Russian soldiers take over Crimean airports: minister Calls move ‘armed invasion and occupation’

By Lukas I. Alpert

Reuters

An armed man patrols at the airport in Simferopol, Crimea on Friday.\

 

Russian soldiers have occupied two key airports in Ukraine’s restive pro-Russia region of Crimea, Ukraine’s acting interior minister said Friday. 

Soldiers wearing camouflage and bearing automatic weapons have taken up positions at Belbek Airport in Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and at the airport in Simferopol, the region’s capital, Arsen Avakov said. 

He said the soldiers’ uniforms bore no identifying marks “but they do not hide their affiliation with the Russian armed forces.” 

“This is an armed invasion and occupation,” he said in a message posted on his Facebook page. “It is a direct provocation of armed bloodshed in the territory of a sovereign state.”

At Belbek Airport, Avakov said armed military units connected to Russia’s fleet had blocked access to the terminal and that the airport was now closed. He said Ukrainian soldiers and border guards remained inside the airport and Interior Ministry troops had set up a perimeter around the airport, but there had been no conflict. 

In Simferopol, he said that around midnight, 100 people who identified themselves as a Cossacks — civilian Russian traditionalists who often work closely with police — tried to break through a fence onto the airport grounds, but were driven away by airport security. 

Then, at 1:30 a.m., several trucks carrying more than 100 armed soldiers in unmarked camouflage uniforms arrived and took up positions inside the airport’s restaurant. When told by Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops that they had no right to be there, Avakov said the soldiers said they had been instructed not to negotiate. 

He said that despite the standoff, the airport was operating normally. 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/russian-soldiers-take-over-crimean-airports-minister-2014-02-28?link=MW_latest_news