Russian troops storm military post in Crimea as U.S. sends warship to the Black Sea after talks between Obama and Putin break down



No shots were fired in the attack on the base but move is the first time Russians have used force after seizing Crimea

Pentagon insists 'routine' deployment of USS Truxtun has nothing to do with Russia's effective seizure of Crimea

It's arrival in the Black Sea came just hours after the Pentagon announced a massive increase in airpower in the region



Russian newspaper claims Viktor Yanukovych is in 'grave' condition after a heart attack in Moscow



Austrian SWAT teams boarded plane carrying Ukraine's new Prime Minister following 'terrorist threat'

French foreign minister has said second round of sanctions against Russia could follow if first do not succeed

Austrian foreign minister calls Ukraine's repeal of a law making Russian a recognised language in some regions an 'absolute mistake'



Dramatic escalation: Russian forces block access to the Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile base on the Cape of Fiolent in Sevastopol

The Ukraine crisis took a dramatic turn last night when Russian troops stormed a key command post in Crimea.

While no shots were fired, it is the first time the Russians have used force to increase their grip on the disputed peninsula.

The act of aggression took place in the strategic port of Sevastopol, home of Russia's Black Sea fleet, which includes 24 warships, two submarines and 16,000 sailors and marines.

Tensions were already high yesterday when a U.S. warship arrived in the Black Sea. The arrival of the guided missile destroyer USS Truxtun was officially described as ‘routine’ by Washington.

But its presence was seen as hugely significant just hours after the Pentagon unveiled a large increase in air power in the region.

Last night Russian leader Vladimir Putin appeared relaxed as he officially opened the Winter Paralympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

The president was centre stage once again as he was watched by hundreds of millions on TV at the games – which will still be attended by Ukraine athletes despite calls for their withdrawal.

Meanwhile, the US has been dispatching warplanes in an effort to reassure allies alarmed by Russia’s effective seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. Six F-15 jets and one KC-135 refuelling aircraft were sent to join Nato patrols in the Baltics. A further dozen F-16 fighters will be deployed next week.

The increase in US military muscle in the region came as the Turkish Air Force scrambled six F-16 fighter jets after a Russian surveillance plane flew along its Black Sea coast. Georgia also sent up its warplanes this week.

Tensions continued to rise yesterday following a declaration from Ukraine that ‘no one in the civilised world’ would recognise a planned referendum by the Crimean parliament on joining Russia.



Mr Putin again rebuffed a warning from US President Barack Obama over Moscow’s military intervention in Crimea, insisting that the Kremlin could not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.

After an hour-long telephone call, Mr Putin said Moscow and Washington were still far apart on the situation in the former Soviet republic, where he said the new authorities had taken ‘absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, south eastern and Crimea regions’.

‘Russia cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law,’ he said.

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Lock down: A Ukrainian flag flies from the base as a member of the Russian forces stands guard on the roof after soldiers used force for the first time during their effective seizure of the Crimean peninsula

On guard: Masked Russian forces block access to the base, which is close to the base of the Russian Black Sea fleet

Power: Ukrainian border guards say there are some 30,000 Russian soldiers stationed in contested Crimea

Moscow is now believed to have poured more troops into the southern peninsula where Russian forces have seized control.

Serhiy Astakhov, an aide to the border guards’ commander, said there were now 30,000 Russian soldiers in Crimea, compared to 11,000 permanently based in the port of Sevastopol before the crisis.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that Ukraine was open to talks with Russia as long as it withdrew its troops and abided by international agreements.

In a warning to the ‘separatist and other traitors of the Ukrainian state’ he said: ‘Any decision of yours is deliberately unlawful and unconstitutional and no one in the civilised world will recognise the decision of the so-called referendum of the so-called Crimean authorities.’

Portentous skies hang overhead as the USS Truxtun sails through the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey, en route to the Black Sea earlier today, in a deployment the U.S. claimed had nothing to do with the Ukraine crisis

The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun sets sail in the Dardanelles straits, on its way to the Black Sea today for what the U.S. military has described as a 'routine' deployment that was scheduled well before the crisis in Ukraine The 'USS Truxtun' destroyer passes the Bosphorus Strait on Friday. Armed men at a checkpoint flying the Russian flag blocked OSCE observers from entering Ukraine's flashpoint Crimean peninsula for a second day on Friday, an AFP reporter said Flashpoint Crimea: The USS Truxton's passage through the Bosphorous Strait and into the Black Sea puts it within striking distance of Russia's Black Sea fleet, which is stationed at the Crimean port of Sevastopol

For the second day, observers from the Organisation for the Security and Co-operation in Europe, including three British Army officers, were refused entry to Crimea by armed militia which are said to have been growing in numbers.

