Armed men wielding assault rifles surrounded more military bases as Russia tightened its grip on Crimea Monday, with nervous Ukrainian soldiers inside vowing not to abandon their posts.
AFP reporters saw the armed men — who wore no insignia but who few doubted where Russian troops — surrounding military facilities across the flashpoint peninsula.
Ukrainian officials said Russian soldiers were still pouring into the region and had issued an ultimatum to Ukrainian troops to surrender, which Russia denied.
Inside the Belbek administrative base of the Sevastopol tactical aviation brigade, dozens of tense Ukrainian officers were standing their ground, as troops they said were Russian special forces camped out nearby.
“We are Ukrainians and we have taken an oath. This is our duty and our job,” said officer Vladislav Kardash. “I don’t know anyone who has tried to go over to the other side. How can we reject Ukraine?”
If an assault did come no one doubted the outcome.
Only a few of the officers on the base carried automatic weapons, some had handguns, most were unarmed.
The servicemen knew they would not be able to prevent heavily armed opponents breaking through the base’s wrought-iron fencing.
“We’re just not prepared to face up to the Russian special forces,” said captain Andrei Matchenko. “This isn’t what we are trained or equipped for.”
– ‘Our boys abandoned’ –
Outside the gates a dozen wives and children of the soldiers had formed a small human chain waving Ukrainian flags and holding a placard reading “no to war”.
“We are mothers and wives. We are standing here so that no blood will be spilled,” said Valentina Bandarenko, the wife of one of the officers.
“Our government has abandoned our boys and now Putin is just coming in to mop them up,” said Mariana Sharmormova, whose husband was also inside.
The Ukrainian defence ministry says some 6,000 Russian troops have been sent by the Kremlin to Crimea — a Russian-speaking autonomous region that has been thrown into disarray since the ouster of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych last month.
Armed men believed to be under Moscow’s orders last week seized key government buildings in Crimea and airports on the peninsula.
Regional lawmakers deposed the Kiev-supporting prime minister and have called for a referendum on March 30 on proclaiming greater autonomy for Crimea.
AFP reporters said that armed men had also surrounded the Ukrainian military base in Bakhchisaray, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of the Crimean regional capital Simferopol.
About 20 soldiers were visible around the small base, which Ukrainian media said contained a navy provisions centre.
Its commander, Sergey Stechenko, told reporters outside the base that the armed men had ordered them to surrender the facility and its store of weapons.
– ‘Don’t want to shoot’ –
“They don’t want to shoot at us, we don’t want to shoot at them,” he said, “but if they start shooting, we will fire back.”
Elsewhere, AFP reporters said hundreds of armed men continued a tense standoff with Ukrainian soldiers at Perevalne, which hosts the 36th Coast Guard Brigade about 30 kilometres southeast of Simferopol.
The armed men had approached the base early on Sunday and demanded its surrender but the Ukrainian soldiers inside refused.
As with other standoffs, the situation was tense but peaceful and some local residents were gathering outside the base to voice their backing for Moscow.
“I came here to support the Russian army,” said Oleg, a local resident in his 50s wearing a ribbon in the colours of the Russian flag.
“It’s up to us to decide who we want to live with — with Russia, alone or with Ukraine, whose government we don’t recognise.”