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wantkitteh writes:
"The BBC is reporting that Russia has given Ukrainian military forces in Crimea a deadline of 3AM Tuesday morning to surrender or face assault. Moscow claims the position is to protect Russian civilians in Crimea following what it describes as the illegal coup in the past weeks. The Ukrainian Prime Minister has denounced Russia's actions as totally illegal and has called on it's allies to put pressure on Moscow. Russian military readiness in the area is very high with a blockade in place at Ukraine's naval headquarters and pre-positioned air and ground forces already in central locations around Crimea. Ukrainian forces are outnumbered and unprepared to face the threat. Demonstrations in the largely Russian-speaking area have supported Moscow's position while outside the area civilians are scared of what the future holds."
Russia's military has given Ukrainian forces in Crimea until dawn on Tuesday to surrender or face an assault, Ukrainian defence sources have said. The head of Russia's Black Sea Fleet Aleksander Vitko set the deadline and also threatened two warships, Ukrainian officials said. However, Interfax news agency later quoted a fleet spokesman who denied that any ultimatum had been issued. Moscow has said its troops are needed in Crimea to protect civilians. The Kremlin says people in Crimea have come under threat from "ultra-nationalists" since pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted last month. Russia is now said to be in de facto control of the Crimea region.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Kromagv0 on Monday March 03 2014, @08:27PM
Well from my understanding the sequence of events is as follows, as well as some background
Background
The previous president (the one who is now in Russia wanted by the current government) was democratically elected. He was from the ethnically and linguistically Russian part of Ukraine, South and East portions.
Ukraine is broke
The western portion of Ukraine has closer ties to Europe and speaks Ukrainian not Russian.
The population in and around Kiev is part of the population that is closer to the EU than to Russia
Events
Initially there was a proposal for closer ties between the Ukraine and the EU which was rejected. This brought out mostly peaceful protesters in Kiev.
As things got worse in the Ukraine the country needs financial assistance and there were 2 proposals put forward, one by Russia for immediate cash aide and one from the EU with loans and restructuring to happen over time.
The EU offer was rejected (mid January) which riled the protesters (they had been at it for months at this point)
Shortly there after new laws were enacted to curb the protests which were still mostly non violent.
At this point the protests became violent with beating and tear gas being used.
The protesters now demanded that the existing president step down and new elections be held.
These protests are much more violent than previous ones with varying amounts of violence from day to day depending on how things appear to be going. Some officials are canned and some new elections are called for a future date.
After a few cease fires, truces, whatever and the situation in Kiev continues to deteriorate so the president flees.
A new government is formed but is mostly from the EU aligned sections.
This bring us up to about last week, and currently the former president is wanted for murder, the Russians have invaded, and there are rumors about Neo-Nazis and other white supremest groups streaming in to cause problems. Late last week there were rumors of the Russians taking control of things in Crimea where they have a base which was later confirmed. Russia operates a couple of military bases in the area so there are probably Russian civilians there but I wonder if by Russian civilians they might be including ethnic Russians as well.
This is mostly from memory so some details may be a bit off. Also keep in mind that the ethnic Russian areas, Crimea included, don't have a problem and have supported the former president and support the current Russian activities. The Russians also blame the US, EU, and NATO for interfering in an internal Ukrainian problem, which the US, EU, and NATO blame Russia for interfering.
I suggest reading up on it more since this seems like it may turn into a big deal (looking at you Archduke Franz Ferdinand) given who is on what side and various treaties, and if not at least you have expanded your knowledge of the world.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mmcmonster on Monday March 03 2014, @09:28PM
One more tidbit of background.
Of the former Soviet states, the ones that converted to a capitalistic and more European style of governance have done better (ie: Poland) while those who have stayed more socialist aren't doing quite as well.
My heart goes out to the people of the region. I know a few of them, and they're good people who are getting the shaft by their former president and future overlord.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @10:02PM
Wether Janukovytj was democratically elected is highly questionable and one of the reasons for the demonstrations took place in the first place was that the people felt that election results were being tampered with and that he would simply remain in power no matter how people voted.
Also worth noting is that he seems to be little more then a crimelord lining his own pockets with money that isn't his.
His enforcers the ("police") Berkut was pretty much running around doing whatever they pleased, the latest example of their antics would be shooting demonstrators. They have been disbanded by the new government. Interestingly Berkut officers have since been promised russian citizenship by Putin who also seems to distribute passports to people in crimea supposedly to be able to claim that he is protecting his own citizens.
Also the russian motorcycle gang Night Wolves have gathered together a bunch of people and headed to crimea. The leader of this gang is a personal friend of Putin.
All in all it sounds more like a script for a crappy action movie then reality, but sadly it isn't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:05AM
Yanukovych was in fact democratically elected and in a familiar, American way:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesi nger/2014/02/21/ukraines-long-history-with-us-poli tical-consultants-and-lobbyists [usnews.com]7 48703630404575053082580601328 [wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_J._Manafort [wikipedia.org]
http://www.dmlmessage.com/about/team/tad-devine/ [dmlmessage.com]