It was reported last night that Serbian nationalists and paramilitaries had travelled to the area and were now patrolling the streets alongside Russian Cossacks.

They were shown wearing ‘Chetnik’ badges of the Serbian nationalist guerrilla force blamed for carrying out ‘ethnic cleansing’ during the Bosnian war in the 1990s.

In a sign of further Russian pressure on the interim government in Kiev, Russian energy giant Gazprom said it would cut off gas exports if a £1.13billion debt was not settled by Ukraine. Chief executive Alexei Miller warned: ‘We cannot deliver gas for free.’

Moscow last cut off Ukraine’s gas in 2009, halting supplies to much of the EU, causing disruptions in Britain.

The USS Truxton's passage through the Bosphorous and into the flashpoint Black Sea region was a 'routine' deployment scheduled well before the current crisis erupted in Ukraine, U.S. military officials insisted.

But it came only a day after the Pentagon announced plans to station more U.S. fighter jets in the Baltics for Nato air patrol missions along Russia's western border.

The hike in tensions over the Ukraine crisis came amid reports in Russian media that the country's ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych is in a Moscow hospital after suffering a suspected heart attack.

His condition was said to be 'grave', according to the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, known as MK, citing unofficial sources.

Deposed president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych is in a Moscow hospital after suffering a suspected heart attack, a Russian newspaper has claimed

Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured with sportsmen at the mountain Paralympic village outside Sochi on Wednesday) dismissed a report earlier this week that Yanukovych had died from a heart attack Today's dramatic turns came as the new Ukrainian prime minister's jet was boarded SWAT teams in Austria responding to a threatened terror attack. Austria's Interior Ministry said the team boarded the plane following its scheduled landing in Vienna last night after it received a security warning from German flight controllers. Nothing out of the ordinary was found. Mr Yatsenyuk, who was making his way home after addressing European Union leaders in Brussels, then took his scheduled connection to Kiev. German flight control spokeswoman Kristina Kelek said the initial warning came from Belgian police and her agency had passed on the information to Austria. It was a vague warning that 'there was possibly a terrorist attack planned', she said. Armed men in military uniform are seen outside the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in the village of Perevalnoye, outside Simferopol, Ukraine, on Friday Putin has said Russia and the United States still stood far apart over Ukraine, but the two countries should not sacrifice relations over a disagreement on an individual, albeit very important, international problem Russian president Vladimir Putin dismissed a report earlier this week that Yanukovych had died from a heart attack in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin leader said his former ally was 'alive and healthy', and that he had met him several days earlier.

However, Yanukovych has not been seen in public since giving a press conference in Russia one week ago.

Putin also claimed the former leader would have been killed if not for his rescue in Sevastopol by Russian forces.

Austrian authorities have said SWAT teams boarded a plane carrying Ukraine's new Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Thursday after receiving a threat that a terrorist attack was planned

The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament has today dismissed suggestions there would be war between Russia and Ukraine

Valentina Matviyenko, head of the Russian Federation Council has also said Crimea's parliament has the right to hold a referendum on the region's future status

Russian paper Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) said today: 'According to an MK source, Yanukovych may have had a heart attack. His condition is assessed as grave.'

The name of the Moscow hospital was not given.

'So far there has been no official confirmation,' stated the newspaper.



Yanukovych is the subject of a formal request by the authorities in Kiev for extradition to face an investigation for ordering his security forces to shoot unarmed protesters in Kiev last month. He denies the allegations.

Russia believes Yanukovych remains the legal president of Ukraine. Putin agreed to give him sanctuary after he was toppled.

'The legitimate president, purely legally, is undoubtedly Yanukovych,' said Putin on Tuesday.



Russia now has 30,000 troops in Ukraine's Crimea region, Ukrainian border guards said on Friday, nearly twice the previous figure given by the government in Kiev.



Serhiy Astakhov, aide to the head of border guards service, told Reuters the figure was an estimate and included both troops that had arrived since last week and Russia's Black Sea Fleet, permanently based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

Russia, whose forces occupied the isolated peninsula last week, says the only troops it has there are those based in Sevastopol. The Russian troops that have occupied positions across Crimea wear no insignia on their uniforms but drive vehicles with Russian military plates.



