US Warns Russia

CONFLICT\\ Russian President Vladimir Putin moved swiftly to annex Crimea on March 18, 2014, in the first land grab in Europe since the Second World War. The move was condemned by the US and EU and worries remain over Moscow’s intentions elsewhere in Ukraine. A deadline Ukraine’s acting President gave Crimea’s separatist leaders to release hostages came and went without apparent incident on March 19, 2014, after pro-Russian activists stormed the former Soviet state’s navy headquarters in the region. Amid signs the uneasy standoff between pro-Russian and Ukrainian forces could ignite into bloody conflict— a day after Moscow claimed Crimea as its own—almost 300 armed pro-Russian supporters took over the naval base in Sevastopol, said Marina Kanalyuk, assistant to the commander of Ukraine’s navy fleet. “They are everywhere here, they surround us, they threaten us,” she said, adding that she was sure that Russian security forces were involved. Kanalyuk said the 70 or so Ukrainian naval officers at the headquarters had tried to stop the armed men from entering and were negotiating with them. She said that the armed men had replaced Ukrainian flags with Russian standards but that no shots had been fired. Ukrainian navy chief Sergey Gaiduk was taken away. Russia’s official ITAR-Tass news agency, citing the local Kryminform news agency, reported Gaiduk had been passed to the Sevastopol prosecutor’s office to be questioned about whether he’d passed on orders from Kiev for Ukrainian soldiers to use their weapons. Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov issued a 9pm deadline for Crimea to release all hostages and stop all provocations, a statement on the presidential website said. That deadline passed with no apparent consequences.

It had warned that if all hostages, including Gaiduk, were not released by then, authorities would take action of technical and technological character, likely meaning turning off utilities. Meanwhile in Kiev, officials unveiled a series of new measures against Russia and the “self-proclaimed” authorities in Crimea. In a televised briefing, Andriy Porubiy, secretary of the national defense and security council, said the measures included a full-scale visa system for Russians and that if the UN designates Crimea a demilitarised zone, Ukraine was prepared to evacuate its military personnel and family members.

Ukraine has facilities ready to accommodate 25,000 evacuees. The country has decided to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States, an organisation made up of republics of the former Soviet Union. Kiev also will estimate the damages caused by the annexation. The incident at the navy headquarters comes a day after one member of the Ukrainian military was killed, another wounded and more captured when masked gunmen seized their base near the Crimean regional capital, Simferopol.