Russian army drills deepen Crimea darkness
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine — The growing sense of alarm about the possibility of military conflict over Crimea deepened sharply Thursday after Moscow announced large-scale military exercises involving airborne troops, as well as tank squadrons and artillery regiments, across a broad front near the Russia-Ukraine border.
The snap army manoeuvres were called as Crimeans prepare to vote Sunday on whether to remain with Ukraine or to secede and become Russian citizens. Ukraine has mobilized its armed forces, but they are badly outnumbered and outgunned by Russian troops in and near the border, let alone those that Russia has in reserve further inland.
The mood in Crimea has grown much gloomier and nastier this week as it has in eastern Ukraine, where fresh clashes broke out Thursday between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists.
Crimea was effectively cut off from the outside world on Wednesday, except for a single daily rail link from Ukraine that I used to get here from Kyiv three days ago. While local authorities have cancelled flights and most trains to Crimea from the rest of Ukraine, the usual travel connections to Russia remain in place. There are still three daily non-stop flights to Moscow. A ferry service to the Russian mainland has also been allowed to keep operating.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who has been speaking almost daily with President Vladimir Putin, told the Bundestag on Thursday that Ukrainians would face “a catastrophe” if Russia continues on its current path. In her most dire comments yet about the crisis, the chancellor warned that the West would regard Russia’s annexation of Crimea “as a threat” that would fundamentally change the European Union’s relationship with Moscow.
If Moscow annexed Ukraine, it would “cause massive damage to Russia, economically and politically,” Merkel said, adding that resolving matters by force was absolutely not acceptable in the 21st century.
It was little understood in the West after the toppling of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in a coup on Feb. 22 that Crimea was about to become a flashpoint with Russia. Even the arrival of troops from the Russian mainland, who were first seen near Sevastopol on Feb. 27, did little to dampen the generally upbeat mood in Kyiv and the West over the installation of a prowestern government.
But tensions in Europe have gone through the roof since last week’s announcement of a March 16 referendum on Crimea.
“Russia does not want war,” Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk at the United Nations in New York on Thursday. But Churkin defended Crimeans’ right to vote on secession and said the problem had been created by the West’s support for those who had ousted Yanukovych.
As the war of words has become louder, the atmosphere inside the region, which is only half the size of Nova Scotia, has grown uglier.
In almost deserted cafes and restaurants along the beautiful Black Sea waterfront this week, I have been confronted twice by diners at other tables who were verbally abusive and expressed extreme hostility to the United States and Britain. Other journalists have reported similar or more dramatic run-ins with Russia supporters.
Contributing to the sense of impending doom, there has been a run on the Ukrainian hryvnya at bank ATMs and exchange offices. Groups of men, some of them apparently Russian civilians, have been trying convert rubles into hryvnya to pay bills, as only Ukrainian money has been accepted in Crimea until now.
There are now more checkpoints on roads to Sevastopol and Simferopol. These barricades are manned by hard-looking men wearing a patchwork of para-military uniforms who have been conducting increasingly rigorous vehicle searches. Serbian nationalists have manned some checkpoints to demonstrate support for “our Russian brothers.”
Swarms of police officers now meet the few trains still allowed in from the Ukrainian mainland, carefully scrutinizing passengers and their luggage.
Men who usually refuse to produce identification have threatened foreign journalists in both Simferopol and Sevastopol. I was denounced as a provocateur and my Russian Crimean driver was denounced as a traitor on Thursday after I took a photograph of a billboard urging Crimeans to vote to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
Following a script not seen since the Cold War, hundreds of billboards and posters popped up this week around Sevastopol decrying the new Ukrainian government as “fascist” and directly linking it to NATO.
Since Monday, stations from Russia or local Russianstations have been the only TV broadcasts allowed in Crimea. Even Ukrainian pop music stations have been banned.
Crimeans wanting to hear news from Ukrainian sources have to find a fast Internet connection to access the sole Ukrainian channel whose live streaming feed has not yet been blocked. It also has still been possible to see Ukrainian versions of the previous day’s news through video-sharing websites such as YouTube.
The Ukrainian side has taken similar steps, with cable-television companies cutting off Russian news stations.
Given that the Crimea’s ethnic Russian majority overwhelmingly supports becoming part of the Russian Federation, it appears a certainty that Sunday’s ballot will confirm the Crimean parliament’s declaration last Saturday that it intends to separate from Ukraine and become part of the Russian Federation.