Russia builds up armour near Crimea, Ukraine border guards say

Military personnel, believed to be Russian servicemen, walk outside the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in the village of Perevalnoye outside Simferopol March 3, 2014. Ukraine mobilised for war on Sunday and Washington threatened to isolate Russia economically after President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade his neighbour in Moscow's biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War. Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea, an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow has a naval base. (REUTERS)

People take part during a protest in Times Square against Russian military intervention in the Crimea region of Ukraine, on March 2, 2014, in New York City. Interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull back troops that spread out across the Crimean Peninsula today, one day after Russia's parliament approved to use military force in Ukraine.(AFP)

Published Monday, March 03, 2014

By Reuters

Russia has started a build-up of armoured vehicles on the Russian side of a narrow stretch of water between Russia and the Ukrainian region of Crimea, Ukrainian border guards said on Monday.

A border guard spokesman also said Russian ships had been moving in and around the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea Fleet has a base, and that Russian forces had blocked mobile telephone services in some parts of Crimea.

He said the build-up of Russian armour was near a ferry port on the Russian side of what is known as the Kerch Strait, which separates the eastern edge of the Crimea peninsula and the western edge of the Taman Peninsula.

The strait is 4.5 km (2.8 miles) wide at its narrowest point and up to 18 metres (59 feet) deep.

"There are armoured vehicles on the other side of the strait. We can't predict whether or not they will put any vehicles on the ferry," the spokesman said by telephone.

The border guard spokesman did not say how many armoured vehicles had gathered in Russian territory, opposite the city of Kerch on the Ukrainian side of the strait.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian Defence Ministry.

The Kerch Strait also connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

Russian forces have taken control of Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority, and Ukraine has ordered a military mobilisation as well as putting its forces on combat alert.

Russia's upper house of parliament has authorised President Vladimir Putin to deploy troops in Ukraine to defend Russian speakers in Ukraine who are said by Moscow to be under threat.

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