HUFFINGTON POST: SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) – Dozens of heavily armed gunmen seized control of local government buildings in Ukraine’s Crimea region early Thursday and raised the Russian flag, mirroring the three-month protest movement that drove Ukraine’s pro-Russian president into hiding last week.
The moves escalated tensions in Ukraine, whose population is divided in loyalties between Russia and the West. Some 150,000 Russian soldiers carried out military exercises and fighter jets patrolled the border, as a respected Russian newspaper reported that Moscow is sheltering fugitive Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
In a statement published by three Russian news agencies, the fugitive president said he is asking Russia’s protection from “extremists” and that he still considers himself to be Ukraine’s legitimate leader. An unnamed Russian official said that his request was “satisfied in the territory of Russia,” the Russian agencies said.
Oleksandr Turchynov, who stepped in as acting president after Yanukovych’s flight, warned that any move by Russian troops off of their base in Crimea “will be considered a military aggression.” … (more)
