Russia ‘takes over’ 189 military sites in Crimea

Russia said its flag is now flying over 189 Ukrainian military installations in the

Crimea, the defence ministry said this morning, two days after president Vladimir Putin signed laws completing Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.

“The flag of the Russian Federation has been raised at 189 military units and institutions of the Ukrainian armed forces stationed on the territory of the Republic of Crimea,” the ministry said in a statement, cited by news agency RIA.

 Moscow’s ambassador to the EU has welcomed what he called the “reunification” of Crimea with Russia but denied that the move was premeditated.

Vladimir Chizhov told the BBC the move was the end of an “abnormality” which had lasted for 60 years.

Russia formally annexed the Ukrainian region on Friday after a referendum.

Yesterday Russian troops and pro-Russian protesters stormed two Ukrainian military airbases in Crimea, bringing them under Russian control.

Mr Chizhov said Ukrainian troops in Crimea had to decide whether to resign, join the Russian army or leave the territory in uniform.

He warned the US against sending troops or military aid to Ukraine, saying it would be a “grave mistake”.

Mr Chizhov said that while Russia did not recognise the new government in Kiev, he expected them to safeguard the rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine.

“We want to see the interests of people living in eastern Ukraine - ethnic Russians, Russian speakers, all the population of eastern Ukraine - to be taken into account by whoever is the authority in Kiev today” he said.

He added that Russia did not have any intention to send troops into other parts of Ukraine or Europe.

Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko today criticised Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea as setting a “bad precedent”, but said that the territory was now “de facto” a part of Russia.

Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Mr Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia, said that Ukraine, which shares a long land border with Belarus, should remain “a single, indivisible, integral, non-bloc state.”

Crimea is not dangerous in the sense that it has become part of Russia but in so much as a bad precedent has been created,” he said.

But he said the territory was now “de facto” part of the Russian Federation.

“You can recognise it, or not recognise it. It doesn’t change anything,” he said.

Yesterday Russian troops used armoured vehicles, automatic gunfire and stun grenades to seize a Ukrainian airbase in Crimea.

Ukrainian forces also abandoned a naval base after attacks by pro-Russian protesters, and had to surrender two flagship vessels to Russian forces.

The facilities at Belbek and Novofedorovka had been among the last still under Ukrainian control after Moscow’s armed takeover and subsequent annexation of.