So Russia is already building a border between Crimea / Ukraine (image):

[joshcryer]

http://www.visti.ks.ua/novosti/foto/12225-hersonschina-segodnya-stvoly-rossiyskih-btrov-naceleny-na-ukrainskuyu-shkolu.html

I've never seen anything quite like this.

[joshcryer]

1. Another pic, apparently the sign says "minefield":

https://twitter.com/MaximEristavi/status/442278717088620544

Wow. Russia is not fucking around.

[countryjake]

2. Those planted landmines were reported on the evening news...

NBC showed pictures of the line of freshly dug mounds, I think they said that a Russian paper published the photos with a story about mining the northern border of Crimean peninsula and the Ukraine mainland.

That's what those little red signs were for, danger...mine field. The news said nothing about building a fence, but in the pics I saw, a fence was already standing, with the landmine mounds right behind it.

[joshcryer]

3. Yeah I didn't realize.

Still it's an insane level of escalation if you ask me.

[countryjake]

4. Here are the pics (and the story) by Evgeny Feldman...

He is a staff photographer for the Russian publication, Novaya Gazeta.

On the Front Lines: Exclusive Photos of the Ukraine-Russia Standoff
http://mashable.com/2014/03/08/ukraine-russia-crimea/

I've no idea who he is, which side he's on, but the pics are quite real. Novaya Gazeta is an investigative newspaper.

His twitter page:
https://twitter.com/EvgenyFeldman

[Jenoch]

5. This is more proof that Putin is pure evil.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Russia had said they would secure the entire border with Ukraine

in the event Ukraine signed the EU trade agreement but no mention was made of method which could've been anything up to an including the scale of Israel's West Bank Barrier. That was to prevent smuggling. The border is over 1400 miles. I assume those are not just holes to take concrete posts - they look a bit linear for a minefield.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. That is about 200km inside Ukraine - on the border between the mainland and Crimea

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Chonhar,+Khersons%27ka+oblast,+Ukraine&hl=en&ll=46.027482,34.546509&spn=2.208226,5.410767&sll=27.666367,85.290352&sspn=0.044014,0.084543&oq=Chonhar+ukrain&t=h&hnear=Chonhar,+Heniches%27kyi+district,+Khersons%27ka+oblast,+Ukraine&z=8

[dipsydoodle]

11. I'd given up searching place names there.

Too many misspellings cut and pasted onto here from the media.

Odd that Ukraine didn't defend it then. I'd concluded Crimea is about the size of England and Wales - sound about right?

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. That's the thing - Ukraine doesn't want a war with Russia

on Ukrainian territory, where Ukrainians are more likely to get killed, and Russia has the heavier armaments to bring in if it feels like it. So it hasn't started shooting at Russians. It has more to lose.

more like the size of Wales - Crimea: 26,100 sq. km.; Wales 20,761 sq. km.

[joshcryer]

9. You're right, but it extends to the horizon.

So that image really took me by surprise. I know it's probably only a couple of miles in retrospect, but looking at that image, I still see some amazing efforts to delineate.

And it just now came on my radar that the referendum vote is "join Russia" or "reset constitution to 1992." There's no "no" vote. It's straight out of USSR "democracy" to be sure.

[cthulu2016]

7. And they should. How else to keep the Nazis out of Russia?

Ukraine is full of Nazis who threaten the peaceable persons of Russia.

I read it on the internet. Must be true.

[joshcryer]

10. Irony? Donetsk pro-Russia leader? Literally a Nazi.

http://crime.in.ua/news/20140308/gubarev-nacyst



Oh, nationalism...

[newfie11]

13. They must have their nut cases too

Last edited Sun Mar 9, 2014, 07:42 PM - Edit history (1)

Is this their Sarah palin?

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Some details on him:

There are also strong rumours of the involvement of the Russian security services and forces loyal to Mr Yanukovych. On March 3rd a 1,000-strong crowd of pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk stormed the building of the local administration and nominated as governor Pavel Gubarev, a marginal politician who was previously unknown in Donetsk. Mr Gubarev is an activist of the Eurasian Youth Movement, a Russian nationalist outfit set up after the Orange revolution of 2004 to counter the spread of Western ideas. Two days later Mr Gubarev was pushed out and the Kiev-appointed governor, the oligarch Sergei Taruta, walked in.

On March 5th Mr Gubarev’s mob gathered again, 2,000 strong, some of them aggressive looking young men, many of them older. They shouted “Russia, Russia” as second-world-war anthems called on the Soviet country to rise against fascists. They retook the building only to be removed again the following day.

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21598744-having-occupied-crimea-russia-stirring-up-trouble-eastern-ukraine-end

The protesters' unofficial leader is Pavel Gubarev. He describes himself as the people's governor but his virtual regime in Donetsk lasted less than a week.

On Thursday, as he was preparing for a BBC interview, police officers came to arrest him.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26487096

[leeroysphitz]

14. Foot in door. n/t

[hobbit709]

15. That worked so well in E. Germany.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Russians fire at Ukrainian plane as tensions in Crimea escalate

Russian forces fire warning shots at Irish-officered EU mission

A Ukrainian border patrol plane came under fire near the regional boundary with Crimea as tensions increased further in the contested peninsula yesterday.

The Diamond light aircraft was flying with three crew on an observation mission when shots were fired. No one was injured.

But the confrontation, coming just hours after Russian forces reportedly laid landmines along the border and fired warning shots over the heads of a European observer mission from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), provided worrying evidence of the rapidly rising temperature in Crimea.

An Irish Army colonel was among the team of unarmed European monitors. Col Paddy McDaniel, originally from Monaghan, has been on secondment with the OSCE in Vienna for the past year.

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/russians-fire-at-ukrainian-plane-as-tensions-in-crimea-escalate-30075965.html

[bemildred]

18. "I've never seen anything quite like this."

You will now. Putin won't give if back for free.

[Igel]

19. Yes, except that's not on the border between Kherson and Crimea.

It's inside the Kherson oblast a few kilometers.

There is no land between the Crimea and Kherson. There is a bridge. The border is entirely "in" water.

It's rather like putting up a British/French border fence and mining the "border" 5-10 miles or so from the English Channel inside France.