Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama told President Vladimir Putin on Saturday that Russia's dispatch of troops to Ukraine flouted international law and warned he was courting political isolation if the incursion continues.
Obama also spelled out the right of the people of Ukraine to chart their own destiny and symbolically began to line up the long-time Western alliance against Russia, calling the leaders of France and Canada.
The US leader's 90-minute telephone call with Putin represented the kind of direct confrontation between the men who run the White House and the Kremlin rarely seen since the end of the Cold War.
The White House account of the call was unusually detailed and blunt, hinting at tense exchanges as fractures deepened in a diplomatic relationship that has been deteriorating since Putin returned as president in 2012.
"President Obama expressed his deep concern over Russia's clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House said.
Obama told Putin that his actions were a "breach of international law, including Russia's obligations under the UN Charter, and of its 1997 military basing agreement with Ukraine."
The White House statement appeared designed to underscore the gravity of the situation, and as a message to political opponents who say Obama shows insufficient steel as a leader and declines to enforce US red lines.
Obama also spelled out the right of the people of Ukraine to chart their own destiny and symbolically began to line up the long-time Western alliance against Russia, calling the leaders of France and Canada.
The US leader's 90-minute telephone call with Putin represented the kind of direct confrontation between the men who run the White House and the Kremlin rarely seen since the end of the Cold War.
The White House account of the call was unusually detailed and blunt, hinting at tense exchanges as fractures deepened in a diplomatic relationship that has been deteriorating since Putin returned as president in 2012.
"President Obama expressed his deep concern over Russia's clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity," the White House said.
Obama told Putin that his actions were a "breach of international law, including Russia's obligations under the UN Charter, and of its 1997 military basing agreement with Ukraine."
The White House statement appeared designed to underscore the gravity of the situation, and as a message to political opponents who say Obama shows insufficient steel as a leader and declines to enforce US red lines.
