BREAKING: Pro-#Russian #forces take #Ukraine naval HQ in Crimea #CRIMEA, -- Russian soldiers and armed pro-Russian militia have seized the headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy in Sevastopol, a day after Russia absorbed the peninsula in the first annexation of another European country’s territory since the second world war. Ukrainian military members began abandoning their Sevastopol Black Sea naval headquarters on Wednesday after the self-styled Crimean “self-defence” forces took control of the building early on Wednesday. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. The occupation of the base came as Ukraine’s government said that Ihor Teniuk, defence minister, and Vitaly Yarema, deputy prime minister overseeing the country’s military and law enforcement, would fly to Crimea to hold talks and prevent escalation of the stand-offs at the Ukrainian military bases into full-blown battles. There were clashes late on Tuesday that turned deadly following the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, with Ukraine’s defence ministry saying a soldier had been shot dead while masked armed militants clashed with troops at a military facility in the regional capital of Simferopol. However, Crimea’s pro-Russian prime minister said Mr Yarema and Mr Teniuk would not be allowed to enter the territory. “They are unwelcome in Crimea. Nobody will let them enter Crimea, and they’ll be sent back,” Russian news agency Interfax quoted the peninsula’s new leader Sergey Aksyonov as saying. Mr Aksyonov is in Moscow after signing a treaty with Vladimir Putin, Russian president, on Tuesday that allows Russia to annex the peninsula, less than three weeks after unmarked Russian soldiers took over Crimea’s parliament. Pavel, a Ukrainian officer, described how the armed units quickly took over the naval base with its 400 Ukrainian soldiers, breaking down doors and roughing up the Ukrainians. They also hoisted a Russian flag over the base. “It’s not right to use such barbaric methods,” he said. “We [the Ukrainians ] don’t want blood.” Oleg Likhachev, a pro-Russian Cossack activist, who was at the scene, said: “No shots were fired and there are no casualties.” Alexander Drobov, a member of the self-defence forces, said the Ukrainian soldiers were “happy” when the Russian troops occupied the Navy headquarters “and emancipated them from Ukrainian rule”. “They just need to find new work now,” he said. “They were told long ago: you can leave or stay, you can join the Russian army or the US army. You can do whatever you want.” More than a dozen Ukrainian officers and sailors began abandoning the naval base on Wednesday, emerging with bags of clothes, hangers of uniforms and TVs and plants from their rooms. Mr Putin’s move to reincorporate the Black Sea peninsula, which has been achieved with breathtaking speed, has been widely condemned by the international community, and has provoked the most serious European security crisis since the Cold War. But Mr Putin described Moscow’s decision to defy the west as the consequence of decades, if not centuries, of bullying of his country. (PHOTO) Russian troops seized the Ukrainian Navy Headquarters.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 12:18:13 +0000
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