https://medium.com/war-is-boring/af7a59ff4ad8

 

How Russia Invaded Crimea

By moving fast

·         Robert Beckhusen in War is Boring

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In the past two days, Russia has proved it’s capable of carrying out fast, coordinated military operations across its borders.

Not only have Russian troops invaded and occupied Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, but with deteriorating security in Ukraine’s eastern provinces, there’s a risk that Russia might go farther.

At first, it wasn’t clear who exactly who the armed men were who appeared at airports in Sevastopol and Simferopol overnight on Feb. 28. But on March 1, the Russian senate unanimously approved a request from Pres. Vladimir Putin to use the military “on the territory of Ukraine pending the normalization of the social and political situation in that country.”

The operation was already underway. Russian forces had launched a coordinated takeover of key sites, including airports, government offices, television stations and the two land routes connecting Crimea to the rest of Ukraine.

Someone sabotaged Ukrtelecom, which provides phone and Internet service to the peninsula.

Armed men occupy Crimea’s parliament in Simferopol.

According to Daily Beast, the troops in matching uniforms—armed with AK-74 rifles and PKM machine guns—who seized the airports are members of the Vnevedomstvenaya Okhrana, Russia’s quasi-private Interior Ministry security force. With the airports, now Moscow can send in reinforcements by air.

On Feb. 28, a spokesperson for Ukrainian Pres. Sergey Kunitsyn said 13 Il-76 transports arrived carrying 150 paratroopers each—close to 2,000 troops, total. The Ukrainian border service said eight transport planes landed in Crimea, but it’s unclear if this is a separate force.

If these are airborne troops, they were likely from one or two units. The first is the 45th Special Forces Reconnaissance Regiment, which airlifted on Il-76s into Anapa, Ukraine from their base in Kubika, outside Moscow, over the weekend of Feb. 22.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aeUadGWaRI

At the same time, a Russian military units flew from Pskov, near the Estonian border, to Anapa. It’s unclear which unit this was, but Pskov is the home of the 76th Airborne Regiment. On Feb. 28, there were rumors the 76th was in Ukraine.

Airborne regiments are the Russian military’s rapid strike force. They’re highly trained for precisely the kind of operation underway in Crimea. Each regiment possesses a tactical group that remains in a permanent state of high readiness and can deploy at a moment’s notice.

Russian forces in Crimea have also fielded 2S1 122-millimeter self-propelled artillery—likely based at Russia’s Black Sea Fleet base at Sevastopol. Armored personnel carriers, seen in the video above), also likely originated at the base.

Photographers have spotted Russian helicopters over Ukraine, including Mi-24 Hind gunships. Helicopters and artillery are key weapons for offensive action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT8zs566fvM

All told, there are thousands of Russian soldiers operating openly in Crimea. The Russian 810th Separate Naval Infantry Brigade from Sevastopol—roughly equivalent to U.S. Marines, has deployed outside the Ukrainian navy’s headquarters. The result is, so far, a bloodless invasion—achieved partly from within, partly from outside.

In addition, citizens have witnessed Russian forces standing alongside unarmed Ukrainians wearing black and orange ribbons commemorating the Soviet victory during World War II. Armed members of Berkut, Ukraine’s disbanded interior security force, are manning checkpoints. The Night Wolves, an ultra-nationalist Russian biker gang, has also joined the blockades.

It’s a major international crisis. But the greatest short-term risk is a bloody escalation involving Ukrainian forces stationed in Crimea.

There are several Ukrainian units on the peninsula, including three anti-aircraft regiments, the 204th Tactical Aviation Brigade and Ukraine’s navy headquarters. These forces are no match for Russian troops.

Ukraine has, at least for now, not directly confronted the Russians.

On March 1, Martin Nesirky, a U.N. spokesman, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is “gravely concerned about the deterioration of the situation.”

“The secretary-general reiterates his call for the full respect for the preservation of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Nesirky added.

But Russia has already occupied 10,000 square miles of Europe’s second-largest state.

Update March 1, 3:15 p.m. EST: According to Reuters, Ukraine’s military is on “full combat alert.”

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, NATO’s former supreme commander, has also written a set of bullet-point recommendations for NATO’s next moves.

Among them, Stavridis advises moving naval forces into the Black Sea, readying NATO’s 25,000-man Response Force, and developing “contingency plans to react to full-scale invasion of Ukraine and to a partial invasion likely of Crimea.”

Update March 1, 4:50 p.m. EST: The U.N. Security Council is at loggerheads.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.N., Yuriy Sergeyev said the number of Russian troops in Ukraine “is increasing every coming hour” and the Kremlin’s action comprise an “act of aggression against the state of Ukraine.” He later told reporters: “We are not in war. We are trying to avoid any clashes.”

Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said troops are acting “on the territory of Ukraine until the political stabilization of this country,” and accused the Ukrainian government of actions that “could lead to very difficult developments for which the Russian Federation is trying to avoid.”

U.S. ambassador Samantha Power’s statements were the strongest from an American official so far. “It is time for the Russian intervention in Ukraine to end,” she said.