Obama blasts Putin in tense call

In a phone conversation on Monday, Obama said Russia’s actions in Ukraine were not conducive, a senior administration official said, as reported by Reuters.
 
"The president made clear that the diplomatic path was open and our preferred way ahead, but that Russia's actions are neither consistent with or conducive to that," the official said.
 
Obama told Putin that Kiev had made "real offers" to address concerns about the decentralization of powers to local governments in the country.
 
"That is a matter for Ukrainians to decide," the official said. "We have always and will continue to support an inclusive process."
 
In response, Putin rejected Western claims that Moscow is behind attacks on government buildings, saying they were "based on unfounded information," The Kremlin said.
 
Earlier Putin's spokesman said Russia had received several appeals for help from anti-Kiev protesters, who are seeking to follow in the footsteps of the Crimean Peninsula and force a referendum on joining the Russian Federation, Sky News reported.
 
Protesters in Ukraine’s east, which has a large ethnic Russian population, are occupying numerous government buildings despite the passing of a deadline set by Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov for them to stop the street protests.
 
Tensions increased after reports that a Russian fighter aircraft made repeated close-range passes near a US ship in the Black Sea over the weekend.
 
The Pentagon condemned the action, saying it was “provocative and unprofessional.”
 
The Ukrainian government has asked the United Nations to send peacekeepers, but the demand is unlikely to come to fruition as such a measure would have to be authorized by the UN Security Council, in which Russia holds a veto.