In addition, according to Tsarev Lviv began landing of American soldiers. “In March, must undergo exercises with NATO. Contingent of troops on the documents is limited – must arrive before 1000. They already fly on airplanes. Served all that you need time to prepare for the exercise. ” It is known that in the Black Sea water entered amerikaknskih two warships – missile destroyer USS Ramage (DDG-61) and the flagship of the U.S. Sixth Fleet Mount Whitney. Aboard American ships are more than 600 U.S. “sea lions.” Motion vector of American ships suggests that they go to the Black Sea shores of Ukraine. “All this makes the situation in the country is extremely tense,” – noted Oleg Tsarev.” SOURCE

Part of this information an be verified by DEBKAfile:

“Along with US warnings to Moscow, a high alert was secretly declared Saturday by the US Mediterranean Sixth Fleet. Two US warships which had been deployed in the Black Sea to back up Russian security for the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi – the USS Taylor Frigate and the USS Mount Whitney Blue Ridge-class command ship – have moved over to the western side of the Black Sea opposite Crimea and facing the Russian navy base of Sevastopol.”

As for the reports of NATO putting troops on the ground in Western Ukraine I cannot verify this yet. And this is the only and original source of that information as far as I can tell. So when I know more, you will know more on that as well.

According to the newly released report below from the Ukrainian National News, the entire Navy of the Ukraine has resigned to support their Russian counterparts. As of this moment, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry knows nothing of this report. With hostilities quickly getting out of hand in the Ukraine, will this be the flashpoint for World War 3?

They are keeping everyone distracted while disaster is about to strike.. Russia just said they are at full

readiness for war—Against who?

Unmarked soldiers have seized both Sevastopol and Simferopol airports, and have established roadblocks at key locations in the Crimea. The deposed president, Viktor Yanukovych, who still maintains he is the legitimate head of state, is due to give a press conference shortly in Rostov-on-Don in Russia. While Russia continues to vow that it will respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine, it appears ever more likely that a Russian intervention in Crimea is already under way.

 

Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see see our latest podcast.

Below, we will be making regular updates throughout the day:

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0451 GMT:
The Night Wolves, the pro-Kremlin bikers’ gang already making its presence felt around Crimea helping with the armed Russian takeover, is planning a motorcycle rally tomorrow 1 March, Ekho Moskvy reports.

Photo by Andrei Kanishchev. Aleksandr Zaldostanov, centerAs reported earlier, Night Wolves leader Aleksandr Zaldostanov, known as “Surgeon,” has arrived in Simferopol and is asking local residents “what they need.” He said his club plans to “deliver humanitarian aid,” and told RIA Novosti that medicine and other goods will be “brought to Sevastopol from Stalingrad.” (Yes, that’s what he called the city which is usually named “Volgograd” in modern Russia). Zaldostanov also said his club would bring ATVs, which would be helpful to Ukrainians “to maintain connections between checkpoints.” The Night Wolves are notorious for their close ties to the Kremlin; last year President Vladimir Putin awarded Zaldostanov the prestigious Order of Honour for his “active work in patriotic upbringing of the young” and for helping search for the remains of missing World War II soldiers, RBTH reported.

Ekho Moskvy said the situation was tense in Crimea as “the region does not recognize the change in government in Ukraine.” That doesn’t do justice to the conflicting reports of Crimean Tatars in Crimea who mainly support the EuroMaidan protest movement and others not oriented toward Moscow. Ekho Moskvy, which has recently come under pressure from the Kremlin with a new general manager, said that a delegation of all the Russian State Duma’s factions is now in Crimea. Sergei Zheleznyak, United Russia vice speaker, said the Russian MPs would “conduct a dialogue only with the lawfully-elected authorities.”

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0308 GMT:The Night Wolves, a motorcycle gang with ties to the Kremlin, are on the move in Simferopol, reports local photo journalist Andrei Kamishchev.

Photo by Andrei KamishchevHe has spotted them around town today with their distinctive patches, chains and bling. In this photo, a biker nicknamed “Surgeon” (Aleksandr Zaldostanov) gives an interview to Russian reporters who seemed to have popped up for the occasion. The Guardian reported today that the Night Wolves were used to blockade roads in Sevastopol during the attack on the airport. Check out Kamishchev’s Facebook page for more photos.

