Pro-Russian separatists and supporters of Ukraine's new leaders confronted each other in Crimea,Ukraine Wed Feb 26,2014

With Crimea now the last big bastion of opposition to the new post-Yanukovich political order in Kiev, Ukraine's new leaders have been voicing alarm over signs of separatism there

About Crimea

• Autonomous republic within Ukraine
• Transferred from Russia in 1954
• Ethnic Russians - 58.5%*
• Ethnic Ukrainians - 24.4%*
• Crimean Tatars - 12.1%

Armed men have seized the regional government building and the parliament building in Ukraine's Crimea.
They wore black and orange ribbons, a Russian symbol of the victory in World War II. 

Phone calls to the Crimean legislature rang unanswered, and its website was down.

The men also put up a sign saying 'Crimea is Russia,' and threw a flash grenade when a journalist asked them a question.

Ukraine's acting interior minister says Interior Ministry troops and police have been put on high alert after dozens of men seized local government and legislature buildings in the Crimea region. 

The Tatars, a Turkic ethnic group, were victimised by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in World War Two and deported en masse to Soviet Central Asia in 1944 on suspicion of collaborating with Nazi Germany.

Tens of thousands of them returned to their homeland after Ukraine gained independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991

The clashes came after fears were raised that the Russian president Vladimir Putin may be planning to send forces into Ukraine after the toppling of its Moscow-backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych

Russian President Valdimir Putin mobilised more than 150,000 troops and an armada of ships yesterday for a drill to test the combat readiness of forces in western Russia as tensions over Ukraine continue to grow

In addition to the soldiers – nearly twice the British Army’s manpower after planned cuts – 880 tanks, 210 aircraft and 80 warships will take part in the operation.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said unspecified measures were also being taken to protect the country’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea, southern Ukraine

He claimed the operation was not linked to the crisis in Ukraine, insisting it was intended to ‘check the troops’ readiness for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation’s military security’

The drill comes 48 hours after Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said the country’s interests and citizens in Ukraine were under threat in language that echoed his statements justifying Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 when he was president.


Pro-Russia demonstrators wave flags in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine

Fist fights broke out today between pro- and anti-Russian protesters in the Crimea

Pro-Russian protesters (left) stand opposite Crimean Tartars, who support the new regime in Ukraine

Ukrainian men help pull one another out of a stampede as a flag of Crimea is seen during clashes at rallies held by ethnic Russians and Crimean Tatars near the Crimean parliament building

Ukrainian police separate ethnic Russians and Crimean Tatars during rallies near the Crimean parliament building

An ethnic Russian Ukrainian man holds the Crimea flag on top of an old Soviet tank during rallies near the Crimean parliament building

The tensions in Crimea highlight the divisions that run through the nation of 46million, and underscore fears that the country’s mainly Russian-speaking east and south will not recognize the interim authority’s legitimacy.

Ethnic Ukrainians loyal to Kiev have joined the Tatars in an alliance to oppose any move back towards Moscow