At 9 a.m. approximately
150 civilians broke through the entrance gate to Ukraine’s naval headquarters
in Sevastopol. The pro-Russian crowd, led by women and a masked man, pushed
their way onto the territory, ripping down the Ukrainian flag and replacing it
with a Russian one.
Andriy
Parubiy, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council announces
plans to relocate troops from the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine's mainland.
Ukraine will also ask the United Nations to declare Crimea a demilitarized
zone.
Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
is reported to decide within the next 24 hours whether they will have a
monitoring mission in Ukraine, and if so, to what extent will they be present. With
the exception of Russia, all OSCE member countries have agreed to a mission
that would see around 100 experts sent to Kyiv to monitor the political and
security situation in Crimea. The aim would be to determine facts ‘on the
ground’ and clarify rumours on both sides to determine what political action
could be based on. Also, the presence of international
monitors is hoped to defuse the situation and make Russia (or anyone) less
likely to invade if international observers are present. Last week, a
small team of unarmed OSCE observers were prevented from entering the region by
Russian military forces.
Meanwhile, in Germany medium-sized companies which have
invested massively in Eastern Europe over the last few years are beginning to think
about the risk of their investment and consequences of a divided, at-war (even
if ‘cold’), Ukraine and Russia.
Today a group in Kyiv
organised a flash-mob in a large Kyiv supermarket to protest against deaths
caused by government and Russian interests. Many bystanders joined in – lying
in the shopping centre’s floor as dead bodies, with others holding signs
reading, ‘no to the occupation’ ‘no to war’.
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