Ukraine says thousands of extra troops have arrived and have fanned out across the occupied peninsula in violation of the treaty governing the base. Earlier this week Ukraine said there were a total of 16,000 Russian troops in Crimea.

Uniformed men, believed to be Russian servicemen, stand guard near a Ukrainian military base outside the city of Sevastopol

Ukraine is ready for talks with Russia, but Moscow must first withdraw its troops, abide by international agreements and halt its support for 'separatists and terrorists', Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Friday

A Russian warship, part of a blockade of Ukrainian ships, is pictured in Sevastopol harbour on Friday

Leading Ukranian politician Yulia Tymoshenko today said there was a danger of guerrilla war in Crimea should it be incorporated into Russia.



She said a Russian takeover of the Crimean peninsula would create long-term dangers for the whole region and appealed to Germany and others for immediate economic sanctions against Moscow.



Speaking to Reuters after a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel, Tymoshenko said international measures against Russia had so far been ineffective and called for immediate action to prevent a 'flashpoint'.

Demonstrators who have remained encamped in Kiev's central Independence Square to defend the revolution that ousted Yanukovich said they did not believe Crimea would be allowed to secede.



'We are optimists. Crimea will stand with us and we will fight for it,' said Taras Yurkiv, 35, from the eastern city of Lviv. 'How we will fight depends on the decisions of our leadership. If necessary, we will go with force. If you want peace, you must prepare for war.'

Riot police stand at the entrance of the regional administrative building in Donetsk, Ukraine

A woman walks past as Ukrainian riot police stand at the entrance of the regional administrative building in Donetsk

Donetsk is an ethnic Russian stronghold and on Wednesday evening pro-Russian protesters took over the regional administration building, before police regained control of it on Thursday

Alexander Zaporozhets, 40, from central Ukraine's Kirovograd region, put his faith in international pressure.



'I don't think the Russians will be allowed to take Crimea from us: you can't behave like that to an independent state. We have the support of the whole world. But I think we are losing time. While the Russians are preparing, we are just talking.'



Elsewhere, military observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have, for the second day in a row, been unable to enter Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula, the body said in a post on Twitter.



'Military assessment visitors from OSCE States denied entry into Crimea on Friday, heading back to Kherson to plan next steps,' it said.



It has also been revealed the Turkish Air Force scrambled six F-16 fighter jets after a Russian surveillance plane flew parallel along its Black Sea coast, the military has today said.



The incident, the second of its kind reported this week, occurred on Thursday. The Russian plane remained in international airspace, according to a statement on the website of the military General Staff.



Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, which juts into the north of the Black Sea, is at the centre of the current standoff between Russia and Ukraine's new pro-Western government. Nato member Turkey forms the southern coastline of the Black Sea.

The Turkish Air Force scrambled six F-16 fighter jets after a Russian surveillance plane flew parallel along its Black Sea coast, the military has today said (2007 file picture shows Turkish F-16 jet)

The incident, the second of its kind reported this week, occurred on Thursday. File picture shows Turkish F-16 jets as they prepare to take off in 2007

Meanwhile, the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament has today dismissed suggestions there would be war between Russia and Ukraine after President Putin said he had the right to invade if the situation in Ukraine worsened.

'It's complete nonsense, it absolutely does not reflect our intentions, the feelings of empathy and the pain we feel for the Ukrainian people,' said Valentina Matviyenko, head of the Russian Federation Council.

'We are absolutely sure that there will never be a war between the two brotherly nations.'



She also said Crimea's parliament has the right to hold a referendum on the region's future status.



The parliament in Ukraine's southern Crimea region said on Thursday it would hold a referendum on whether the region should join Russia on March 16.



Ms Matviyenko said: 'Yesterday we learned about the historic decision taken by the Crimean parliament to hold a referendum on accession, on entry into the Russian Federation.

'Without a doubt, the Crimean parliament, as a legitimate authority, has that right ... The sovereign right of the people to determine their future.'

Earlier today, France's foreign minister said if a first round of sanctions did not succeed against Russia in the wake of its military intervention in Ukraine, a second could follow, targeting Russian businesses and people close to President Vladimir Putin.

European Union leaders have urged Putin to enter direct talks with the Ukrainian government, warning of 'far-reaching consequences' for relations with Moscow if there is any further escalation.



At emergency talks in Brussels, leaders of the group of 28 states agreed on a limited package of sanctions to take immediate effect with the threat of further measures - including asset freezes and travel bans - unless there was swift action to end the stand-off.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius today told France Info Radio: 'If there are not very swift results, there will be new measures aimed at those responsible and Russian businesses. It could be freezing assets, it could be cancellations, it could be refusing visas,' he added, without elaborating.

