of Crimea but could apply to the entire Ukrainian territory.

Why one country cannot invade another

Article 2.4 of the United Nations Charter reads as follows: "Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations."

The only concession the United Nations makes to the use of force concerns self-defence, which may be used, as provided for in Article 51, only following an armed attack and "until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security". The Council is currently considering the possibility of sending international observers to monitor the crisis situation.

Diplomacy working on Crimea

To avert the worst, international diplomacy is moving to prevent above all a single shot from being fired, and secondly to try to bring Putin to reason and peacefully compel him to withdraw. The first decision taken by the heads of state and government of the G8, Italy included, was to suspend participation in the next summit scheduled for June in Sochi, the city where the Winter Olympics concluded just recently.

In recent days, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and United States President Barack Obama had a lengthy telephone conversation with Putin in which they sought to defend the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine. On Monday 3 March Obama said that Russia "finds itself on the wrong side of history".

That same day the foreign ministers of the European Union member states held a meeting in which they described Russia's actions as an "act of aggression", although they have not yet decided what type of sanctions to impose. Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, interviewed by Skytg24, stated that it is important to pursue the path of dialogue to find a political solution to the crisis because "there are no alternatives" to diplomacy.