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Photos by Andrei Kamishchev, Simferopol

0242 GMT: Intrepid Simferopol photojournalist Andrei Kanishchev, who works at Trans-M Radio, has been covering the street scene in his town since armed masked men took over government buildings and the airport in recent days. “I don’t know if I can get out to walk tomorrow…General impressions — everyone is sort of crushed, in anticipation, the city has emptied out toward evening, and not only in the cordoned-off zone,” he wrote this evening.

Kanishchev has published photos of empty streets today on his Facebook page, but also some of a few people getting out to buy groceries. The streets are blocked off and cops are checking vehicles. With temperatures near zero Celsius, local police are freezing, and while local people have offered them food, they are eating their own rations and drinking tea from army thermoses.

In the first photo above, a man stands at an improvised desk downtown with a laptop and a sound system reading the latest news out to townspeople. Men wearing the orange-and-black St. George ribbons adopted by Russian nationalists ring the crowd. State TV stations were seized earlier today. In the second photo, people listen to speeches at a rally.

“When there’s no news, they sing songs,” says Kanishchev. As he stood there listening, an announcement was made that the Russian special forces had blocked Ukrainian border guards in Balaklava, and there were shouts of approval and applause. When the announcement was made of Yanukovych’s press conference in Rostov-na-Donu, there was a few claps.

There have been some protest rallies, and Kanishchev shows pictures of the local pro-Moscow Russian Movement of Crimea. Those who read poetry in Russian and appreciate literary references will find Kanishchev has a number of lyrics for the occasion. Looking at the tense faces in the crowd and a man with a Russian Bloc armband, he comments, “There is something in these portraits from Bosch and a bit of Bruegel the Elder, at least, I saw the beret with flaps in their pictures.”

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0200 GMT: Censor.net has published unconfirmed reports of an alleged attempt by Russian forces to provoke Ukrainian troops into firing.The reports come from the Facebook page of Dmitry Tymchuk, director of the Kiev-based Center for Military Political Research. The Interpreter provides a translation:

This is an invasion! Russian paratroopers with torn-off chevrons are seizing military bases. Russian IL-76s are landing at airfields. Now there is a storming of the 36th Brigade [of Ukrainian Navy Coastal Defense]. Ukrainian troops are completely demoralized — there is no resistance. There is information from many local sources. This is war. Or to be more precise — takeover.

It has just been reported that the 36th Brigade has kept its distance. The personnel are trying to defend themselves.

At 21:40 the storm seemed not to have succeeded (or was postponed). It is possible that there was a provocation in order to force Ukrainians to open fire. The question of the fleeing command of the brigade remains open.

At 22:00 from two sources: The provocation against the brigade was neutralized. The command is evidently in place and is in control of the situation. We will hope that these little Russian soldiers won’t continue their experiments. God willing!

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0242 GMT: Here’s some footage Russian state television channels didn’t show today from Yanukovych’s press conference (covered below): the deposed Ukrainian president snapping a pencil in rage.

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0140 GMT: Censor.NET is reporting a statement from a regional majlis that the Kirvoske military airbase in Crimea has been captured:

The head of the Kirovske regional majlis, Ekrem Abdulvapov, said the following over the telephone: Kirovske military airfield has been captured. 16 military trucks jam-packed with soldiers entered the grounds of the airfield. The trucks were travelling with an escort of 2 or 3 hummers.

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0036 GMT: Russia is against imposing a mediation mission on Crimea to settle the situation on the peninsula, ITAR-TASS reports. Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin spoke after a meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine today.

“We must ask the government of Crimea what they think on that score. We are against the imposition of mediation,” he said. Churkin added that the idea “must be discussed and analyzed.”

US Ambassador Samantha Power suggested that Robert Serry, a special envoy of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, should head a mediation mission to Crimea.

But as Inner-City Press notes, the proposal to have Serry go to the Crimea may have resonated poorly with Churkin. That was because of the leaked telephone conversation between Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, and Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, published 6 February.

In the conversation, Nuland suggested that through UN Undersecretary for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, a former senior State Department official, Serry, the former Dutch ambassador to Kiev should be brought in to help defuse the crisis in Ukraine.

During the UNSC meeting today, Amb. Raimonda Murmokaité of Lithuania, the current monthly rotating chair noted, “Support was expressed for the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.”

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0015 GMT: CNN is showing images of it describes as “Russian tanks in Ukraine”. The images, reportedly from Sevastopol, show four self propelled guns, identified by John Schindler of XX Committee as 2S1 122mm variants. The deployment of self propelled artillery as opposed to APCss or even tanks, suggests a much more offensive role. While tanks can hold territory defensively, SPGs are uselful only for bombardment.

