Sailors on the Ternopol, an anti-submarine ship that rallied to Russia
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At a ceremony in the Kremlin, President Putin praised the Crimean military and security officers who rallied to Russia, saying that Russia should do its utmost to use them to the best of their abilities. He emphasised that their pay and benefits would be in line with their Russian confrères in the very near future. According to our NTV correspondent, Putin mostly acted in his role as commander-in-chief at the Kremlin ceremony. He congratulated security service officers on their new appointments and titles, then, he wished them further success in the security and defence of the country. Putin said, “The recent developments in the Crimea were a serious test. They demonstrated the qualitatively higher readiness of our armed forces, and the high morale of their personnel. I thank the command of the Black Sea Fleet and other units stationed in the Crimea for their endurance and bravery, for their flawlessly professional actions that avoided provocations and prevented bloodshed, ensuring peaceful conditions for a free conduct of the referendum”.
The military infrastructure of the Crimea is in need of large-scale modernisation. Soon, officials of the MVD, Penitentiary Service, FSB, SK RF, and the Office for Drug Control will be working in the region, as there are no longer any obstacles for them. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reported that all military facilities in the Crimea have come under Russian jurisdiction, saying, “Comrade Supreme Commander, according to your request, the withdrawal of Ukrainian servicemen who expressed a desire to continue to serve in the Ukrainian forces is complete. We’ve changed state symbols on all ships and units that rallied to Russia. We won’t tolerate acts of desecration and disrespect to Ukrainian state symbols. I ask your permission to begin transferring to the Ukraine weapons and military equipment now under our control in units that didn’t rally to Russia“. Putin replied, “You mean ships and aircraft?” Shoigu said, “Exactly”. Putin said, “I agree. Make it so”.
Those troops in the Crimea who rallied to Russia would serve in newly created units. Their professional skills wouldn’t be lost, but rather serve to benefit the Crimea. All those rallying to Russia would keep their present military ranks and seniority. The RF armed forces would recognise their higher military training, and would raise their pay to Russian levels, about 400 percent higher than the Ukrainian pay rates. Putin said, “In the coming days, the Russian government will decide on all issues with payments related to paying pensions, benefits, and military wages. At the same time, we respect the choice of Ukrainian military and security personnel who chose to return to the Ukraine. We should maintain a very correct attitude to their families, as required by traditional military honour”. Talking about the future of the Crimea, President Putin pointed up its place in military history. He instructed the relevant officials to revive the Black Sea Nakhimov Naval School and create a Cadet Corps in Sevastopol as soon as possible.
28 March 2014
Aleksandr Kalinin
NTV
http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/873738/
Editor:
Of the 18,000 Ukrainian armed forces personnel in the Crimea, 15,000 (85 percent) rallied to Russia. Note well that The Nation, Sophia Kishkovsky, The National Catholic Reporter, and Christiane Amanpour are silent on that. I wonder why? I’d say that it’s because it isn’t a good omen for the junta’s future. Ordinary folk usually choose sides for hardheaded pragmatic reasons… to put it plainly, real people see that the junta’s not long for this world and they’re acting accordingly. “Independence” and “nationalism” don’t put bread on the table…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
Shoigu sez Ukie Nationalist Terrorists Attacking Civilians
Tags: AIFV, APC, Armoured personnel carrier, Donetsk, Kiev, Little Russia, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Defence (Russia), Minoborony, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Russian armed forces, Sergei Shoigu, Sergey Shoygu, South Ossetia, Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces
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On Thursday, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, “‘National Guard’ units, as well as battalions of Right Sector extremists, are attacking civilians. SBU and MVDU elements left in Donetsk and Lugansk are carrying out this crackdown on civilians. According to our data, they’ve deployed a contingent consisting of over 11,000 troops, equipped with automatic weapons. The operation involves about 160 tanks, more than 230 AIFVs and APCs, at least 150 guns and mortars, and many aircraft”.
Editor:
This is the total of the military power left to the junta (it’s the size of a reinforced motor rifle division, about 9 motor rifle battalions and 4 tank battalions (if full strength). I’d say that most of the standing forces refused to move against their own people (shades of August 1991, no?), so, the junta is using the few Galician troops loyal to them, along with untrained and undisciplined “National Guard” and Right Sector rabble. Understand this… VVP HAS to act if the junta murders civilians. If he doesn’t, he loses all cred in Russia… and he WON’T do that.
By the way, the present junta force is an ad hoc unit, not a formed element that’s been in existence for some time. That is, it’d be militarily useless against a real standing force. That is, the Russian forces would smash it easily. Mind you, there’d be casualties, many of the Galician Uniate terrorists would go to ground, and it’d be the devil itself to root them out (although the eastern population wouldn’t shelter them, save for the miniscule Uniate population). By the way, the junta force is only about 25 percent larger than the forces deployed by Georgia in ’08 in South Ossetia. That is, Russia could wax their ass with a similar force to the one it deployed then, two motorised rifle divisions and two airborne divisions. The opolchenie would guard their LOC and act as local garrisons, as the South Ossetian locals did in ’08, freeing the Russian troops for manoeuvre operations (on the other hand, the junta forces would have to detail some of their units to guard the LOC to Kiev and secure restive towns). Many shortcomings came out after that war… the Minoborony hasn’t been idle in putting them right.
The chess pieces are on the board… however, never forget, they’re not inanimate tokens, they’re human beings. Blood will flow… God do preserve the people of Little Russia and New Russia.
BMD
24 April 2014
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/world/20140424/189349970/Right-Sector-Extremists-Attacking-Civilians-in-East-Ukraine-.html