As pro-Russian forces consolidate power in Crimea many of its citizens are fleeing the increasingly ugly mood in the peninsula

Ukraine's president has ordered his country's troops to withdraw from Crimea – but retreating soldiers will not be the only people leaving the peninsula to its Russian future.

Journalists, activists and some Crimean Tatars are voting with their feet following the Russian annexation, preferring an uncertain future in Ukraine to the increasingly ugly mood that they face in Crimea.

Independent journalist Irina Sedova from Kerch is one of them. "I was attacked by a crowd at a pro-Russia rally and threatened by armed men while photographing a military base near Kerch," she said. "It became clear it was no longer safe for me to stay," added Sedova, an ethnic Russian who has lived her whole life in Crimea but has now fled to Kiev.

"I knew that if I stayed that they would kill me and my family. When I received threats that my house would be burned down that was when I decided to go," she says. Sedova's husband and children have stayed behind on the southern peninsula while she looks for permanant work in Kiev. "I really hope I get something soon and that they can join me here, this is a terrible time for our family," she says.

Elena, an ethnic Ukrainian from Crimea's vehemently pro-Russian naval city Sevastopol, says her family are no longer free to express their opinions openly. "It was never like this before. But now our neighbours, friends have fallen out with us. They think all Ukrainians are fascists. I am afraid of the people around us, they are going crazy," she says.

Elena and her husband spent the morning saying goodbye to their nephew and helping him pack up his worldly possessions. "He left with tears in his eyes," she says. A deputy prosecutor for the old administration in Sevastopol, Elena's nephew made the difficult decision to leave the southern peninsula, where he was born and grew up, to start a new life in Donetsk, where he has been offered a new position by the government. "It feels like there is no future here for us here, it's hopeless," says Elena.

Yevgeniy Cherednichenko and Aleksandr Lusyan, both officers in Ukraine's dispossessed Black Sea naval fleet, are also waiting anxiously for orders from Kiev about how to evacuate from the region. "I can't leave yet because then I might face court marshal for betrayal of the motherland. But we should receive some instructions about what to do next soon," says Cherednichenko, a Sevastopol native.

"I'm hoping to be offered a position in Kiev, or somewhere else in Ukraine," he adds. Other officers, however, say that they that will stay in their birthland regardless of the consequences.

Underlying the mini-exodus is a very real concern about a backlash against anyone perceived as anti-Russian. More than 20 people have been kidnapped in Crimea since the unrest started. Most have been returned but one Tatar activist, Reshat Ametov, who was last seen being detained by local militia, was later found dead in the forest.

At least three activists, including one Tatar, Ivan Selentsov, are still missing. "We are very concerned for his safety," says Enver Kadyrov, a human rights activist representing his case. "We have been told that he is being detained in the police station, but nobody has been allowed to see or contact him."

Pro-unity Tatar activist Dzhalil Ibrahimov is also facing up to the tough reality of life under Russian rule. At the beginning of the unrest in Crimea the local Tatar population, took an active stance in protesting against the region's Russification. Ibrahimov was one of the leaders of the movement. But as tensions have escalated his family and community have asked him to keep his head down.

"People are afraid that any kind of action will be viewed as a provocation, as an excuse to attack our people. Now the big question is how we will live here."

As pro-Russian forces have consolidated power in Crimea, local militia have stepped up the intimidation of the local Tatar community. "They [local militia] have started to burn fires near the village at night, so we know they are there and they are close. Silence is shame, but to speak out is dangerous," says Ibrahimov.

So far just one family in Ibrahimov's village, Pionerskoe, have left for Lviv, where they used to live until recently. But according to the Ukrainian media outlet, Lviv Gazetta, Iryna Sekh the head of the Lviv oblast administration, has stated that the region is preparing to welcome 2,000 refugees from Crimea, mostly ethnic Tatar.

Not everyone who opposes the Russian annexation is abandoning the new Crimea, however.

Sergei Mokrushyn, one of Crimea's leading investigative journalists, says he is being followed, intimidated and suspects his phone is being tapped.

"The message is very clear: be quiet or leave," says Mokrushyn. "A colleague of mine was approached by armed men, they warned him to be careful. They knew addresses and personal details about his family," says Mokrushyn. Yet despite the threats Mokrushyn says he will not give up his work.

"If I don't do it, then who will?" he asks.