2014 Ukrainian Maidan Revolt: News, Views, Photos & Videos

"Right Sector" Is the Ultra nationalist party of Ukraine, they more or less were forged in the uprisings of the Maidan uprising are often pointed to by Russian Propaganda as proof of there claims.
During the violent protests Right sector were often the ones shooting back, as well as the origin of the more oft repeated quotes in Russian media particulaly Muzychko who uttered

“communists, Jews and Russians for as long as blood flows in my veins”.

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As you can read he was quite the Humanitarian.... this earned him a mention by a Communist party member of the Russian Duma who called on the FSB to well do what seems to have been done.
Right sector wants nothing to Do with Russia or Europe as they are stated as Distrusting the "Imperial Ambitions" of both.

solarz said:

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According to this article, there is a 2/3 defection rate for the Ukrainian military in the Crimea. That is an astounding number, even if it's not as high as the 90% Russia claims (or is claimed to claim).

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I understood from another source ( which ? ) that 18800 was the number of military and didn't include any relatives. That would mean a defection rate of 77%.

SampanViking said:

Ok you can say that the circumstances of the Crimea were very special, but in many ways you are; I think, arriving at my point but from the other direction. The difference between "They did not fight because they do not like the new regime" and "they did not fight because they were only waiting for the appropriate time to defect" is not that different and unlikely to give much comfort to Kiev. Remember Kiev issued the order only a couple of days ago not to give up without a fight, that order has been ignored.

The key though is whether the same pattern would repeat itself in other regions, should they ever be contested. I believe that the Ukraine military is unlikely to offer even token resistance here either. We will however need to wait and see.

Nobody can pretend that the Ukraine military has covered itself in glory in this matter and no future reader will mistake Crimea 2014 for the Alamo!

It would be interesting to see just how much equipment the Ukraine has lost to Russia over the last couple of days. I think it is clear that a Ukrainian Navy no longer exists in any meaningful form. I also wonder how many Aircraft, Tanks, APC's Guns etc have also been abandoned to the "enemy"?

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I have to agree, Unless the Ukranian army is rotating eastern and Crimean soldiers West well pouring western ones east it's entirely possible that the only real resistance a full Russian incursion might encounter would be in the western portion of the remaining nation.
There are reports that Ukraine has started arming and training "Self defense Groups" the same ones who took over policing after the revolution. at best though it seems more like Partisans and Anti Russian Militia. it' likely any military assets in the Crimea are now Russia, Flagged as "property of Crimea" which likely includes the entire Ukrainian Naval force.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

... As you can read he was quite the Humanitarian....

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Just have a look:

TerraN_EmpirE said:

"Right Sector" Is the Ultra nationalist party of Ukraine, they more or less were forged in the uprisings of the Maidan uprising are often pointed to by Russian Propaganda as proof of there claims.
During the violent protests Right sector were often the ones shooting back, as well as the origin of the more oft repeated quotes in Russian media particulaly Muzychko who uttered As you can read he was quite the Humanitarian.... this earned him a mention by a Communist party member of the Russian Duma who called on the FSB to well do what seems to have been done.
Right sector wants nothing to Do with Russia or Europe as they are stated as Distrusting the "Imperial Ambitions" of both.

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Svoboda Party, the other ultra nationalist party, doesn't get along with Right Sector. Svoboda is in control of about a quarter of the Ukrainian cabinet right now, including the Ministry of Defense. If you read the links from the wiki page quoted above, the Ukrainian police admits to shooting Muzychko. So more like internal conflict than anything to do with FSU.

Jura said:

Just have a look:

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he dared the government to come and take his gun and knife. looks like they followed his suggestion.

SampanViking said:

Beyond that, the events of the last few days have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that the armed forces of the UKraine are not prepared to fight for the new regime in Kiev and that this is the biggest question yet raised to its legitimacy.

You would have thought that "a blatant land grab" of a strategic and heavily militarised region, through a referendum that Kiev and its friends do not recognise, would have been the perfect legitimate reason for Ukraine forces on the Peninsular to resist with deadly force and for reinforcements from the rest of Ukraine to try and retake the peninsular.

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I take a completely different tact.

The Ukrainian military in Crimea was never ordered to resist with deadly force. To do so would have been a fatal error for them, and probably for the Ukraine. Theyre was no way for them to wrest control from the much more powerful Russians, and it would have invited a true war with Russian forces which would have been used as a pretext for Russia to go further into the rest of Ukraine.

I believe the soldiers in the Crimea were under very specific ROEs to not engage in or start any major firefight with the Russian military. The Ukraine wants to avoid the trap Georgia fell into when they started fighting with the Russians, which invited an invasion of Gerorgia proper by Russian forces. The Ukraine wants to avoid this if they can.

