WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 - The position of the United States on the events in Crimea and eastern Ukraine is one of the major successes of U.S. diplomacy in 2014, State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said.

"If you look at something like Ukraine, I mean, a year ago I'm not sure any of us could have predicted what would happen, Russia's actions. In response, we've put in place sanctions. The Russian economy is tanking, in part because of those sanctions, in part because of other things," she said at a briefing on Tuesday, while listing at the request of a journalist the most successful actions by Secretary of State John Kerry.