Ukrainian officials said Russian troops tried to take over an air base in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol Friday evening.
About 100 Ukrainian troops stationed at the base barricaded themselves inside one of their barracks, and their commander began negotiations, a report from the Ukrainian branch of the Interfax news agency said.
The Interfax report cited Ukrainian officials, who also spoke to a Time magazine correspondent reporting from Sevastopol.
The base was back in control of the Ukrainian military within hours.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence representative told Time armed men entered the A-2355 base, north of Sevastopol, and took control.
Time‘s Simon Shuster said Ukrainian air force deputy commander Col. Viktor Kukharchenko confirmed to him a Russian commander has demanded “Ukraine forces lay down arms and surrender.”
Kukharchenko, deputy commander at the nearby Belbek air base, which was the scene of a tense face-off earlier this week, said the Russian forces seized a part of the air base.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied Russian forces have entered Crimea, although Sevastopol is home to its Black Sea Fleet and, under a longstanding lease agreement with Ukraine, is allowed to have up to 25,000 Russian soldiers at its base.
On Tuesday, Putin said that Russia has no intention of annexing Crimea, though he has insisted that its residents have the right to determine the region’s status in a referendum.
By Friday, however, Russian lawmakers were forging ahead with preparations for a possible annexation and welcoming a delegation from Crimea’s regional parliament.
Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, made clear the country would welcome Crimea if it votes in the March 16 referendum to join its giant neighbour. About 60 per cent of Crimea’s population identifies itself as Russian.
She spoke of mistreatment of Russian-speaking residents in Ukraine’s east and south, which has been Moscow’s primary argument for possible intervention.
The Russian parliament, meanwhile, scrambled to make it easier for Crimea to join Russia. Russia’s constitution allows the country to annex territory only by an agreement “initiated… by the given foreign government.” That would entail signing an agreement with the new authorities in Kyiv, whom Moscow doesn’t recognize.
New legislation would sidestep that requirement, according to members of parliament, who initially said a new bill could be passed as soon as next week, but have since indicated that they will wait until after the referendum.
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*With files from Nick Logan and The Associated Press
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