1h 51m ago
Summary
• Russian troops have surrounded at least two military bases in Crimea and approached others seeking to gain access or get hold or their weapons. There were reported to be about 150 Russian troops and more than 20 military vehicles outside the Perevalnoe base, where there was a tense standoff. Ukrainian soldiers drove a tank up to the inside gates of the base in response and around 15 of them lined up against the gate.
• The Ukrainian prime minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk, said Russia has declared war on Ukraine and that it is not just a threat from Moscow. He warned: “We are on the brink of disaster”.
• The US secretary of state, John Kerry, warned that Russia could be expelled from the G8 and face economic sanctions, unless President Vladimir Putin halts his “incredible act of aggression”. He also mentioned visa bans, asset freezes and trade isolation as possible steps.
• Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen accused Russia of threatening peace and security in Europe by its actions and of violating the UN charter. He called on Russia to “de-escalate”.
• Britain and France joined the US in pulling out of preparatory meetings for the G8 economic summit, scheduled to be held in June at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, site of the just-concluded 2014 Winter Olympics.
• Ukraine’s parliament has called for international monitors to help ensure the safety of its nuclear power plants.
•There were demonstrations both for and against Russian intervention in Ukraine in Moscow. There were at least 10,000 people at the pro demonstration, according to AP, although reporters said some were ordered to be there. The anti demonstration was much smaller but saw at least 50 people detained by Russian police.
1h 53m ago
The new commander of the Ukrainian navy, Denys Berezovsky, has “defected”, just one day after being appointed, it is being reported.
1-day Ukraine's navy commander #Berezovsky defects, takes oath of office as new Crimea's commander-video by@KSHN http://t.co/PK3lX9cq3C
— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) March 2, 2014
2h 26m ago
#Russia invasion of #Crimea has Kyivans volunteering for#Ukraine armed forces in their droves - friends, their husbands and their fathers
— Maxim Tucker (@MaxRTucker) March 2, 2014
@andersostlund Source is me - my friends, husbands of friends and fathers of friends en masse
— Maxim Tucker (@MaxRTucker) March 2, 2014
Thousands in central Kiev today as the crisis in the#Crimea is sweeping up patriotic fervor. #Ukraine
— Ian Lee (@ianjameslee) March 2, 2014
2h 47m ago
Another Ukrainian base has been surrounded in Crimea.
I'm outside the Marines base in Feodosia, surrounded by Russian troops. Tense negotiations going on insidepic.twitter.com/WTxRcldSet
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 2, 2014
2h 51m ago
The Guardian’s Europe editor, Ian Traynor, raises the prospect of Vladimir Putin being “the new [Slobodan] Milosevic” in an article examining what will happen now in Ukraine.
He writes:
The most benign outcome is that Putin envisages a Georgia-style incursion, a brief week of creating new facts on the ground, limiting the campaign to taking control of the Crimean peninsula with its majority ethnic Russian population, and then negotiating and dictating terms from a position of strength to the weak and inexperienced new leadership in Kiev ...
The aim, as Ukraine’s acting president speculated on Sunday, may be to wreck Ukraine economically; to disable its functioning as a genuinely independent state.
That aim would encourage Putin to expand his influence from Crimea into eastern Ukraine, dismissing Kiev’s authority, broadly cutting the country in two, Kiev and the west versus the east and the south.
That raises the prospect of civil war. Already, in the initial skirmishing, the tactics and the methodology that made Serbia’s Milosevic so ascendant in the Yugoslav wars of 1991-95 and Kosovo in 1998-99 (although he lost them all in the end) are evident ...
If Putin opts to be the new Milosevic, the west will be staring a new division of Europe in the face.
He adds that there “appears little appetite in the west for getting seriously embroiled beyond diplomacy”.
3h 4m ago
There have been pro- and anti-war demonstrations in Moscow today, AP reports.
It says at least 10,000 people bearing Russian flags marched through Moscow in support of an invasion of Ukraine. However, it appears some may have been there under orders.
Russian police detain a protester during an unsanctioned anti-war rally close to the the ministry of defense on 2 March, 2014 in Moscow, Russia. Photograph: Kommersant Photo/Kommersant via Getty Images
People march during a procession in central Moscow, 2 March, 2014. People gathered on Sunday to support the people of Crimea and Ukraine, including Russian speakers, and to protest against the policies conducted by Ukraine's new authorities recently elected in Kiev, according to organisers. Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
3h 18m ago
Here are a few tweets on how Russian TV is covering events in Crimea.
Russia Today’s depiction of an idyllic scene in the Crimea is not entirely convincing.
Summary
• Russian troops have surrounded at least two military bases in Crimea and approached others seeking to gain access or get hold or their weapons. There were reported to be about 150 Russian troops and more than 20 military vehicles outside the Perevalnoe base, where there was a tense standoff. Ukrainian soldiers drove a tank up to the inside gates of the base in response and around 15 of them lined up against the gate.
• The Ukrainian prime minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk, said Russia has declared war on Ukraine and that it is not just a threat from Moscow. He warned: “We are on the brink of disaster”.
• The US secretary of state, John Kerry, warned that Russia could be expelled from the G8 and face economic sanctions, unless President Vladimir Putin halts his “incredible act of aggression”. He also mentioned visa bans, asset freezes and trade isolation as possible steps.
• Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen accused Russia of threatening peace and security in Europe by its actions and of violating the UN charter. He called on Russia to “de-escalate”.
