Ukraine accused Russia of staging an “armed invasion” of Crimea on Friday.
Russia has admitted that its troops are in Crimea in the Ukraine Eight Russian transport planes landed in Crimea Peninsula in southern Ukraine with unknown cargo.
Unidentified armed men were patrolling outside of Crimea’s main airport early Friday while gunmen were also reported to have seized another airfield on the southwest of the peninsula where ethnic Russians are a majority and where pro-Moscow sentiment runs high.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week stoked concerns that Moscow might use its military might to sway the outcome of Ukraine’s three-month standoff by ordering snap combat drills near its border involving 150,000 troops and nearly 900 tanks.
Russian armored vehicles bearing the nation’s tricolor rumbled across Crimea and men described as Russian troops took position at airports and a coast guard base.
Soldiers sit atop a Russian armoured personnel carrier near the town of Bakhchisarai, Ukraine on Friday.
U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Russia against military involvement in Ukraine, noting the U.S. is “deeply concerned” about recent reports that Moscow may have forces operating within the troubled country, where tensions between East and West have been steadily mounting since the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych.
“There will be costs for any military involvement in Ukraine,” Obama said in a statement Friday, speaking from the White House.
“Any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in the interest of Ukraine, Russia or Europe,” he added.
Kerry said he spoke with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and told him that Russian intervention in the already volatile Ukraine would be a “grave mistake.”
Sarah Palin was mocked in 2008 for warning that Putin may invade the Ukraine if Obama was elected President. Of course, Sarah Palin had a clearer view of the situation from her porch in Alaska.
As a futurist, I want to call out who had predictions right and who had predictions wrong.
Crimea is a peninsula of Ukraine located on the northern coast of the Black Sea.
According to the 2001 Ukrainian population census 58.5% of the population of Crimea were ethnic Russians and 24.4% were ethnic Ukrainians and the region has the largest share of Muslims in Ukraine. Crimea has a population of about 2.0 million people. The 2.0 million does not include the area and population of the City of Sevastopol (2007 population: 379,200), which is administratively separate from the autonomous republic. The peninsula thus has 2,352,385 people
Ukraine has a population of about 45 million.
SOURCES – NBC news, Telegraph UK, Huffington post, Breitbart, AP, kansascity.com
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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