Russian soldiers take control of Crimea airbase

Russian troops have smashed their way into a Ukrainian airbase in Crimea with armoured vehicles, automatic fire and stun grenades, while Ukrainian forces abandoned a naval base after attacks by pro-Russian protesters.

The facilities at Belbek and Novofedorovka had been among the last still under Ukrainian control after Moscow’s armed takeover and subsequent annexation of Crimea, which has a majority ethnic Russian population and harbours one of Russia’s biggest naval bases.

Armoured vehicles smashed through the walls of a compound at the Belbek airbase and bursts of gunfire and grenades rang out, Reuters news agency reported, making Saturday’s takeover one of the more dramatic of Russia’s largely bloodless occupation of Crimea.

Russian forces had already seized Belbek’s airstrip and warplanes at the start of the crisis. The compound contained barracks, arms depots and a command building.

Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, the commander of the base, said a Ukrainian serviceman had been injured and that he himself he was being taken away by the Russians for talks at an unspecified location.

In a separate development, the Ukrainian warship Slavutych was raided by Russian troops in Sevastopol, Crimea residents said.

Russians already boarded the ship at around 15:00 GMT, but the Ukrainian crew was refusing to leave the ship, locking themselves in cabins. However, at around 1800GMT the crew was forced to leave the ship.

Ukraine’s naval base at Novofedorovka, near Sevastopol, was vacated after unarmed pro-Russian protesters attempted to force their way in, Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said in a Facebook post.

He said the Ukrainians had first repelled the protesters with smoke bombs, but then left of their own volition.

He quoted a sailor at the base as saying the Ukrainians had walked out singing their national anthem and waving the Ukrainian flag.

Seleznyov also said Ukraine’s only submarine, the Zaporizhya, had been taken to Sevastopol’s Yuzhnaya Bay by Russian forces on Friday.

“The Ukrainian commander left the submarine, refusing to raise the Russian flag. It has been seized,” he said.