The Preamble of the Declaration of Independence of the Crimea refers to the case of Kosovo and the advisory opinion of the UN International Court of Justice of 22 July 2010.
Simferopol – The Supreme Soviet of Crimea (Ukrainian Parliament of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) yesterday issued a Declaration of Independence of the Crimea and its preamble refers to the case of Kosovo and the advisory opinion of the UN International Court of Justice of 22 July 2010, when this court in The Hague said that “the unilateral declaration of independence from the part of the state does not violate any norms of international law.”
Thus Kosovo entered the first legal acts of independent Crimea. Because, the West in 2008th and 2010th made great effort for this genie to come out of the bottle and now that genie floats with only one question: who’s next?
The Declaration of Independence says that the Crimea, if people confirm so in the referendum of 16 March, will be a democratic, secular and multi-ethnic republic, which will only later start the procedure of accession with Russia. It may appear that it offers room for different solutions, although yesterday the president of the parliament of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov said that “the return of the Crimea in the composition of Ukraine is excluded as a possibility.”
Russian forces yesterday backed by the “pro-Russian forces” seized the airport in Simferopol. Several armoured cars “Tiger” with Russian SPECNA3 soldiers quickly handed over their position to the Crimea new army members. Airport staff was kindly asked to move away from journalists, which were almost more than soldiers.
The airspace above the Crimea is now closed to all flights except for those from Moscow and towards Moscow. The local authorities say it was done so “euromaydans” from Kiev do not arrive.
On the streets yesterday for the first time I noticed people in some kind of semi uniforms with red stripes around the arms. The degree of vigilance here increases day by day; there is fear from deliberately caused incidents. All hotels in Simferopol and the whole Crimea are full of journalists. If the upcoming tourist season fails, there will be some benefit of the journalistic caravan. Yesterday my colleague from Chile was explaining similarities of putsch in Kiev with demolishing of Allende in his country. He says that “script” is the same, or very similar.
One car unit of the Ukrainian army surrendered to Crimean security forces yesterday. There are more and more volunteers who join the defence of the Crimea, while in Kiev are announcing the establishment of the National Guard and the mobilization of reservist. Which means the first mobilization seven days ago, in fact, failed.
Kiev has requested military assistance from the West; the “Awacs” planes began air patrols from Poland to Romania for monitoring Russian air movement. For now, NATO “Awacs” do not enter the airspace of Ukraine. American F-16s begin exercises in Poland, the U.S. F -15 arrived on the Baltic, and the American, Romanian and Bulgarian military fleet delayed the joint naval exercises in the Black Sea for 24 hours due to unfavourable weather conditions.
At the same time all of the biggest and most modern warships of the Russian Black Sea fleet in the open sea, sailed southwards Odessa. Russian airborne forces, under the command of General Vladimir Shamanov began the biggest manoeuvres in 20 years, in the exercise which will last until 14th March more than 4,000 paratroopers will participate from the combat vehicles BMD which will be airdropped from 36 large “Antonovs” and “Ilyushins” with the help of parachutes. Parachutists come from the base in Ivanov.
This is just a continuation of exercises and manoeuvres of the Russian armed forces on the occasion of situation in Ukraine: first practiced the units of the Western military district, and then air defence units of the western and southern fronts, then the Russians fired an intercontinental “Topol” at a distance of 10,000 kilometres, so now airborne forces are practicing, while the war fleet is on the high seas of the Black Sea. And in Kiev are seeking military aid from the West.
Ever since the great Cuban missile crisis, West and Russia have never been in such a state of political and potential military confrontation, as is the case now.
Kiev – Ukraine’s parliament today voted suspension of the referendum on the future of the Crimea, which the Supreme Soviet of Crimea scheduled for 16 March.
Ukrainian Parliament called on the Supreme Soviet of the Crimean Autonomous Region to reconsider its decision of the 12th March to hold a referendum and to “comply” with the Ukrainian and Crimean constitution, reports the Ukrinform agency.
