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Ukrainian
servicemen leave Navy base in Sevastopol as Crimea protesters storm
HQ
At
least 30 Ukrainian naval personnel have left the Ukrainian Navy
headquarters in the city of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula after
demonstrators stormed the premises early in the morning.
RT,
19
March, 2014
Crimean
self-defense troops have made a passage to let Ukrainian servicemen
leave the territory of the HQ. Reports on the number of people to
have left vary with ITAR-TASS saying around 50 personnel are gone,
Rear Admiral Sergey Gaiduk of the Ukrainian Navy among them.
However,
Kryminform says Gaiduk has been detained by the Sevastopol
prosecutor’s office while RIA Novosti reports that his whereabouts
is unknown.
People
began protesting outside
the HQ at 08:00 GMT. Several thousand participants cut fences,
stormed inside and changed the flags on the flagpoles. Some of the
participants of the rally were singing the Russian national anthem.
There
were no immediate reports of violence.
A pro-Russian supporter takes down a
Ukrainian flag after breaking into the territory of the naval
headquarters in Sevastopol, March 19, 2014. (Reuters / Baz Ratner
There
was an immediate alert on the territory of the HQ and the Ukrainian
seamen lined up in front of the protesters, reports Interfax. The
line was broken by cars belonging to activists that entered the
territory.
The
protesters were calling upon the Ukrainian servicemen to leave the
HQ. An ambulance was also called as a precaution.
UkrStream.TV cameras which recorded the situation near the headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy show no violence on the precinct.
After
the protesters entered the navy HQ territory, they began holding
talks with the representatives of the Ukrainian Navy.
According
to Sevastopol news websites, the Commander of the Russia’s Black
Sea Fleet, Vice-Admiral Aleksandr Vitko, later arrived to negotiate
with Gaiduk.
After
just 15 minutes of negotiations, Vitko left the grounds and refused
to comment on the results of the talks with Gaiduk.
Before
leaving, both rear admirals held talks with Admiral Yury Ilyin, the
new Army chief and Admiral Viktor Maksimov, the head of Ukraine’s
Naval Forces.
Earlier,
there were reports of possible provocations. Some unidentified men
tried to enter the building. However, the attempts failed due to
Self-Defense Unit guards and Crimean Cossacks.
In
a phone conversation with Gerasimov, Kucin has emphasized
de-escalation and a political solution to the crisis, rather than a
violent one. The green light to use force has been given by him in
the aftermath of the events in Simferopol, which have led to the
death of one Ukrainian soldier and another from the Crimean
Self-Defense Forces, while two others were injured.
On
March 16, Crimea held a referendum in which over 96 percent of its
citizens voted to join Russia. Two days later, the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, a city with a special
status,became federal objects of the Russian Federation
The western view. Interesting how they quote Andriy Parubiy, who is a known fascist
Kiev
announces plans to withdraw Ukrainian troops from Crimea
Ukrainian
servicemen come under pressure from Russian troops and local forces
to abandon Crimean bases
19
March, 2014
Ukrainian
servicemen at bases around Crimea are gradually being smoked out by
Russian troops and local self-defence forces using a mixture of
attrition and threats, as well as the dawning realisation that Kiev
has lost control over the peninsula and has no way of fighting to
regain it.
On
Wednesday, the day after Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would
absorb Crimea and a Ukrainian soldier was shot dead by a sniper at a
base in Simferopol, a Kiev official announced that Ukraine was making
plans to withdraw its troops from the peninsula. Andriy Parubiy said
Ukraine would seek UN support to turn Crimea into a demilitarised
zone, though it is unlikely Russia will withdraw troops from a region
it considers home turf.
The
announcement came after a day when pro-Russian militia took control
of the Ukrainian naval headquarters in Sevastopol.
"We
freed the prisoners inside this base. This is Russian territory.
Moscow already accepted Crimea," said Vladimir Melnik, head of a
local self-defence unit, shortly after the Russian flag was raised at
the base.
According
to Melnik, several branches of the local militia coordinated to
orchestrate the storming of the site during the morning. "We are
peaceful people, but we are military people and if we receive orders
to storm we will follow them," he said. He said the civil
defence units were under the command of the city administration.
"There
was no fight, no resistance, the guys inside clearly understood what
situation they are in," said Andrey Kochebarov, a deputy leader
of local Cossacks. "This is the naval base headquarters so if
they gave up this one, they will give them all up."
In
the hours that followed, the Ukrainian troops, who had been inside
the besieged base for three weeks, slowly trickled out with heads
bowed. Morale is low and the soldiers say they are uncertain what the
future holds.