I am sure if Russia invades the Ukraine proper in an effort to take Kiev, that the Ukrainian military would fight. But I believe they are trying to avoid a wider conflict and annexation if they can.

My understanding is that the vast majority of forces in the Crimea are being pulled out statrting today, returning to the Ulkraine. While there have been some defections, there have not been that many, and some of those claimed by Russia turned out, appraently, to be false.

For example, the modern Krivak Frigate, which is the Ukrainian Navy flagship, supposedly defected to Russia at the end of February.

At the time, that frigate was returning from conducting anti piracy operations first with Combined Task Force-151 and later with Operation Atalanta since September 2013, working closely alongside NATO and EU nation navies On the way back, it was reported to have defected to Russia. But then, on March 5th it passed through the Bosphourus flying the Ukrainian Flag and the Ukrainian Defence Ministry released a statement that the frigate, the Hetman Sahaydachny, U130, had reached home waters near Odessa, not returning to its former homeport of Sevastapol, Crimea.

That report added that the Ukrainian Military was solving the accommodation and logistic support for the vessels in Odessa. The ship and its personnel apparently stood ready to accomplish the orders of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of Ukraine.

The flagship of the Ukrainian Navy, the Krivak Class frigate Hetman Sahaydachny, passed through the Turkish Straits and is today in the Black Sea. Despite conflicting reports (see our accompanying coverage) the Hetman Sahaydachny was flying the Ukrainian flag, indicating the ship is currently in the hands of pro-Kiev sailors rather than defecting to the pro-Russian autonomous region of Crimea.

The Ukrainian frigate was returning from conducting anti piracy operations first with Combined Task Force-151 and later with Operation Atalanta since September 2013, working closely alongside NATO and EU nation navies.

The normal homeport of the ship is Sevastopol, which is currently under the control of Russian forces. The frigate is now heading for Odessa, the other major naval port of Ukraine (which has experienced unrest but is still in Kiev government hands).

A large Ukrainian flag was hoisted as Hetman Sahaydachny passed through the Bosphorus, a bold sign of the warship’s allegiance. The large patrol boat TCSG-90, from Turkish Coast Guard, escorted the Ukrainian vessel during her passage. A few minutes later the Turkish Navy frigate Yavuz passed through the Bosphorus and followed Hetman Sahaydachny towards the Black Sea.

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More pictures of her passing through the Bosphourus:

Anyone know what's left of the Ukrainian navy?

Blackstone said:

Anyone know what's left of the Ukrainian navy?

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What will happen to Ukrainian military hardware?

In addition to the servicemen, there is quite a large number of pieces of Ukrainian military hardware left in Crimea. These include, according to various estimates, at least 30 warships and auxiliary vessels, some 150 APCs and 50 tanks, 60 MiG-29 fighters and L-39 trainer aircraft, about 20 helicopters, some 60 S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, and about 40 Buk-M1 and Tor medium- and short-range surface-to-air missile systems as well as coastal defense systems… It is hard to say whether all this "legacy" will be of use to the Russian Armed Forces.




Ukraine's acting defense minister was dismissed on Tuesday over his handling of Russia's annexation of Crimea, after it emerged that less than a quarter of soldiers on the peninsula planned to stay in the Ukrainian military.

Blackstone said:

Anyone know what's left of the Ukrainian navy?

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Well, their largest surface combatant is that frigate I showed earlier. And they only have the one, though they are building another. We know the large frigate was on exercises and returned to Odessa.

Their main Naval base was there near the Russian one at Sevastapol. So, unless vessels got out of there, or happened to be away like the frigate, they are probably in Russian hands now. How many Russia will allow to return to the Ukraine is questionable...but my guess will be not many.

The Ukraine was in the process of building a new, modern Frigate, a type 58250 frigate that was supposed to be launched this year. It would be interesting to know its status. It was to be a modern western design with 8 Exocet missiles, Aster 15 SAMs, and an Oto Malera 76mm gun.

When the Soviet Union fell, a lot of Soviet military hardware fell into Ukrainian hands which is what makes up the vast majority of the Ukraine fleet to this day...and so I am sure that the Russians, to a certain extent, are believing they are getting back what used to be theirs anyway...even if it was over 20 years ago.

Even then, after the fall, the Ukraine Navy was never very large in any case.

1 x Krivak II Frigate (U130)
2 x Grisha V Corvettes (U205, U209)
2 x Tarantula II Corvettes (155, U156)
1 x Grisha II corvette (U206)
2 x Pauk I Corvettes (207, U208)
1 x Zhuk class corvette (U120)

That's the extent of the surface combatants they had.

They also had one Foxtrot class diesel sub, five small mine counter measures vessels, one LST, two LSMs, and one remaining Zubr hovercraft. A few small harbor patrol boats and then their auxiliaries.

How many of those made it away to Odessa, I do not know.