“SEVASTOPOL, Crimea (AP) — Senior Ukrainian officials planned to travel to Crimea on Wednesday in a bid to avert an escalation in hostilities, a day after two men were killed at a military facility in a gunbattle between Ukrainian troops and a militia loyal to the local government.
The prime minister in Crimea, which was nominally incorporated into Russia on Tuesday, said Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and defense minister would be turned back, however.
“They are not welcome in Crimea,” Sergei Aksyonov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. “They will not be allowed to enter in Crimea. They will be sent back.”
Ukraine’s military is heavily outnumbered in Crimea, with tens of thousands of Russian-led forces patrolling the peninsula. In a further sign of that, Crimea militias stormed the Ukrainian navy headquarters in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, taking it over without resistance.
An Associated Press photographer said several hundred militiamen took down the gate and made their way onto the base. They then raised the Russian flag on the square by the headquarters.
The unarmed militia waited for an hour on the square before the move to storm the headquarters. Following the arrival of the commander of the Russian Black Sea fleet, the Crimeans took over the building....................”
Every one of those Russian troops I have seen on news reports has his face covered by black. I found that odd.