UKRAINE REVOLUTION_ Ukraine unrest: Armed pro-Russian men seize control of government buildings in Crimea

Ukraine unrest: Armed pro-Russian men seize control of government buildings in Crimea

Updated 7 hours 1 minute ago
ABC NEWS

Pro-Russian armed men seized control of parliament and government buildings in the Ukrainian region of Crimea on Thursday and hoisted Russian flags, officials said.


Up to 50 men with weapons marched into the buildings in the regional capital of Simferopol in a dawn raid and blocked government workers from entering, Crimean prime minister Anatoliy Mohilyov said.

Two people are thought to have been killed.

The moves came amid concerns of growing separatism on the overwhelmingly pro-Russian peninsula on the Black Sea after the ousting of Ukraine's pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych.

Mr Yanukovych is thought to be in Russia, where he has been granted protection by the Russian government.

Many in Crimea, which is overwhelmingly Russian rather than Ukrainian speaking, strongly oppose the takeover of Ukraine by pro-EU and anti-Kremlin forces.

"We were building barricades in the night to protect parliament. Then this young Russian guy came up with a pistol... we all lay down, some more ran up, there was some shooting and around 50 went in through the window," Leonid Khazanov, an ethnic Russian, said.

"They're still there... Then the police came, they seemed scared. I asked [the armed men] what they wanted and they said: 'To make our own decisions, not to have Kiev telling us what to do'."

Local authorities were preparing to "take measures", Mr Mohilyov said without elaborating.

Ukraine's interim interior minister Arsen Avakov said security forces were being mobilised.

"Interior troops and the entire police force have been put on alert," Mr Avakov said in a statement on Facebook, adding that the area had been cordoned off "to prevent bloodshed".

In a statement, the regional government asked employees "not to come to work today".

An AFP journalist at the scene said police were pushing people back from around occupied administrative buildings.

Dozens of men in full combat dress but without any markings of affiliation marched into the government and parliament and removed the guards without any fight, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted sources in parliament as saying.

It said they gained entrance to the building complex by firing on the glass doors but that no-one was hurt.

The head of the local assembly for Crimea's Muslim Tatar minority - which is fearful of any pro-Russian separatist moves - confirmed that the buildings had been seized.

"I was told that the buildings of the Crimean Verkhovna Rada [parliament] and the Crimean Council of Ministers [government] are occupied by armed men in uniform without identification signs," Refat Chubarov wrote on Facebook.

"They have not put forward any demands yet."

Russia accepts Yanukovych request for protection

Russia has vowed to abide by its agreements with Ukraine and not move its troops outside of a Russian navy base in the regional Crimean capital.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen is warning Moscow not to take any steps that could further destabilise the situation

"I'm extremely concerned about the most recent developments in Crimea," he said.

"This morning's actions by an armed group is dangerous and irresponsible.

"I urge Russia not to take any action that can escalate tension or create misunderstanding."

The Russian government says Moscow has accepted a request from the deposed Mr Yanukovych for protection.

With Mr Yanukovych heavily criticised by many of his own supporters in Ukraine and many politicians in Russia too, it had seemed unlikely that Russia would offer him support.

Russian state television read out a statement on his behalf in which he declared he was still Ukraine's lawful president.

He also denounced the actions of the new government and parliament in Kiev as illegitimate and warned they would not be accepted by many in south-eastern and southern regions of Ukraine and in Crimea.

Ukraine's parliament in Kiev has voted to approve the formation of an interim government, headed by former opposition leader Arseniy Yatseniuk.

The United States says any Russian military action would be a grave mistake, calling on nations to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and avoid provocative actions.

But Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that Moscow would defend the rights of its compatriots and react without compromise to any violation of those rights.

It expressed concern about "large-scale human rights violations", attacks and vandalism in the former Soviet republic.

Mr Yanukovych was toppled after three months of unrest led by protesters in Kiev.

He is now on the run being sought by the new authorities for murder in connection with the deaths of around 100 people during the conflict.

AFP/Reuters



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