President Obama has told a Dutch newspaper that the United States does not see the ongoing crisis in Crimea and Ukraine as a “zero-sum game” between Washington and Moscow as pro-Russian forces reportedly overran a third Ukrainian military base in the Black Sea peninsula Monday.

In the interview, published in Monday’s edition of de Volkskrant, Obama said, “The United States does not view Europe as a battleground between East and West, nor do we see the situation in Ukraine as a zero-sum game. That’s the kind of thinking that should have ended with the Cold War.”

The president went on to say, “The Ukrainian people do not have to choose between East and West. On the contrary, it’s important that Ukraine have good relations with the United States, Russia, and Europe. As I’ve said, the future of Ukraine ought to be decided by the people of Ukraine.”

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Fears that Russia could claw back a second chunk of former Soviet territory in Europe grew on Sunday night after Nato warned that Moscow’s troops were poised to move into a pro-Russian enclave of Moldova.

Nato’s top commander said that Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s eastern border were well placed to take Transdniester, a Russian-speaking enclave that has declared independence from the rest of Moldova.

About a third of Transdniester’s half-million people are ethnic Russians, many of whom want to return to rule from Moscow. To this day, the streets of the capital, Tiraspol, are decked out with statues of Lenin and other symbols of the Soviet Union, of which Moldova was a member until its break-up in 1991.

US Air Force Gen Philip Breedlove, who is Nato’s supreme allied commander in Europe, said that gave President Vladimir Putin a pretext to send troops in there as a “protection” force for ethnic Russians, just as he has done in Crimea.

There is absolutely sufficient [Russian] force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniester if the decision was made to do that, and that is very worrisome,” he said at a meeting in Brussels hosted by the Marshall Fund, a German think tank.

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(CBS News) — While a majority of Americans (56 percent) support U.S. sanctions against Russia, they are less pleased with President Obama’s handling of the situation between Russia and Ukraine overall. Forty-six percent disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling these events, while fewer – 38 percent – approve.

Looking more broadly at the president and the United States’ image in the world, more Americans now say the image of the U.S. has grown worse (43 percent) since Mr. Obama became president, rather than better (32 percent). One in five thinks his presidency has had no effect.

This is a reversal from the early years of the Obama presidency. In 2009, when the President enjoyed higher approval ratings, 60 percent said the United States’ image in the world had improved.

President Obama, in an interview in Rome with “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Scott Pelley, said Russia must take steps now to reduce tensions over Ukraine.

“It’s well known and well acknowledged that you’ve seen a range of troops massing along that border under the guise of military exercises. But these are not what Russia would normally be doing. And, you know, it may simply be an effort to intimidate Ukraine or it may be that they’ve got additional plans,” Mr. Obama said.

To resolve and de-escalate the situation right now, Mr. Obama said Russia needs “to move back those troops and to begin negotiations directly with the Ukrainian government, as well as the international community.”

Mr. Obama said Russian President Vladimir Putin has been “willing to show a deeply held grievance about what he considers to be the loss of the Soviet Union.”

“You would have thought that after a couple of decades that there’d be an awareness on the part of any Russian leader that the path forward is not to revert back to the kinds of practices that, you know, were so prevalent during the Cold War but, in fact, to move forward with further integration with the world economy and to be a responsible international citizen.”

Washington (AFP) – Nearly 100,000 Russian forces have massed on Ukraine’s border, a top Ukrainian defense official told an American audience Thursday, giving a number far higher than US military estimates.

“Almost 100,000 soldiers are stationed on the borders of Ukraine and in the direction … of Kharkiv, Donetsk, ” Andriy Parubiy, chairman of Ukraine’s national security council, said via a webcast from Kiev.

“Russian troops are not in Crimea only, they are along all Ukrainian borders. They’re in the south, they’re in the east and in the north,” Parubiy said.

After its intervention in the Crimean peninsula, Russia is plotting to foment separatist sentiment elsewhere and Kiev fears a possible incursion in the country’s east, he told the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

Parubiy said any day “we might see a huge attack on the territory of continental Ukraine and we are getting ready for it.”

Although US defense officials have put the number of Russian troops closer to 20,000, a US lawmaker said Thursday that much stronger Russian forces had deployed towards Ukraine’s border.

“Over the past week we’ve seen the buildup of up to 80,000 additional Russian troops,” Representative Mike Turner said in a statement.

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Russia has said it has no intention of invading eastern Ukraine, but a top politician from Kiev told Fox News Saturday that there is “still a huge possibility that Russia could invade and seize Ukrainian territory.”

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk voiced his concern as Russia’s military takes positions on the country’s border. Yarsenyuk, however, expressed some optimism for a diplomatic solution after an hour-long phone call Friday between President Obama and President Vladimir Putin.

“Diplomacy is always the best way forward,” he said.

Yatsenyuk’s concern for further Russian aggression is shared by many in the West.

U.S. Defense officials told Fox News the numbers of troops at Ukraine’s border far exceeds the amount needed for a training exercise. And the fact that there is no real evidence any large-scale exercises have occurred, and that none of the troops have returned to their bases, is also concerning to U.S. observers.