Russian troops seize Crimea airbase as Moscow consolidates control

Monday, 24 March 2014 00:57 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Russian troops used armoured vehicles, automatic gunfire and stun grenades on Saturday to seize a Ukrainian airbase in Crimea a day after President Vladimir Putin signed laws completing Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula. Ukrainian forces also abandoned a naval base after attacks by pro-Russian protesters, and had to surrender two flagship vessels to Russian forces. The facilities at Belbek and Novofedorovka had been among the last still under Ukrainian control after Moscow’s armed takeover and subsequent annexation of Crimea, which has a majority ethnic Russian population and harbours one of Russia’s biggest naval bases at Sevastopol.

Russia’s seizure of the peninsula after the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president by mass protests has triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War. The United States and the European Union have targeted some of Putin’s closest long-time political and business allies with personal sanctions. At the Belbek airbase, a Reuters reporter said armoured vehicles had smashed through the walls of a compound and that he had heard bursts of gunfire and grenades, making the takeover one of the more dramatic of Russia’s largely bloodless occupation of Crimea. Russian forces had already seized Belbek’s airstrip and warplanes at the start of the crisis. The compound seized on Saturday contained barracks, arms depots and a command building. Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, the base commander, said a Ukrainian serviceman had been injured and that he himself he was being taken away by the Russians for talks at an unspecified location. He said the Ukrainians were placing their weapons in storage in the base. Ukraine’s naval base at Novofedorovka, near Sevastopol, was vacated after unarmed pro-Russian protesters attempted to force their way in, Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said in a Facebook post. Russian troops also seized the flagship of the Ukrainian fleet, the Slavutich, which had been prevented from leaving port by Russian tug boats, he said, adding that Ukraine’s only submarine, the Zaporizhya, had been taken by Russian forces on Friday. Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on Friday that Crimea’s bases were still formally under its control, but most are now occupied by Russian troops and fly Russia’s tricolour flag. Firework displays on Friday in Crimea and Moscow marked Russia’s formal annexation of the peninsula. But Ukrainian residents in Crimea were mostly staying behind closed doors, with some packing their bags to leave. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in an article posted on the website of the Telegraph newspaper on Saturday that Britain and its allies should consider imposing lasting limitations on arms sales as part of a new relationship with Russia following the “outrageous” annexation of Crimea. “This would involve Russia being outside some international organisations, facing lasting restrictions on military cooperation and arms sales, and having less influence over the rest of Europe,” Hague wrote.

Russia can turn US to radioactive ash: Kremlin-backed journalist

Reuters: A Kremlin-backed journalist issued a stark warning to the United States about Moscow’s nuclear capabilities on Sunday as the White House threatened sanctions over Crimea’s referendum on union with Russia. “Russia is the only country in the world that is realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash,” television presenter Dmitry Kiselyov said on his weekly current affairs show. Behind him was a backdrop of a mushroom cloud following a nuclear blast. Kiselyov was named by President Vladimir Putin in December as the head of a new state news agency whose task will be to portray Russia in the best possible light.His remarks took a propaganda war over events in Ukraine to a new level as tensions rise in the East-West standoff over Crimea, a southern Ukrainian region which is now in Russian forces’ hands and voted on Sunday on union with Russia. Kiselyov is an outspoken defender of Putin and once caused outrage by saying the organs of homosexuals should not be used in transplants. His show portrayed the Ukrainian authorities as unable to maintain law and order. Putin made a similar charge in a telephone conversation with US President Barack Obama on Sunday. Such remarks have caused concern in Kiev that Moscow might send troops to eastern Ukraine, acting on a vote in Russian parliament allowing him to use the armed forces if compatriots are deemed in need of protection in Ukraine. As the crisis escalated, the news in Russia has taken on shades of Soviet-era propaganda, with reporters peppering reports with references to what they say was the cooperation of some Ukrainians with the Nazis in World War Two. There is also now growing menace in some of the reports, as well as echoes of the Cold War. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gifted Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, when Ukraine and Russia were both parts of the Soviet Union.

During a visit on Saturday to Kiev and the eastern city of Donetsk, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier praised the interim prime minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, for statements aimed at reassuring the Russian-speaking majority in eastern Ukraine. Later, after meeting business leaders in the east, Steinmeier said he believed they backed Ukrainian unity and would oppose any attempts to split the region off. Yatseniuk said Ukraine would need energy from the European Union to protect it from the repercussions of its standoff with Moscow, on which it depends for over half its oil and gas. On Friday, Yatseniuk signed a landmark association agreement with the EU, committing Ukraine to closer political and economic cooperation with the 28-nation bloc.