Armed Men Occupy Two Airports in Ukraine's Crimea

Updated Feb. 28, 2014 9:42 a.m. ET

Armed men wearing camouflage but bearing no identifying insignia were occupying the perimeter of Simferopol Airport in the pro-Russia region of Crimea, Ukraine. Photo: Getty Images

Armed men occupied two key airports in Ukraine’s restive pro-Russia region of Crimea on Friday, a move that Ukraine’s interior minister called an “armed invasion” by Russia.
Meanwhile, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose ouster a week ago set off the chain of events that has led to the instability in Crimea, said in a news conference in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don that he thought Ukraine must remain united and that military action there was “unacceptable.”
“I believe any military actions in this situation are unacceptable. Any. I am not going to ask for military support,” he said.
Stirring already heightened tension between the country and its powerful neighbor, soldiers wearing camouflage and bearing automatic weapons took up positions at Belbek Airport in Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and at the airport in Simferopol, the region’s capital, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said.
Russia’s fleet denied soldiers from its base were involved in blocking the Sevastopol airport and the spokesman for the country’s Defense Ministry couldn’t immediately be reached. Mr. Avakov said the soldiers’ uniforms bore no identifying marks “but they don’t hide their affiliation with the Russian armed forces.”
Later, Ukraine’s National Security Council chief, Andriy Paruby, said the events in Crimea wasn’t the work of Crimeans themselves.
“This is either small extremist-separatist groups or military personnel from the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” he said.

Update on events in Ukraine. Also, Switzerland’s cabinet Friday ordered a freeze on assets linked to ousted Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych and 19 members of his entourage believed to be held in the Alpine country. Photo: Getty.

Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych speaks at a news conference in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southern Russia about 600 miles from Moscow. AP

Unmarked military vehicles lined the road leading to the Sevastopol airport. Soldiers there refused to identify themselves and stopped anyone from approaching the airport.
In a news conference, Mr. Yanukovych blamed the worsening situation in Crimea on those who overthrew him.
“I believe everything that is now happening in Crimea is an absolutely natural reaction to the bandit coup that has occurred in Kiev,” he said.
He insisted once again that he remains Ukraine’s legitimate leader and that he would continue to fight to be restored to power.
He had no information about the actions by armed men in Crimea and appeared increasingly disconnected from events in his homeland. He said he was “surprised” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained public silence on Ukraine but said he hoped to find out more on Russia’s position when he meets with Mr. Putin “as soon as he has time.”
The autonomous former Russian region of Crimea has become the center of resistance to Ukraine’s new leadership since Mr. Yanukovych’s departure. The airport occupations come a day after gunmen took control of the region’s parliament and executive buildings in Simferopol and replaced the Ukrainian flag with a Russian one.
A Russian incursion into Crimea would ratchet up the pressure on the fledgling government in Ukraine, swept into office after months of protests against official corruption and Russian dominance.

It isn’t clear whether the move constitutes the initial phase of a larger military action or if Russia could be trying to forestall efforts by central Ukrainian authorities to exert control on the autonomous region.
Most of the population there is ethnic Russian and the new local government, installed overnight, has declared its allegiance to the ousted president, making it the only region of Ukraine to officially do so.
“This is an armed invasion and occupation,” Mr. Avakov said in a message posted on his Facebook FB +0.07% Facebook Inc. Cl A U.S.: Nasdaq $68.99 +0.05 +0.07% Feb. 28, 2014 12:02 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 28.21M P/E Ratio 112.81 Market Cap $175.78 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $1,242,230 02/28/14 The 10-Point: Gerard Baker on … 02/27/14 5 Things to Do to Protect Teen… 02/27/14 Nude Webcams and Diet Drugs: t… More quote details and news » FB in Your Value Your Change Short position page. “It is a direct provocation of armed bloodshed in the territory of a sovereign state.”
Ukraine’s president, Oleksandr Turchynov, on Friday called an emergency meeting of the country’s security chiefs to discuss the situation. The country’s parliament later appealed to Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. to uphold a 1994 sovereignty pact in which Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear weapons in return for Russian guarantees to acknowledge Ukrainian territorial integrity.

An armed man patrols at the airport in Simferopol, Crimea, on Friday. Reuters/David Mdzinarishvili

Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya said he had requested an explanation from Russia’s Foreign Ministry but hadn’t received a reply.
The country’s new economy minister said that the territorial integrity of Ukraine will be maintained with military force if necessary, calling the occupation of the airports “absolutely unacceptable.”
“The economy cannot operate in these conditions…so we need to take the situation under control,” Pavlo Sheremeta said in an interview with the BBC.
At Belbek Airport, Mr. Avakov said armed military units connected to Russia’s fleet had blocked access to the terminal and that the airport was now closed. He said Ukrainian soldiers and border guards remained inside the airport and Interior Ministry troops had set up a perimeter, but there had been no conflict.
Russian news agency Interfax cited a spokesperson for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet as saying: “No divisions of the Black Sea Fleet are in the area of Belbek airport and are especially not blocking the airport…Given the volatile situation evolving in the area of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, as well as places where military personnel and their families reside, the base has strengthened its antiterrorism security.”
In Simferopol, Mr. Avakov said that around midnight, 100 people who identified themselves as Cossacks—civilian Russian traditionalists who often work closely with police—tried to break through a fence onto the airport grounds, but were driven away by airport security.

Then, at 1:30 a.m., several trucks carrying more than 100 armed soldiers in unmarked camouflage uniforms arrived and took up positions inside the airport’s restaurant. When told by Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops that they had no right to be there, Mr. Avakov said the soldiers said they had been instructed not to negotiate.
They appeared to be patrolling the grounds of the airport. Avakov said the Interior Ministry was reinforcing its units around the airport and that the situation was becoming “increasingly tense.”
Despite the standoff, he said Simferopol airport was operating normally.
A separatist Crimea could wind up like other Moscow-backed breakaway regions across the former Soviet Union, such as Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. All are contested territories that Russia’s neighbors accuse the Kremlin of using as levers to pressure them.
On Friday, a bill was submitted before Russia’s parliament calling for easing the process for foreign territory to join Russia and for Ukrainian nationals to gain Russian citizenship.
With gunmen occupying the government buildings in Simferopol, the Crimean regional parliament convened an emergency session on Thursday to appoint Sergei Aksyonov —the leader of the Russian Unity party, which promotes Russian interests—as the new regional prime minister. The legislature also called a May 25 referendum on the region’s status, raising the prospect that Crimea, which until 1954 was part of Russia, might seek greater autonomy or even secede from Ukraine.
On Friday, Mr. Aksyonov said the region was under the “full control,” of local officials and that government services were functioning normally.
“The lives and safety of Crimeans are in no danger,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the city council in Simferopol, Alla Goreva, said that officials were urging residents to limit traffic within the city and that on Thursday, armed men in military uniforms had set up checkpoints on the roads around the peninsula.
“We are trying to keep the peace, but things are fragile,” she said.

Write to Lukas I. Alpert at lukas.alpert@wsj.com

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