DHAKA: Ukraine’s former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, urged Western powers Sunday to unite on a hard line against Russian president Vladimir Putin in the Crimea crisis.

‘This aggressive striving for power with regard to Ukraine represents not only a danger for the Ukrainian state, other parts of eastern Europe are also in danger,’ she told German daily Der Tagesspiegel, reports The Straits Times.

‘Should Putin continue his attack on our country after the annexation of Crimea, I would call on the leaders of the democratic world to use the strongest measures to stop this aggressor.’

She said the West should under no circumstances accept the result of Sunday’s referendum in Crimea on breaking away from Ukraine to join Russia.

BDST: 1753 HRS, MAR 16, 2014