WASHINGTON — Russia is locking down control of Crimea before Sunday’s referendum on splitting from Ukraine — even burying deadly land mines to deter an unlikely counterinvasion.
Forces loyal to Moscow planted mines in the Kherson region, just north of the Crimean border, and began to install border markers between the two regions.
The Russian forces are “setting up mine fields across the narrow strip of land that connects Ukraine with Crimea” in an apparent effort to block Ukrainian forces from entering, Alexei Mazepa, the regional spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, told the LA Times.
In other developments in the Cold War-style standoff:
- Unidentified men fired shots into the air Monday as they moved into a Ukrainian Navy post in Crimea. The Russians also reportedly took over a naval supply base and grabbed a military hospital in Simferopol.
- Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsya, said the situation in his country “now is almost like a war.”
- Ukraine’s acting prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, made plans to travel to DC on Wednesday to discuss the crisis with President Obama.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Secretary of State John Kerry has postponed a visit to meet in Sochi to discuss ways to defuse the crisis. The US first needs to see “concrete evidence” that Russia is prepared to engage in dialogue with the Ukrainians, said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
- Russia accused the West of ignoring violence against Russian-speaking citizens, in what could foreshadow further efforts to extend its grip on a broader slice of the region.