Posted on 03/02/2014 7:59:00 AM PST by kronos77
Ukrainian armed forces dispatched to Crimea have switched to the side of local authorities and are expected to take military oath soon, Russian news agencies report.
Facts you need to know about Crimea and why it is in turmoil
“Today the majority of the Ukrainian armed forces deployed in Crimea passed to the side of the authorities of the Crimean autonomous region. The transition was absolutely peaceful, without a single shot fired either by the military or by the forces of self-defense,” an unnamed source told RIA Novosti news agency.
The source added that some of the servicemen also ran away, while some submitted letters of resignation.
The local military have not been paid for many months, the source also told RIA Novosti.
Earlier, Ukrainian troops in Crimea were said to be resigning on a massive scale. Living quarters, weapons and ammunition have all been left under the protection of the so-called ‘self-defense forces.’
Letters of resignation have been coming in since early morning, as the self-defense forces continue to preserve order on the streets of Simferopol, RIA Novosti said citing own reporters on the ground.
Since Thursday, the city’s Supreme Council and a number of other buildings have been occupied and guarded by the self-defense forces run by the local population.
Crimea’s deputy prime minister, Rustam Temirgaliev, announced that the Ukrainian armed forces have all but surrendered their military capabilities and that no active units remain in the Crimea.
"The entire Ukrainian armed forces stationed on the Crimean territory have been blocked," Interfax reported him as saying. "The self-defense forces have taken control of the landing strips of all the Crimean airports and airfields."
The deputy PM said that that the region’s security services and emergency services now report to the local government.
Crimeans began protesting after the new self-imposed government in Kiev introduced a law abolishing the use of other languages for official documents in Ukraine. More than half the Crimean population are Russian and use only this language for their communication. The residents have announced they are going to hold a referendum on March 30 to determine the fate of the Ukrainian autonomous region.
All these Mexicans will be just as loyal to the US as these Ukrainians are...
You mean Putin’s side. Nice to know.
Question all sources, and somewhere between them all lies the truth.
I would say the Russians do have a case for Crimea...but these issues should have been settled way back in 1994. The Budapest Agreement was ridiculous. There’s NO way Russia would ever give up claims on The Crimea.
I agree. I worked with the Ukrainian Army in Iraq. All that I met, hated the Russians.
I am sure that a referendum will be held at some point and these people WILL want Russian rule. They do not want Ukrainian rule in this Eastern province. Do you see this?
I am surprised that Putin only wants Crimea. There is much larger geographical area that wants Russian rule.
Well said.
“Get over it. The Soviet Union ceased to exist 23 years ago, one whole generation.”
Many of us predicted the dissolution of the Soviet Union would be used by many of the former Soviet leaders as an opportunity to recover, reorganize, refund, and then restore a new totalitarian regime Putin is a former KGB officer, and he is restoring a totalitarian government in Russia and seeking to reassemble the Soviet empire.
RT is a government owned and operated false propaganda organization that is adroit in the usage of the most effective forms of false propaganda, truths when convenient and half truths and falsehoods when necessary.
Sounds like you’re describing our media.
“Sounds like you’re describing our media.”
Yes, it is descriptive of much of the MSM (MainStream Media) which has long ago been coopted by the socialists-communists, but not some of the independent media. Remember too, journalism arose from partisan publishers, in a day and age where a publication was brought into existence for the express purpose of espousing a political cause. The socialists-communists dominating the schools of journalism have propagated the false belief that the news media is not journalism until and unless the news publication or news broadcaster exercises self-censorship to present what its own leadership chooses to brand as “fair and balanced” coverage of the news. Implicit in such an approach to journalism is the idea that only the publisher and the editors are qualified to determine which news coverage policies are to be “fair and balanced” and which are too partisan to escape censorship and must not be brought into public view and debate.
Even Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wryly noted the partisanship of the press and the brutalities it waged upon the Truth.
Ukraine may go the way of Serbia if NATO gets involved.
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