• Britain and France joined the US in pulling out of preparatory meetings for the G8 economic summit, scheduled to be held in June at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, site of the just-concluded 2014 Winter Olympics.
• Ukraine’s parliament has called for international monitors to help ensure the safety of its nuclear power plants.
•There were demonstrations both for and against Russian intervention in Ukraine in Moscow. There were at least 10,000 people at the pro demonstration, according to AP, although reporters said some were ordered to be there. The anti demonstration was much smaller but saw at least 50 people detained by Russian police.
1h 53m ago
The new commander of the Ukrainian navy, Denys Berezovsky, has “defected”, just one day after being appointed, it is being reported.
1-day Ukraine's navy commander #Berezovsky defects, takes oath of office as new Crimea's commander-video by@KSHN http://t.co/PK3lX9cq3C
— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) March 2, 2014
2h 26m ago
#Russia invasion of #Crimea has Kyivans volunteering for#Ukraine armed forces in their droves - friends, their husbands and their fathers
— Maxim Tucker (@MaxRTucker) March 2, 2014
@andersostlund Source is me - my friends, husbands of friends and fathers of friends en masse
— Maxim Tucker (@MaxRTucker) March 2, 2014
Thousands in central Kiev today as the crisis in the#Crimea is sweeping up patriotic fervor. #Ukraine
— Ian Lee (@ianjameslee) March 2, 2014
2h 47m ago
Another Ukrainian base has been surrounded in Crimea.
I'm outside the Marines base in Feodosia, surrounded by Russian troops. Tense negotiations going on insidepic.twitter.com/WTxRcldSet
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 2, 2014
2h 51m ago
The Guardian’s Europe editor, Ian Traynor, raises the prospect of Vladimir Putin being “the new [Slobodan] Milosevic” in an article examining what will happen now in Ukraine.
He writes:
The most benign outcome is that Putin envisages a Georgia-style incursion, a brief week of creating new facts on the ground, limiting the campaign to taking control of the Crimean peninsula with its majority ethnic Russian population, and then negotiating and dictating terms from a position of strength to the weak and inexperienced new leadership in Kiev ...
The aim, as Ukraine’s acting president speculated on Sunday, may be to wreck Ukraine economically; to disable its functioning as a genuinely independent state.
That aim would encourage Putin to expand his influence from Crimea into eastern Ukraine, dismissing Kiev’s authority, broadly cutting the country in two, Kiev and the west versus the east and the south.
That raises the prospect of civil war. Already, in the initial skirmishing, the tactics and the methodology that made Serbia’s Milosevic so ascendant in the Yugoslav wars of 1991-95 and Kosovo in 1998-99 (although he lost them all in the end) are evident ...
If Putin opts to be the new Milosevic, the west will be staring a new division of Europe in the face.
He adds that there “appears little appetite in the west for getting seriously embroiled beyond diplomacy”.
3h 4m ago
There have been pro- and anti-war demonstrations in Moscow today, AP reports.
It says at least 10,000 people bearing Russian flags marched through Moscow in support of an invasion of Ukraine. However, it appears some may have been there under orders.
Woman at pro-invasion protest: "My boss forced me to come. You think anyone wants to be here?"
— Laura Mills (@lauraphylmills) March 2, 2014
In Red Square, where there was an anti-invasion demonstration, at least 50 people were detained and at least five police vans, which carry between 15 and 20 protesters, drove away from the square, according to AP.— Laura Mills (@lauraphylmills) March 2, 2014
Russian police detain a protester during an unsanctioned anti-war rally close to the the ministry of defense on 2 March, 2014 in Moscow, Russia. Photograph: Kommersant Photo/Kommersant via Getty Images
People march during a procession in central Moscow, 2 March, 2014. People gathered on Sunday to support the people of Crimea and Ukraine, including Russian speakers, and to protest against the policies conducted by Ukraine's new authorities recently elected in Kiev, according to organisers. Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
3h 18m ago
Here are a few tweets on how Russian TV is covering events in Crimea.
Lies. Russian State TV is using footage from clashes in Kiev claiming it's Crimea. From 1:40http://t.co/8fZMpCdXXE pic.twitter.com/2utre6vffW
— Simon Kruse (@crusoes) March 2, 2014
Russia's state "Rossiya 24" channel narrative this evening: Crimea known hub for Islamic terrorists heading to Syria.
— Ryskeldi Satke (@RyskeldiSatke) March 2, 2014
Now it's serious. Russia's state-run Channel One says it won't air the Oscars tonight because of events in Ukrainehttp://t.co/K2obfcH0Wt
— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) March 2, 2014
3h 32m ago— Simon Kruse (@crusoes) March 2, 2014
Russia's state "Rossiya 24" channel narrative this evening: Crimea known hub for Islamic terrorists heading to Syria.
— Ryskeldi Satke (@RyskeldiSatke) March 2, 2014
Now it's serious. Russia's state-run Channel One says it won't air the Oscars tonight because of events in Ukrainehttp://t.co/K2obfcH0Wt
— Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) March 2, 2014
Russia Today’s depiction of an idyllic scene in the Crimea is not entirely convincing.
Tea, music, photos with self-defense forces mark peaceful Sunday in Simferopol http://t.co/Jock6RMiX0 #Crimeapic.twitter.com/k10dpCsRkm
— RT (@RT_com) March 2, 2014
— RT (@RT_com) March 2, 2014
