US President Barack Obama called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin yesterday to urge him to resolve the Ukraine crisis diplomatically, but acknowledged that sometimes people don´t “act rationally.”
“I think that we have done everything that we can to support the Ukrainian government and to deter Russia from moving further into Ukraine,” Obama told a surprise news conference.
“But short of going to war, there are going to be some constraints in terms of what we can do if President Putin and Russia are ignoring what should be their long-term interests.
“The White House said in a statement that during the call the US leader had repeated his concern about Moscow´s alleged breach of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, under which the United States and Russia agreed not to develop medium-range cruise missiles.
“The president reinforced his preference for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine, and the two leaders agreed to keep open their channels of communication,” a White House statement said.