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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: 2, Informative) by darinbob on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:48AM
I find it ironic that Russia is accusing new Ukraine leaders as "fascist", given the very strong parallels to the Sudetenland. Ie, any Russians anywhere are considered worth invading to protect (there were reports of people handing out Russian passports last week).
"Fascist" and "Nazi sympathizers" are Russia's go-to terms for former USSR members that prefer to look west. Also added this week was "anti-Semite". Over the top rhetoric, but common. One the one hand, there were some Nazi sympathizers, 75 years ago, but this makes sense given that Stalin was greatly feared and countries stuck between the two dictatorships were more apt to be friendly to whichever indomitable army crossed the borders first. On the other hand, Russia does have a very touchy and sensitive spot about this; one of their biggest points of pride is that they helped win WWII at great cost to themselves and so they see their subjugated neighbors as ingrates if they don't prefer to remain subjugated.
On the third hand, this may be an ongoing problem for some time. The USSR, and Russia before that, had a policy of Russification, or sending in Russians to live in the neighboring regions, promoting the use of Russian language and churches, and so forth.
As for the old president and the bills. Reports are that $billions are missing during Yanukovich's rule, and maybe $70 billion taken out of the country. This makes the $13 billion loan from Putin seem tiny. Certainly you can't trust all these numbers any more than you can trust the lies coming from the other side. But it's highly likely that Yanukovich was a thief, highly likely that Putin knows this and approves. Maybe the new Ukrainian government is corrupt but that still needs to be proven unlike the near certainty about Yanukovich.
Ukraine is essentially two countries, and neither side likes each other. Crimea used to be a third region (neither Ukrainian nor Russian, but Stalin put an end to that).