Russian positions troops beyond Crimean peninsula

[Sparky]

This didn't seem to get too much attention today. Russian has positioned troops in the town of Strilkove, from where Crimea gets its electricity, fresh water and natural gas. Troops are reported to have taken over the natural gas distribution center there.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2581592/Two-die-Ukraine-shootout-tensions-spiral-ahead-tomorrows-contentious-vote-future-rule-Crimea.html

[Serpo]

From Russia ,with love.............http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/15/article-2581592-1C2D054700000578-818_634x423.jpg

[mick silver]

they said this morning that russia troops have move to other parts now . it looks like they have cross the line ... Russian Commandos Invade UkraineBy Eli Lake | The Daily Beast – 16 hrs ago



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Forget the military forces massed on the border and brief incursions into Ukrainian territory and airspace. Russia is invading Ukraine (http://%20http//www.thedailybeast.com/topics/ukraine.html) in the shadows. The same special operations forces that appear to be rigging the election in Crimea are quietly escalating tensions inside other parts of eastern Ukraine.
This week the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested a group of people led by a Ukrainian citizen who were said to be scoping out three of its most crucial military divisions in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.
In Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, press reports from the ground say that Russian provocateurs have attacked Ukrainians who organized anti-Russian street protests.
The forces behind these operations, according to U.S. officials briefed on the updates in Ukraine, are likely the Spetsnaz, the Russian military’s highly trained saboteurs, spies and special operations forces who may change the face—and the borders—of Ukraine without once showing the Russian flag on their uniforms. Or, for that matter, without wearing any particular uniforms at all.
In 1979 the Soviet Union was able to take over Afghanistan with less than 700 Spetsnaz units. These same operatives are now spreading out over Ukraine, according to U.S. officials who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity. One of these officials stressed that while U.S. intelligence assesses there are more Spetsnaz forces surging into Ukraine, there is no reliable number on how many are inside the country and ultimately whether their presence is a prelude to a more formal invasion.
Of course, the situation in Ukraine is fluid, and the intelligence coming from the area is incomplete. Most analysts say only Putin and a small circle of advisers will decide whether Russia's current military incursions become a full-fledged invasion.
On the ground in Ukraine, such confusion reigns that the role of Spetsnaz is hard to confirm. But its involvement would come as no surprise.
In Kiev’s Maidan Square, there’s the camp set up by veterans who fought for the Soviets in Afghanistan when Ukraine was still part of the USSR. Twenty-five years ago, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers belonged to the same army; they were dying shoulder to shoulder in Afghanistan. So the Ukrainian veterans watch closely and understand only too well the tactics used against them now.
For the last two weeks, Oleg Mikhnyuk, the commander of a group of veterans calling themselves the Afghan Hundred, has been receiving reports from southern and eastern Ukraine about the mysterious "Russian presence" on Ukraine's territory. "If in the beginning of March they were just 'little green men' without identity driving armored vehicles all over Crimea, now the invasion is official, as Kherson region is definitely outside of the Russian Black Sea fleet jurisdiction, " Mikhnyuk said. (Putin played his game initially within his self-defined version of a treaty that gives Russia the right to locate military bases in Crimea.)
This evening the crowd in the Afghan veterans’ camp grew quiet as one of their senior officers spoke on his cell phone. Earlier in the day, the foreign ministry of Ukraine declared that the Russian invasion had gone beyond the Crimean peninsula, and the ministry demanded immediate withdrawal of Russian military forces from Ukrainian territory.
On the previous night, locals of Strelkovoye village complained to Afghan veterans about Russian military helicopters circling over Kherson region. On Saturday morning about 50 militants in Russian army uniforms occupied a natural gas substation there. "But our forces immediately reacted and pushed them off our territory," Mikhnyuk said, expressing hopes that no "provocation could cause bloodshed in the future.”
Meanwhile, Petr Mekhed at the Ukrainian ministry of defense declared that "the statement about the invasion came from foreign ministry, and the defense ministry cannot confirm the invasion.”
Meanwhile, reports continue of "unknown armed men" kidnapping Ukrainian civil society activists, and even anti-Russian activities are suspected as “false flag” operations by Putin’s operatives. Saturday afternoon, an Orthodox priest, Nikolai Kvich, was reportedly kidnapped as he conducted a service in his church in Sevastopol church. At about 8 p.m. dozens of masked men stormed the Moskva Hotel in the Crimean capital of Symferopol. The hotel's visitors were told to stay in their rooms while the men armed with machine guns raided the hotel.
Daily Beast correspondent Jamie Dettmer, who was there, says they may well have been Spetsnaz: “They initially claimed it was an anti-terror exercise and then said it was a false tip off. They were aggressive, waving guns, automatic weaponry with silencers on, and they lashed out at a cameraman with rifle butts. Maybe an exercise in intimidation—we don't know."
Few politicians in Kiev seemed to have any doubts that the results of the referendum Sunday will bring Crimea under the Kremlin's control. The question discussed in political circles continues to be whether Russia will use open military force against Ukrainian army bases outside the peninsula, in the rest of Ukraine. With the Spetsnaz deployed, it may not have to.

