Early on Sunday morning, Colonel Sergei Storozhenko, the commander of Ukraine’s 36th Coastal Defense Division, looked through the gates of his base in the center of Crimea, in southern Ukraine, to see a column of Russian troops approaching. He estimated there were roughly 800 of them, a full battalion, which would outnumber, if not outgun, his Ukrainian force of several hundred men. Without identifying themselves, the Russian troops took up positions within easy range of the main gate and ordered the Ukrainians to lay down their arms and surrender the base. Storozhenko and his fellow officers refused, deciding that they would, if necessary, stand and fight.
EuroMaidan Revolution
Time: A tense standoff in a Crimean village
Russian naval infantry soldiers (marines) stand guard the Orsk Russian landing ship anchored in the Ukraine's Black Sea port of Sevastopol on March 2, 2014, with a Russian naval flag painted on the gates. In 2010, after years of tortuous negotiations, Ukraine agreed to extend Moscow's lease on Sevastopol port until 2042 in exchange for a 30-percent reduction in the price of Russian gas on which Ukraine depends for much of its energy needs.
