The showdown in the battle for the Crimea continues. Armed occupied last night briefly the airport of the autonomous peninsula. According to Ukrainian Interior Ministry it was soldiers of the Russian Federation. Kiev speaks of an invasion.

A group of about 50 armed men occupied the city’s airport Simferopol for a short time in the Crimea. The building was stormed at midnight returned from a self-proclaimed Cossack unit in civilian clothes. The attackers were but pushed by Ukrainian security forces have retreated.

“Against 01.30 clock reached on several truck 119 soldiers with automatic rifles and dressed in camouflage without identification, the building of the airport, ” it said in a statement of the Ukrainian Interior Minister arsenic Awakow . The men had set itself to the restaurant at the airport. ” From their belonging to the armed forces of the Russian Federation , they make no secret ,” said the Interior Ministry on. Ukrainian police had they pointed out that they ” are military and have no right to remain here .” Then they should have answered: “We have no orders to hold talks with them. ”

Armed force had been used by either side , the situation is “static” , the Minister of the Interior . However, the Ukrainian police were not able ” to oppose regular troops.” ” I consider these operations as an armed invasion and occupation – in violation of all international agreements and rules. ” Apparently someone wanted to provoke bloodshed.

The channel Russia Today reported, citing the press service of the airport in the short message service Twitter, the invaders had left the premises again after they had encountered no Ukrainian soldiers. You could even apologized, they said at Russia Today. The operation of the airport had not been impaired.

The news agency Interfax-Ukraine wrote that the men were wearing military uniforms. Eyewitnesses said that the gunmen had the same military clothing worn as the men who had occupied the building of parliament and regional government on the Crimean peninsula on Thursday morning. The men had driven up in vehicles without number plate at the airport.

In the morning it was said that the access to the airport was open and passengers would be processed . About a dozen armed men patrouilliere inside and outside the building , report several news agencies.

Since Thursday, the Crimean peninsula is increasingly becoming a hotspot : The area occupied by pro-Russian militias regional parliament in the capital, Simferopol approved a referendum on the future of the majority of Russian-speaking region. It will on 25 Take place May , so on the same day in Ukraine presidential elections are scheduled . In addition, the deputies continued from the previous regional government , said the press department of the people’s representatives .

In Kiev, Ukraine’s new transitional government of Russia called on the military not to intervene in the Crimea. On the peninsula , more specifically in Sevastopol, the Russian Black Sea fleet has its base. NATO warned of a dramatic escalation after Russia had mobilized troops for military exercises on the border with Ukraine.