AP, Ukraine :
Dozens of heavily armed pro-Russia gunmen seized control of local government buildings in Ukraine’s Crimea region early Thursday, escalating tensions in a peninsula that’s become a flashpoint in the east-west divide that threatens to rip apart a country engulfed in political and economic turmoil.
Ukraine put its domestic security forces on high alert and urged Russian forces not to leave their base in southern Crimea. Failing to do so “will be considered a military aggression,” Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said in the national parliament in Kiev.
The identity of the gunmen wasn’t immediately clear and they had not put forth any demands Thursday morning, but witnesses said they were pro-Russian, wore unmarked camouflage uniforms, and carried rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles and other weapons. They raised the Russian flag over the local parliament building in Simferopol, the regional capital.
The renewed tension in this strategic peninsula that houses Russia’s Black Sea fleet came as lawmakers in Kiev were expected to approve the new government that will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability in a country that is not only deeply divided politically but on the verge of financial collapse.
After President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision in November to reject an agreement that would strengthen ties with the EU and instead seek closer cooperation with Moscow protesters launched months-long protests that eventually forced him to flee last week after more than 80 people were killed in clashes between police and protesters. He has not been seen publicly since Saturday
A respected Russian news organization, meanwhile, said that Ynaukovych is staying in a Kremlin sanatorium just outside Moscow.
While the West has recognized the new Ukrainian government, whose forces drove Yanukovych from the capital, Russia still considers him the legitimate president.
Meanwhile, Russian news agencies quoted the Defense Ministry saying that as part of the military exercises in central and western Russia, fighter jets were put on combat alert. “Fighter jets are patrolling the air space in the border areas,” the news agencies said quoting the military.
The ministry said 150,000 troops and 90 jets are involved in the maneuvers.
Russia has questioned the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian authorities after Yanukovych fled the capital last week, and it has accused them of failing to control radicals who threaten the Russia-speaking population in Ukraine’s east and south, which includes the Crimean Peninsula.
