Build up to WW3 as RUSSIA and AMERICA CLASH over UKRAINE

Lead up to WW3 as RUSSIA and AMERICA CLASH over UKRAINE





Ukraine's Defence Minister says Moscow has sent 6,000 troops into the country, as it was confirmed Russian soldiers are on the streets in the southeastern region of Crimea.

The country's military are on high alert and border guard vessels are being deployed amid the deepening crisis, with reports Russian forces are trying to seize control of an anti-aircraft missile base.

The pro-Moscow Prime Minister of Crimea Sergei Aksenov, who appealed to Russia for help in keeping the peace there, has confirmed service personnel from the Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, were guarding key buildings.

And in an apparent orchestrated move, a referendum on whether residents in Crimea want greater independence from Ukraine has been brought forward by two months to March 30.

Everyone is curious who those unmarked men in unforms that have been seen in youtube clips from the Crimea are. Courtesy of Russian blogger Lev Shlosberg who writes for the newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya, we now have an answer: according to him they are the officers of the 76th Chernihov (Pskov) Storm Troops Division and have slowly dispersed across key choke points in Ukraine.

From his post, translated by Interpretermag.com According to one of the participants in the operation, officers and contractors of the 76th Shock Troops Division have been re-locating to Ukrainian territory since last week. By early this week, there were already more than 100 soldiers. The last of the famous detachments was sent on Thursday, 27 February. They are fully armed, with 5,000 rounds of ammunition per person. There is one truck per 10 soldiers, and they are completely loaded with weapons including flame-throwers. Upon arrival on the territory of Ukraine, they did not report their geographical locations to people, and they were assigned local tasks. Most likely, this was Sevastopol and Simferopol. Emergency troops remain in Yysk, and did not take part in the operation. The barracks of the 76th Storm Troops Division on Margelova Street in Pskov is practically empty.

Ukraine's prime minister said on Saturday his country would not be drawn into a military conflict by Russian "provocations" in the Crimea region and appealed to Moscow to halt military movements there.

"It is unacceptable when armored Russian military vehicles are out in the center of Ukrainian towns," Arseny Yatseniuk said before a government meeting in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Russia, which has a naval base in Crimea, says any movements by its military in Crimea are in line with agreements with Ukraine.

Russian lawmakers are proposing two bills that would simplify both the annexation of new territories into the Russian Federation and the process of granting Russian citizenship to Ukrainians, signaling that Moscow may attempt to absorb Crimea, Ukraine's peninsula which has very strong ties to Russia.

A Russian warship was docked in Havana Wednesday, without explanation from Communist Cuba or its state media.

The Viktor Leonov CCB-175 boat, measuring 91.5 meters (300 feet) long and 14.5 meters wide, was docked at the port of Havana's cruise ship area, near the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

The Vishnya, or Meridian-class intelligence ship, which has a crew of around 200, went into service in the Black Sea in 1988 before it was transferred seven years later to the northern fleet, Russian media sources said.

The bills were introduced in the Russian parliament today as Moscow confirmed previous reports that Russian troops and armored vehicles were already in Crimea, the population of which is nearly 60% ethnic Russian and is very pro-Russia as a whole.

The lawmakers said that the annexation bill stems from Russia's 1997 agreement with Ukraine to take necessary steps to prevent violence against citizens due to national, ethnic or religious affiliations.

In regards to the confirmed Russian troops in Crimea, the Russian foreign ministry said that they were there to "protect the Black Sea Fleet's positions."