Tensions Escalate as Russian President Requests Permission to Use Military In Ukraine

Tescalated in Crimea on Saturday as Russian President Vladimir Putin asked his upper house of parliament to approve the use of armed forces in the autonomous republic, heeding the call by its newly appointed prime minister for him to intervene and stoking fears of an Abkhazia scenario, in which Moscow would invade the territory with its troops as it did previously in Georgia.

Putin said the move is needed to protect ethnic Russians and the personnel of a Russian military base in Ukraine's strategic region of Crimea, the Associated Press reported.

Earlier, Ukraine’s defense minister said Russia had already deployed some 6,000 troops to Crimea, on top of the 15,000 permanently stationed at its Black Sea Fleet base in the port city of Sevastopol.

Thousands of armed Russian soldiers in military fatigues, along with several armored personnel vehicles and military helicopters, on Saturday morning blockaded the autonomous republic’s government buildings and locked down two main airports, forcing all flights to be cancelled.

Internet and phone access was also scant after unknown men cut several fiber optic transmission cables of Ukraine’s Ukrtelecom company late on Friday.

At least one main television station was seized, as well as the office of the Crimean Center for Investigative Reporting, and Russian military personnel blocked access to a Ukrainian coast guard base.

Ukraine’s newly appointed government accused Russian armed forces on Friday of mobilizing in Crimea, with Interior Mininster Arsen Avakov calling it an “invasion” and a violation of Ukraine’s sovereign territory.

In a live briefing from the White House pressroom on Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama weighed in, warning Russia that there will be “costs” to military intervention.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, who’s spent less than a week in the position after a new government was appointed following the ouster of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych and his government, said during a cabinet meeting Saturday that the men armed with automatic rifles were Russian soldiers and blamed Putin for “provoking a confrontation” in violation of an agreement allowing Russia to base its soldiers and Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.

“In the worst-case scenario, responsibility for a confrontation will lie exclusively with the Russian side and on the leadership of the country personally,” Yatseniuk said. “We demand that the Russian government and authorities recall their troops and return to their places of deployment. Stop provoking civil and military confrontation in Ukraine.”

But Crimea’s new Prime Minister Sergei Aksenov, declaring that he had sole control over the Crimean military and police, pleaded from more to come.

“I ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to help keep peace and calm on the territory of the Republic of Crimea,” Aksenov said in a statement broadcast on Russian state television. He added that he had seized control of all Ukrainian military and police forces in Crimea and ordered dissenters within the units to quit their posts.

“All commanders are to fulfill only my orders and commands. I ask those who disagree to leave the service,” said Aksenov, who heads Crimea’s main pro-Russia party, which received just 4 percent of the vote in 2010 elections.

Aksenov was appointed to his new post by lawmakers in the Crimean parliament on Thursday who were watched by heavily armed soldiers nearby during the voting. The parliament also voted to hold a referendum on further autonomy from Ukraine on May 25, the same day new Ukrainian presidential elections are slated to be held. On Saturday, that referendum was moved to March 30, Aksenov said during a special session of Crimea’s parliament.

The Russian presidential administration responded quickly to Aksenov’s appeal on Saturday, saying it “would not go without attention,” state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing an official statement.

Shortly after, Russia’s foreign ministry claimed in a statement that “unidentified armed men” from Kiev attempted to seize Crimea’s interior ministry early Saturday morning, but were repelled by “self-defense” units it says are keeping the peace there. The statement mentioned that there were injured “victims” as a result of the clashes, but did not specify the number or type of injuries.

Russian foreign ministry said the alleged incident “confirms the desire of well-known political circles in Kiev to destabilize the situation on the peninsula.

“We call on everyone who gives similar orders from Kiev to [show] restraint. We consider further incitement of the already tense situation in Crimea extremely irresponsible,” it continued.

Vladimir Krashevsky, a top police official in Simferopol, refuted the Russian foreign ministry’s report of any such attack on the interior ministry building during an impromptu press conference Saturday.

"There was no attack here and there won't be one," he said.

But it seemed to be enough for Putin, who asked his parliament for permission to send more Russian troops to the peninsula.

Crimea long volatile

Crimea has been an historically volatile region since Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred the territory from Russia to Ukraine in 1954.

With an ethnic Russian population of about 58 percent, Crimea’s cultural links with Russia have been very strong. About 24 percent of the population is comprised of Ukrainians, while about 12 percent of its inhabitants are ethnic Tatar who began returning to their homeland of Crimea in the late 1980s after being expelled by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin following World War II.

A poll released last week by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation found that some 42 percent of Crimea residents would prefer Ukraine to unite with Russia.

Separatist sentiment grows

As the situation in Crimea intensified, the separatist sentiment there seemed to spread to regions in Ukraine’s east, near its border with Russia.

In Donetsk, more than 7,000 people gathered on central Lenin Square, during which there was talk of secession and a “resistance governor” was appointed.

Similar rallies were held in Dnipropetrovsk and Nikolev. In Kharkiv, pro-Russian demonstrators clashed with pro-European ones, taking over the regional government administration building and replacing the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag with the red-white-and-blue Russian flag at the building’s entrance.

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