BBC Online :
Ukraine has accused Russia of carrying out an armed invasion by sending naval forces to occupy Sevastopol airport in the Crimea region.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet denies its servicemen are blocking the airport.
Another Crimean airport, Simferopol, has also been occupied by armed men, thought to be pro-Russia militia.
Relations between the two countries have been strained since Viktor Yanukovych was ousted as Ukrainian president last week.
Sevastopol is by name an international airport, but civilian flights stopped some years ago, and it is owned by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.
So it would be of no real consequence that soldiers are guarding a military base were it not for the fact no-one knows whose orders they are obeying.
There are roadblocks springing up from here to the administrative capital Simferopol.
The local parliament is in session there, but is sharing the municipal building with a paramilitary unit,
and Simferopol airport is also under protection.
The interim interior minister, however, is quite clear on his Facebook page who he thinks these units are.
They are answering to the Russian Federation he said – and this, he adds, is a military takeover.
Yanukovych is now in Russia and expected to hold a news conference later in the city of Rostov-on-Don, near the Ukrainian border.
He disappeared after leaving office but resurfaced in Russia on Thursday, asserting that he is still Ukraine’s lawful president.
Ukraine’s general prosecutor has said he will ask Russia to extradite Yanukovych, if it is confirmed that he is still there.
These tensions between Russia and Ukraine in the wake of Yanukovych’s departure have been particularly evident in Crimea, Ukraine’s only Russian-majority region.
The BBC’s Bridget Kendall, in Moscow, says the Crimea is becoming the lynchpin of a struggle between Ukraine’s new leaders and those loyal to Russia.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said Russian soldiers had arrived in Sevastopol military airport near Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Base on Friday morning.
The men were patrolling outside, backed up by armoured vehicles, but Ukrainian military and border guards remained inside, Avakov said.
