"That would be a grave mistake," President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's not in the interests of the Ukraine or of Russia or of Europe or of the United States to see the country split. It's in nobody's interest to see violence return and the situation escalate."
Ms. Rice's remarks came after bloody street protests in Ukraine culminated this weekend in pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to leave the capital of Kiev.
Ms. Rice said that Mr. Yanukovych's whereabouts are "not known at the present." She made clear that the Obama administration isn't mourning his departure from the scene, saying he had lost "enormous legitimacy ... by turning on his people, by using violence in the streets against peaceful protesters and by flouting the will of the Ukrainian people."
She suggested Mr. Yanukovych was out of step with a Ukrainian population that wants to closer ties to Europe, adding that "his decision to turn away from Europe wasn't the choice of the Ukrainian people."
"The Ukrainian people expressed themselves peacefully, they were met with violence and that did not end well for Yanukovych," she said.
She spoke about him in the past tense. While Mr. Yanukovych and his supporters in the Kremlin have described the events in Ukraine as a "coup," Ms. Rice said the question of whether he must relinquish power is moot.
"He has gone," she said, adding that he "left Kiev - packed up in an orderly fashion, took his stuff, his furniture with him."
Mr. Yanukovych, she said, "is not leading at the present."
Asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin might see the volatility in Ukraine in a Cold War context - in which East and West battle for influence - Ms. Rice said: "He may, but if he does, that's a pretty dated perspective that doesn't reflect where the people of Ukraine are coming from.
"This is not about the U.S. and Russia. This is about whether the people of Ukraine have the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations and be democratic and be part of Europe, which they choose to be."
The U.S. favors a solution in Kiev in which a "unity government" would assume power following elections that take place in the "near term," she said.
She speaks, the Viper does, but beware of the venom of her bite.
Be wary, and never get too close.