On Friday night, when Russian troops began storming the command center of Ukraine’s air defenses in the region of Crimea, the hundred or so soldiers barricaded inside had orders not to open fire. Half of them locked themselves inside a bunker at the far end of the base, which stretches about two kilometers along the Black Sea coast. The other half stood and watched as about two dozen Russian commandos forced their way inside. Their only means of self-defense was to form a human chain behind the main gate, hoping that the Russian truck would not drive over them as it rammed its way through the iron bars. “We are not allowed to use our weapons,” says Major Vladimir Yaremchuk, who was at the base that night. “But those guys came here armed to the teeth.”
Russia's War Against Ukraine
Time: Ukraine troops in Crimea face dilemma – to defect, flee or fight
A Russian soldier stands near some 30 military vehicles outside a small Ukrainian military base in Perevalnoye, a tiny town some 33 kilometers outside the Crimean capital Simferopol, on March 3, 2014.