[mick silver]

US Navy destroyer to conduct more Black Sea drills: commanderAFP – 18 hrs ago



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Sofia (AFP) - A US Navy guided-missile destroyer will remain in the Black Sea to conduct more exercises with allied ships, its commander said on Saturday, the eve of a breakaway vote in Crimea.
The USS Truxtun this week conducted joint exercises with Romanian and Bulgarian naval forces just a few hundred kilometres (miles) away from the disputed Crimea peninsula.
"I cannot comment on our future operations but we will take the opportunity to do some routine exercises with our allies in the region," said Commander Andrew Biehn.
Speaking to reporters aboard the 300-crew ship at the Black Sea port of Varna, Biehn refused to provide details about the drills or the next port of dock of the destroyer, which will leave Varna on Sunday.
The drills were routine and had been "planned a long time before the start of the Crimean crisis." They did not include live firing, he said.
The move comes just days after the Pentagon sought to reassure anxious allies in Central and Eastern Europe over Russia's actions in Ukraine, announcing plans to send more F-15 fighter jets to patrol the skies over Baltic states and stepping up aviation training in Poland.
Pro-Russian forces have taken de facto control of the Crimean peninsula, where a controversial referendum on breaking away from Ukraine to join Russia will be held on Sunday.
The only other US naval ship deployed in the Black Sea is the USS Taylor, a frigate undergoing repairs at the Turkish port of Samsun after having run aground last month.

[mick silver]

Armed police burst into Crimean hotel on eve of referendumhttp://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/FZN6924R0WZ__x92.x6.GA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9Mjc-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/logo/reuters/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/)Reuters – 18 hrs ago



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SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Armed police burst into a hotel in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, on Saturday night on the eve of a referendum aimed at deciding whether the Ukrainian region leaves Ukraine and becomes part of Russia.
Witnesses saw around 30 men in balaclavas carrying automatic weapons inside the Hotel Moscow, a Soviet-era hotel popular with Western reporters covering Sunday's referendum.
The witnesses said the men burst in brandishing weapons and made their way to the building's fourth floor.
Crimean Defence Minister Valery Kuznetsov told reporters that police were reacting to an alert which turned out to be false.
"We received a false alarm. We came to check," he told reporters at the hotel.
"We have checked everything and it turned out to be bogus. There is an information war going on, being waged by Kiev ... So we have to check everything and be ready for any contingency."
By 9:40 p.m. (1940 GMT) the policemen had started to leave the hotel.
The incident occurred at a time when Russian state media has ratcheted up its anti-Western rhetoric, accusing the West of supporting what it says are fascist elements within Ukraine's provisional government.
Western reporters working in Crimea have complained of harassment by pro-Russian activists in recent days.
Some witnesses at the hotel said the raid appeared to be designed to intimidate journalists on the eve of the referendum.
(Reporting By Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mike Collett-White)