Ukraine president slams Russia over Crimea violence

Ukraine’s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov has slammed the Russian military over “an escalation of violence” in Ukraine’s autonomous Crimea territory.

Turchynov made the remarks on Friday after reports said that armed men captured the Belbek airfield near the city of Sevastopol, which is home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

He called for an emergency session of security chiefs on the situation in Crimea, urging the United States and the UK to uphold a 1994 pact signed with Russia that guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Turchynov also asked the UN Security Council to call a session to consider the country’s situation.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said that Russian troops, backed by armored personnel carriers, have entered the airfield.

He has also accused the Russian armed forces of being directly involved in armed attacks on another airport in Crimea’s main city of Simferopol.

Eyewitness said about 50 gunmen in military uniforms arrived at Simferopol’s international airport in military trucks on Friday to search for Ukrainian airborne troops. The group, however, left after finding out that Ukrainian military forces were not present on the tarmac.

Avakov said gunmen at the airport in Simferopol “are not even hiding the fact that they belong to the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” adding that the Belbek airfield was “blockaded by military units of the Russian navy.”

“I consider what is happening to be an armed invasion and an occupation,” Avakov said in a statement posted on his Facebook account.

However, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying that the country’s Black Sea Fleet forces have not seized Belbek airfield or taken any other action there.

The airport incidents come after dozens of gunmen seized the government and parliament buildings in Crimea and raised Russian flags over them on Wednesday.

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.