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Pro-Russian crowds seize warships

Published:Friday | March 21, 2014 | 12:00 AM
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A Russian naval vessel bottles up Ukrainian ship Slavutich, left, at her mooring in Sevastopol, Crimea, yesterday. With thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and sailors trapped on military bases, surrounded by heavily armed Russian forces and pro-Russia militia, the Kiev government said it was drawing up plans to evacuate its outnumbered troops from Crimea back to the mainland, and would seek UN support to turn the peninsula into a demilitarised zone. - ap photos
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gestures during a statement at the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, yesterday.
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 KIEV, Ukraine (AP):

Pro-Russian crowds seized two Ukrainian warships yesterday and Ukraine said its troops were being threatened in Crimea as the European Union (EU) considered new sanctions against Russia for its annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.

Tensions in the region remained high despite the release of a Ukrainian naval commander held by pro-Russian forces.

Shots were fired but there were no casualties as the Ukrainian corvette Khmelnitsky was seized in Sevastopol, according to an AP photographer at the scene. Another ship, the Lutsk, was also surrounded by pro-Russian forces.

The Defence Ministry had no immediate information on the incidents.

threat

Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister, Leonid Polyakov, accused Russian troops of constantly threatening to storm military bases where Ukrainian soldiers were located, according to the Interfax news agency.

In Geneva, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations warned of a sharp deterioration in relations between the two neighbours, saying that Russia appears to be preparing for a military "invasion" in more areas of his country.

Ambassador Yuri Klymenko said there were "indications that Russia is on its way to unleash a full-blown military invention in Ukraine's east and south" since its annexation of Crimea. He said his statement was based on information from non-governmental organisations.

In an address to the German parliament in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU was readying further sanctions and that the G-8 forum of leading economies had been suspended indefinitely. Russia holds the presidency of the G-8 and President Vladimir Putin was due to host his counterparts, including President Barack Obama, at a G-8 summit in Sochi in June.

"So long as there aren't the political circumstances, like now, for an important format like the G-8, then there is no G-8," Merkel said. "Neither the summit, nor the format."

Russian forces effectively took control of Crimea some two weeks ago in the wake of the ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych, after months of protests and sporadic violence. The crisis erupted late last year after Yanukovych backed out of an association deal with the EU in favour of a promised $15-billion bailout from Russia. That angered Ukrainians from the country's pro-European central and western regions.