"We
have no word from Kiev about what to do next," said Sergei, who
has served as an officer in the Ukrainian army for 21 years and
remained inside the building until the bitter end. "Of course
there was no resistance [when the building was stormed]. What are we
meant to do, outnumbered and without weapons?" Sergei denied the
local militia's claims that the men inside were liberated: "This
is a lie. We remained there of our own free will."
Sergei,
from Sevastopol, said he and the 50 colleagues who remained inside
had been able to leave the building, but would not have been able to
return if they did so. "I stayed because I swore an oath to the
Ukrainian army." He said the Ukrainian officers were not
physically threatened, but they were kept without enough food and
water, and the electricity was often shut off.
Outside,
his tearful wife greeted him with a hug. "It's been a very
difficult time. I was very anxious about his safety," she said.
"I'm delighted to have him back."
Tough
decisions lie ahead for all the troops in the Crimea region who have
remained loyal to Ukraine. Russian and Crimean officials have issued
an ultimatum to the Ukrainian troopsthem either to join the Russian
army or take the option of a safe passage out of the peninsula.
The
Ukrainian navy commander, Serhiy Haiduk, was captured during the
storming of the headquarters and was believed to have been taken into
Russian detention. On Wednesday evening, acting Ukrainian president
Oleksandr Turchynov gave the Russians and Crimean authorities three
hours to free him or face "adequate responses, including of a
technical and technological nature", without clarifying further.
There
was no immediate time frame given for Parubiy's announcement that the
troops would be relocated. Ukrainian politician Vitali Klitschko had
earlier said Ukraine should not recognise Russian rule over Crimea,
but at the same time called for safe passage to be granted so
Ukrainian troops on the peninsula could withdraw to "temporary
bases" elsewhere in Ukraine, to prevent further bloodshed. The
Ukrainian government wanted to dispatch two ministers to Crimea on
Wednesday to "resolve the situation", but were informed by
Crimean authorities that they would not be allowed to enter the
territory.
Russian
and Crimean officials had earlier issued an ultimatum to the
Ukrainian troops to join the Russian army or take safe passage out of
the peninsula.
The
process of annexation continued apace on Wednesday, as Ukrainian
signs were removed from government buildings. Russia's constitutional
court reviewed the treaty to join Crimea to Russia and found it
legal, and the parliament is expected to ratify the decision by the
end of the week. Putin announced that a bridge to connect the Crimean
peninsula to Russia across the two-mile Kerch Strait will be built,
and will handle rail and road transport.
Russia
has already begun distributing passports in the region, said
Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of Russia's federal migration service.
"Some passports were issued today, and the work will only get
more intensive with each new day," he told RIA Novosti. He did
not clarify what would happen with those Crimea residents who did not
take up Russian citizenship.
Concerns
have been voiced about the fate of Crimean Tatars, who make up 13% of
the population and on the whole are loyal to Kiev. They mostly
boycotted the hastily organised referendum that returned a 97% vote
for union with Russia. Crimean officials have said some of them may
have to return land to which they do not own proper legal rights.
Many Tatars live on unregistered land; they were deported en masse
during the Stalin era and often found their property in new hands
when they returned a generation later.
The
most pressing issue remains what happens with the remaining Ukrainian
servicemen in bases. Crimean authorities claimed that the officer who
was shot dead on Tuesday was shot by a 17-year-old radical Ukrainian
nationalist, which has been dismissed as implausible by authorities
in Kiev.
A
spokesperson for the defence ministry was unable to clarify how many
soldiers are left on bases, saying he did not know himself. But at
bases around the peninsula there was little fighting talk, and more
of a sense of resignation that the territory has been lost.
Evgeniy
Cherednichenko, an officer at the logistical command centre in
Sevastopol, on Wednesday made the decision to abandon his position
inside the besieged base. "It's a very difficult and complicated
situation. We don't have proper information. In the end I just
decided to pick up my personal stuff and leave," he said. "I
have not deserted the Ukrainian army, I don't know what to do next."
The
base is surrounded by Russian troops, and through the wire fence it
is possible to see the Ukrainian troops moving around. A sniper sits
calmly on top of a garage watching the men below.
Speaking
by telephone from inside the base, lieutenant colonel Aleksandr
Lusyan said: "Kiev should have given the order to use weapons at
the beginning, because then we could fight back, but they were afraid
to give this command because they were afraid to spill blood. Now we
are outnumbered and we cannot fight back."
Kiev
forms 'loyal' National Guard from Maidan squads
Faced
with the prospect of security forces not on side with the new
authorities, Kiev has started forming an additional armed force. The
so-called National Guard is planned to be 60.000-strong, and totally
independent from the army and police.
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