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Pro-Russian forces capture another Ukrainian vessel

23 March 2014 04:44 (UTC +04:00)

On Saturday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced that pro-Russian forces had seized the blockaded vessel Slavutich in Sevastopol, a city in southwest Crimea.

The development came on the same day as pro-Russian forces stormed a Ukrainian air force base in Crimea. Gunfire and explosions could be heard at the Belbek air base, just outside Sevastopol, as armored personnel carriers broke down the gate after an ultimatum given to the Ukrainian troops by Russians outside came to an end.

The Russian military surrounded the airbase and issued an ultimatum to forces inside to surrender their weapons and abandon the base, where Ukrainians had been refusing to allow them entry.

According to the commander of Belbek airbase, Yuliy Mamchur, one Ukrainian was injured in the takeover of the base, which had been one of the last military facilities in Crimea still under Ukrainian control.

On March 20, pro-Russian gunmen opened fire as the Ukrainian corvette, Khmelnitsky, was seized in Sevastopol. Another ship, the Lutsk, was later surrounded by a group of pro-Russian militiamen. Unknown armed men also stormed the Ternopil corvette, forcing Ukrainian servicemen to disembark the ship.

On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law the documents officially making Crimea part of the Russian territory. Putin also signed legislation creating two new Russian administrative districts -- Crimea and the port city of Sevastopol.

Earlier, Russia’s upper and lower houses of parliament had overwhelmingly put their stamp at the annexation of the Ukrainian breakaway region of Crimea into the Russian Federation.

Crimea declared independence from Ukraine on March 17 and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum a day earlier, in which 96.8 percent of Crimean residents voted in favor of the secession. The voter turnout in the referendum stood at 83.1 percent.