- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:27 05:45 12:20 15:47 18:49 20:07
Russian navy sailors stand on the deck of their ship, the 'Suzdalets' ASW corvette, making its way in the bay of the Crimean city of Sevastopol on March 25. Ukraine ordered yesterday its outnumbered troops to withdraw from Crimea after Russia's lightning annexation of the peninsula as world leaders met for emergency talks on the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War. ( AFP)
Ukraine's leader sought parliamentary approval on Wednesday for military exercises with Nato partners that would put US troops in direct proximity to Russian forces in the annexed Crimea peninsula.
Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov's request came as the chief of Russia's general staff announced in Moscow that his forces were now in full control of all of Ukraine's 193 military bases in the Black Sea region before its seizure by Kremlin forces at the start of the month.
Turchynov said Ukraine wanted to conduct two sets of military exercises with the United States this summer -- Rapid Trident and Sea Breeze -- that have prompted disquiet in Russia in previous years.
Ukraine is planning two additional manoeuvres with Nato member Poland as well as joint ground operations with Moldova and Romania.
US President Barack Obama's administration this month proposed a 28-percent spending cut to a Pentagon initiative that supports modernising the armed forces of Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states.
But a Pentagon spokeswoman said that both Rapid Trident and Sea Breeze were still expected to proceed on schedule in the coming months.
The Sea Breeze exercises have especially irritated Moscow because they had on occasion been staged in Crimea -- the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
Those manoeuvres have in more recent years been moved to the Black Sea port of Odessa where Ukraine also has a naval base.
An explanatory note accompanying Turchynov's request to parliament said the naval section of Sea Breeze would this time be conducted over a 25-day span between July and October out of two Odessa ports and "along the waters of the Black Sea".
Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 1 won authority to use force against Ukraine after three months of deadly protests in Kiev brought down a pro-Kremlin regime and replaced it with new leaders seeking closer ties with the West.
The resulting security crisis has set off the worst diplomatic standoff since the Cold War era and prompted the European Union to conduct urgent consultations aimed at weening itself off its dependence on Russian natural gas.
One warship standing
Kremlin forces on Tuesday stormed the last Ukrainian ship in Crimea and are now in complete military control of the Belgium-sized cape of two million mostly Russian speakers.
Kiev's Military and Political Studies Centre director Dmytro Tymchuk said his calculations showed the Russian flag flying over all but 10 of the 61 naval ships Ukraine had until last month.
But only one of Ukraine's remaining vessels -- the Odessa-based frigate Getman Sagaydachniy -- is an actual warship while the rest are mostly cutters and utility craft.
Both the United States and Nato have expressed grave concern about Russia's recent military buildup along Ukraine's eastern border and have warned Putin repeatedly not to push his troops beyond the annexed peninsula.
Yet Western powers have also flatly refused to get militarily involved in the conflict and analysts doubt that Putin will feel particularly threatened by the planned war games.
"Putin is now certain that none of the Nato members intend to fight for Crimea," said Oleksiy Melnyk of Kiev's Razumkov political research centre.
Russians in Transdniestr
One of the West's more recent worries has concerned a possible push by Moscow into Transdniestr -- a separatist sliver of land in the east of the impoverished ex-Soviet republic of Moldova whose officials asked last week to be absorbed by Russia.
US Air Force General Philip Breedlove -- also Nato's supreme allied commander in Europe -- warned on Sunday that a "very, very sizeable and very, very ready" Russian force was ready to seize the region of 2.3 million people at any time.
Russia's defence ministry confirmed on Wednesday that it had conducted two sets of "planned" miliary exercises in Transdniestr since Friday.
Plane with 495 passengers diverted after Russia closes airspace
Air France says a plane carrying 495 passengers and 22 crew was diverted on its way from Shanghai to Paris after Russia announced at short notice that part of its airspace was closed for a military exercise.
The company said flight AF111 was forced to land in Hamburg, Germany, early Wednesday to refuel because the plane had too little fuel on board to complete the flight following its detour.
Hamburg Airport confirmed that the plane landed shortly after 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) and was able to take off for Paris again after an hour and a half.
It wasn't immediately clear if Russia's military exercise was linked to the increased troop activity on its western border with Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities dismiss criticism over Russian flights
Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of putting lives at risk by preventing Russian pilots and crew disembarking from passenger flights but the Ukrainian authorities said the report distorted the facts.
Citing information from Russian carrier Aeroflot, the Foreign Ministry said Ukrainian border officials were denying entry to Russian crews landing in Ukraine in violation of safety regulations allowing for rest periods after flights.
"Russia insists on an unconditional cessation of these irresponsible practices by Ukraine which endanger the safety of civil aviation flights," the ministry said in a statement.
Tension is high between Moscow and Kiev following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region last week and the overthrow of Ukraine's Moscow-backed president last month.
Ukraine's border control service said the ministry's account of events did "not fully correspond with the facts."
It said it had followed orders from law enforcement agencies to stop one Russian from entering the country, not the entire crew, although the man turned out to be a pilot. When he was denied entry, the whole crew decided to return to the plane.
"No one refused the crew entry but the crew members decided themselves not to cross the border," said Oksana Ozhigova, a spokeswoman for Kiev's Borispol airport.
The border control service said it had also denied entry to two Russian crew members on two other occasions this month in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Kharkiv because they were on a list of people barred from entering the country.
Another Russian airline, Transaero, said it had not experienced such problems.
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