Russian ambassador: ‘No intent’ to go farther into Ukraine

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, on Sunday insisted that that Moscow had “no intent” to move further into Ukraine and still sought a diplomatic solution to the crisis there.

In an interview with ABC News’s “This Week” just ahead of a summit between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Kislyak scoffed when asked if Russia would consider pulling its military troops out of the disputed Crimea region.

“What kind of pull back from Crimea are you talking about?” Kislyak said. “We are now in the territory of the Russian Federation because there are a lot of things that have happened and one has to be very realistic about it. There was an expressed will of people living in Crimea to become part of Russian Federation at the moment there was an unconstitutional takeover of power with the use of power in Kiev.”

“Crimea is a part of [the] Russian Federation,” Kislyak said.

Late last month, Russian forces entered Crimea, which has a majority ethnic Russian population, after pro-Russian Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country, enabling opposition protesters to assume power.

Crimea then staged a secession vote blasted by the U.S. and Europe as unconstitutional and a violation of international law. Following the referendum, in which a dominant majority backed leaving Ukraine, the Kremlin moved to formally annex the peninsula.

Still, Kislyak insisted that Russia had no plans to encroach further into Ukraine, despite the build-up of more than 40,000 troops just across the border.

“We have said so many times that we have no intent, no interest in crossing the border,” he said.

Kislyak called the troop movements “normal exercises” and stressed that they were inside Russian territory. He said that the Kremlin had “offered transparency” into what the military was doing.

Earlier Sunday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called the troop buildup a “big question mark.”

“There is no question that there are 40,000-plus troops, that they are staged in various areas. That, to people who watch this, it looks like an invasion force,” Feinstein said.

Still, Kislyak said he was hopeful that a diplomatic solution could be struck as Kerry and Lavrov met in Paris.

“I hope so and it is something we have been trying to work on for quite a long period of time,” he said.

“The biggest problem is not between Ukraine and Russia. It is between the Ukrainian temporary government and the rest of the country,” he added. “It’s a country that certainly needs a revision of the constitution that would include a mechanism where the regions would be heard.”

Feinstein said she too was optimistic after Russian President Vladimir Putin called President Obama on Friday. During that conversation, the leaders agreed to dispatch Kerry and Lavrov to continue negotiations.

“I think what gives me a sense that we may be able to solve this situation is the fact that Putin did call our president and suggestions were made and there will be a meeting this week between the Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia and our Secretary of State Kerry, and there will be an ability to solve this,” Feinstein said.