Ukraine security forces "regain" Crimea airports without firing a shot

Press TV
Fri, 28 Feb 2014 10:56 UTC

© Unknown

File photo shows Crimea international airport in Simferopol.

Ukrainian authorities say they have regained control of two airports in the country's semi-autonomous region Crimea after armed gunmen seized the buildings.

The country's National Security and Defence Council chief Andriy Parubiy said Friday that there had been an attempt to occupy the airports in Crimea, security forces, however, has taken full control of them.

The developments come as Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov earlier in the day accused Russian troops of staging an "invasion" of Crimea's international airport in Simferopol and the Belbek airfield near the city of Sevastopol, which is home to Russia's Black Sea fleet.

A spokesman for Russia's Crimea-based Black Sea Fleet denied that Russian troops had any involvement in the airport occupations.

Earlier on Friday, a group of armed men in military uniforms briefly seized an airport in the regional capital of Crimea. Eyewitness said about 50 gunmen in military uniforms arrived at Simferopol International Airport in military trucks to search for Ukrainian airborne troops.

The group, however, left after finding out that Ukrainian military forces were not present on the tarmac.

The airport incidents came a day after dozens of gunmen seized the government and parliament buildings in Simferopol in Crimea and hoisted Russian flags above the government headquarters on Thursday.

Unrest erupted in Ukraine in November 2013, when President Viktor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia.

On February 23, the Ukrainian parliament ousted Yanukovych and named Oleksandr Turchynov, the legislature's newly-elected speaker, as interim president.

Comment: So this staged take-over of the airports were most likely another false-flag event with the aim of accusing Russia of invasion and stir up anti-Russian feelings across the Western world. The Cold war headlines and editorials have already been made in the Western media.

It doesn't matter that Russia has denied it or that locals from around the airports have said that they were not Russian soldiers. The Ukrainian forces also retook them without firing a shot. Something does not add up.

A commenter (Deo Cassar) on Press TV wrote:

So the truth has finally emerged. It was all simply an excercise in mass deception. There was never any take over by Russian troops, nor self defence troops who took over vthe airports. They were simply NATO Russian speaking specail forces calling themselves Crimean Defence Force?! The great deceiver has exceeded its level of decit. The hype behind the story that Russian trops had taken over the airport was only a sham to deceive the Crimean people and deny them the right to react. It also served as an excuse to justify the cancellation of the 2010 deal to extend the lease of Sevastapol harbour to the Russian fleet and throw them out. Now it is time for the Crimean people, the true Russian speaking Crimean people to rise up and throw the Neo-Nazi trash out to their Northern dustbins.