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2327 GMT: The airport in Simferopol has stopped taking flights, Lenta.ru reported at 22:56 Moscow time tonight.The air space over Simferopol is closed, says ITAR-TASS. RIA Novosti reported that it is closed at least until 18:30 on 1 March. A dispatcher told the news agency that the ban on flights may be extended.

Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that air space is closed over all of Crimea.

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2134 GMT: Independent media going off the air?

Ayder Muzhdabayev, deputy editor of Moskovsky Komsomolets, reported on Facebook 2 hours ago:

Urgent from Crimea

Armed divisions have seized the state television station (GTRK) of Crimea. All the staff have gathered together at the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR, hundreds of others have come. They are waiting for the seizure. Several APCs have arrived. For now, they’ve passed by. They are also expected seizure of the building of the Crimean Tatar’s Medjlis [Assembly]. People are already going there. Everyone is afraid of what will happen tonight. There it is.

Friends, colleagues, take care of yourself! Don’t resist the military. God save Crimea!

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2134 GMT: Russian blogger Lev Shlosberg who writes for the newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya has written this report today at 4:42 pm (translated by The Interpreter) that says that Russian “Officers and Contractors of the 76th Chernihov (Pskov) Storm Troops Division” are now in Ukraine:

According to one of the participants in the operation, officers and contractors of the 76th Shock Troops Division have been re-locating to Ukrainian territory since last week. By early this week, there were already more than 100 soldiers. The last of the famous detachments was sent on Thursday, 27 February. They are fully armed, with 5,000 rounds of ammunition per person. There is one truck per 10 soldiers, and they are completely loaded with weapons including flame-throwers. Upon arrival on the territory of Ukraine, they did not report their geographical locations to people, and they were assigned local tasks. Most likely, this was Sevastopol and Simferopol. Emergency troops remain in Yysk, and did not take part in the operation. The barracks of the 76th Storm Troops Division on Margelova Street in Pskov is practically empty.

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2128 GMT: Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a Russian politician who is the founder of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and is also a colonel in the Russian army, says he is stuck in Crimea, and he’s blaming Kiev:

 

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2123 GMT: UNN has this report (translated by The Interpreter).

Crimean Parliament Creates Berkut Division of Ex-Berkut Soldiers The Verkhovna Rada or parliament of Crimea has created a Berkut special division to protect public order which will be subordinate exclusively to the republican [Crimean] government, says Rustam Temirgaliev, first vice premier of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, unn.com.ua reported, citing Temirgaliev’s Facebook page. “I met with the soldiers from Berkut late last night and agreed to create a Crimean Berkut special division to protect public order which will be subordinate exclusively to the Republican government,” he said. Verkhovna Rada deputies have already passed the relevant decision.

 

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2113 GMT: UNN reports that the entire command of the Ukrainian navy has resigned. This may be a rumor, however, since the UNN report also notes that the Ministry of Defense has no mention of this on their website, and their press service has not reported it.

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2106 GMT: Voice of America’s Myroslava Gongadze reports on the UN Security Council Meeting:

Ukrainian ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev : What do you want from this meeting? “Support. Moral, political support of world community because what is going on is awful. The military presence in Crimea, which is enlarging, this is something which should attract the attention of the world community because it is the challenge to the security & peace in the region, and challenging the territorial integrity.” British Ambo Mark Lyall Grant: “This is a private meeting of SC followed by consultations at request of Lithuanian delegation, in their national capacity, following a letter from the permanent rep of Ukraine. We think it is an [important] opportunity to set out our concerns about developments, particularly in the Crimea, also to call on all parties to deescalate the situation, reduce the tension and to underline… we hope that all member states attach to the unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

 

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2100 GMT: This week, Ukraine’s parliament voted to strike down a law that established Russia as Ukraine’s second language. Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has struck down the repeal of the law:

 

 

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2038 GMT: Kyiv Post has this picture of a checkpoint manned by ununiformed men near the city of Armyansk, on February 28, 2014.

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2028 GMT: Here’s the details on this reported Russian invasion force, via the BBC:

 

Russian aircraft carrying nearly 2,000 suspected troops have landed at a military air base near [Simferopol], senior Ukrainian official Sergiy Kunitsyn is reported by the AFP to have told Crimea’s ATR television channel. Mr Kunitsyn says 13 Russian planes have landed with 150 people in each one.