Mr Fabius called the situation in Ukraine 'a serious crisis, maybe one of the most serious since the Cold War'.



Fabius said any new move by Russia to bring Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority, formally under its control could have 'grave consequences' for relations between Russia and Europe.



'There will be no more international stability if a region... because it's solicited by a neighbouring country, can decide to change its borders and attach itself to its neighbour,' Mr Fabius added.

Any deterioration of economic ties between Russia and its trading partners could be a 'very big blow' to Moscow, Mr Fabius said, adding that any new sanctions could target Putin's inner circle.

Cossacks stand guard at the entrance to the Crimean Parliament building in Simferopol, Ukraine

On Thursday, the local parliament of the Crimea region voted to leave Ukraine and ask to join Russia in a direct challenge to Ukraine's new government in Kiev

Russian Cossacks have taken up guard duties at road checkpoints, border crossings and other key facilities that were previously guarded by local, pro-Russian militants across Crimea in recent days

European Union leaders have urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to enter direct talks with the Ukrainian government, warning of 'far-reaching consequences' for relations with Moscow if there is any further escalation

Russia has today accused the European Union of taking an 'extremely unconstructive position' by freezing talks on easing visa barriers and on a comprehensive agreement that would govern ties between Moscow and the EU over Ukraine.



'Russia will not accept the language of sanctions and threats' and will retaliate if sanctions are imposed, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement about the agreements reached at the emergency EU summit on Thursday.

President Obama has already ordered sanctions against figures the U.S. holds responsible for the military intervention in Ukraine, including travel bans and a freezing of their assets in the country, although a U.S. official said Putin was not on the list.



'IT IS TIME TO CALL PUTIN'S BLUFF': FORMER WORLD CHESS CHAMPION GARRY KASPAROV Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov (right) has said it is time to call President Vladimir Putin's 'bluff'.

The Russian former chess grandmaster turned human rights activist has claimed the Kremlin leader will go 'as far as he's allowed to go' as he said the West's response had been 'better than nothing' but 'not enough'.

Mr Kasparov, the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, was speaking on America's News Headquarters on Fox News.

He said: 'He has a weak hand, but he knows how to raise the stakes and he knows how to bluff. And it's time to call his bluff.'

Mr Kasparov also claimed any sanctions imposed should not exclude 'a demonstration of military might'.

Putin has said Russia and the U.S. still stood far apart over Ukraine, but the two countries should not sacrifice relations over a disagreement on an individual, albeit very important, international problem.

A statement issued by the Kremlin said that the Russian leader told Obama in a telephone call yesterday that Ukraine's new leaders had imposed 'absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions'.

'Russia cannot ignore calls for help in this matter and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with the international law,' Putin said.



'(He) stressed the paramount importance of Russian-American relations to ensure stability and security in the world. These relations should not be sacrificed for individual differences, albeit very important ones, over international problems.'

In the one-hour call, Obama urged Putin to accept the terms of a potential diplomatic solution to the crisis, which has triggered the worst crisis in U.S.-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War.

Putin has stridently defended Russia's moves in Ukraine, a country he calls a 'a brotherly nation', saying Moscow was not behind the seizure of Crimea, home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

He has denied western accusations that his troops have captured state buildings there, saying the armed men were members of local self-defence units.

He says Russia is willing to cooperate with western powers but any solution to the crisis must be based on an EU-brokered agreement signed on February 21 by ousted leader Viktor Yanukovich, who Putin has said is Ukraine's legitimate president.



Putin said he agreed with Obama that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry should continue 'intensive contacts' on Ukraine.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (pictured, left, with Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday) has said if a first round of sanctions did not succeed against Russia, a second could follow

Putin has stridently defended Russia's moves in Ukraine, a country he calls a 'a brotherly nation', saying Moscow was not behind the seizure of Crimea, home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet

Putin's spokesman today said the Russian leader's efforts to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine are being misunderstood.

'Regardless of all the efforts of our president, his readiness to explain Russia's position practically on a daily basis, we still hit a wall of no understanding,' Peskov said in comments due to broadcast on state television Rossiya 24 on Sunday.



'It is rather sad and what is worse is that it is very bad from the point of view of possible repercussions.'

He added Moscow was not orchestrating events in Ukraine. 'Quite the opposite,' he said.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has said NATO's decision to curb its cooperation with Moscow showed a 'biased and prejudiced approach' over Ukraine.



