[Al Ahram] Armed men wielding assault rifles took up fresh positions outside military installations in Crimea Monday as authorities said all of Ukraine's bases in the flashpoint peninsula were surrounded by pro-Russian forces. Kiev said Russian troops were continuing to pour into Crimea and a regional defence ministry front man told AFP that gunnies had surrounded all of its facilities.
But the front man, Vladislav Seleznev, insisted that Ukraine was still in control of all of its bases after defiant troops refused to hand over control.
"All of the bases in Crimea are still under Ukrainian control but are surrounded," he said, adding that despite the tensions so far no violence had erupted.
"There have been no shots fired, except for one warning shot in the air yesterday at Belbek (near Sevastopol) by the Ukrainians," Seleznev said.
AFP news hounds in various parts of the peninsula saw gunnies believed to be Russian soldiers taking up or cementing positions outside Ukrainian military installations.
The Ukrainian defence ministry says some 6,000 Russian troops have been sent by the Kremlin to Crimea -- a Russian-speaking autonomous region that has been thrown into disarray since the ouster of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych last month.