'We see as extremely dangerous attempts to bring in the "NATO factor" to Ukraine, where the situation is complex and delicate as it is, as it creates additional tension and undermines the prospects for settling the situation,' the ministry said in a statement.

Patriotic feelings are running high in Russia, with 65,000 people today gathering in Moscow's Red Square in support of their government's actions, chanting 'Crimea is Russia!'



U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered sanctions against figures responsible for the military intervention in Ukraine

On Wednesday, NATO announced a full review of its cooperation with Russia and said it would suspend planning for a joint mission linked to Syrian chemical weapons.

Ukraine meanwhile has decided against boycotting the Winter Paralympics in Sochi.



The head of Ukraine's Paralympic Committee says the country's athletes will stay and compete in Sochi despite Russia's military moves in Crimea.



The decision was announced a few hours before Friday's opening ceremony.



Russian news agency R-Sport quoted Valeriy Sushkevich, the president of Ukraine's National Paralympic Committee, as saying 'we are staying at the Paralympics'.

PUTIN 'UNLIKELY TO TAKE NOTICE OF THE WEST' CLAIMS EXPERT IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

One of Europe's leading experts in international law says President Putin is unlikely to take any notice of the West because of empty threats in the past.

Dr James Summers, Director of the Centre for International Law and Human Rights at Lancaster University and author of the book, 'Peoples and International Law', believes Western powers lack the appetite for imposing meaningful sanctions against Russia over its intervention in Ukraine.

He said the Russian President has dealt with it all before and probably sees the West as 'toothless'.

'Putin has seen a lot of threats from Western powers in the past, particularly in Georgia,' explained Dr Summers. 'He now may be thinking, "Why should I pay attention this time?"

'If the West are going to make threats, then they should make decisions they can actually follow through with and that they can stand behind.'

He pointed out the reaction of Russia's other close neighbours could play more of a key role in dissuading President Putin from annexing it or declaring its independence under a puppet government.

However, he added: 'I don't know to what extent the team can focus on the result now.'



Also today, foreign ministers from central Europe, the Baltics and Nordics condemned Russia's military intervention in Ukraine and the planned referendum on Crimea's breakaway, calling for the EU to send an observation mission to Kiev.



The group of countries, many of them sharing land borders with Russia or the Ukraine and living with the memory of Soviet rule, have taken a tough line in the face of Moscow as the crisis has escalated.

'Nordic and Baltic countries and the Visegrad countries' foreign ministers condemned today ... the attack on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and also condemned the illegal referendum on the joining of Crimea with Russia,' the ministers said in joint statement from the meeting.



Foreign ministers from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, known as the Visegrad Four, and from the Nordics and Baltics met at the Estonian town of Narva on the Russian border.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the European Union needed to strengthen its defence policy and upgrade crisis management capabilities in the wake of the events on its borders.



'It is a challenge we did not wish for, but is knocking at our doors,' he said.



The Council of Europe, the pan-European human rights watchdog, is offering to investigate violence and the treatment of minorities in Ukraine to try to defuse mounting tensions between Kiev and Russia, Austria has said.



Sebastian Kurz, the foreign minister of Austria, which holds the revolving chair of the 47-member Council until May, told Reuters on Friday that he and the Council's secretary general would visit Kiev on Monday to offer its services in the conflict.

Both Russia and Ukraine are members of the Council of Europe, which Mr Kurz said had credibility and expertise in supporting minority rights. He called the Ukrainian parliament's repeal of a law making Russia a recognised language in some regions 'an absolute mistake'.



Asked how Russia had reacted so far to the mediation offer, Mr Kurz said: 'At least there have been no negative voices in the Council of Europe from the Russian side.'



Outside of Europe, Japan endorsed the Western position that the actions of Russia constitute 'a threat to international peace and security', after Obama spoke to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

China, often a Russian ally in blocking Western moves in the U.N. Security Council, was more cautious. It said economic sanctions were not the best way to solve the crisis, but avoided comment on the legality of a Crimean referendum on secession.

Syrian president Bashar Assad meanwhile said Russia's military takeover of Crimea reflects President Vladimir Putin's 'wise policy' and his efforts to restore 'security and stability' in Ukraine after an 'attempted coup.'



In a letter addressed to the Russian president, Assad claims Putin's move in eastern Ukraine prevented 'terrorist extremists' from taking power in Kiev.

Russia has been an adamant supporter of Assad through the three-year-old Syrian civil war that has claimed at least 140,000 lives. Assad says his troops are fighting Islamic extremists who want to destroy Syria.