Ukraine plans to withdraw troops from Crimea

New York Times, Crimea :
Bowing to the reality of the Russian military occupation of Crimea a day after Russia announced it was annexing the disputed peninsula, the Ukrainian government said on Wednesday that it had drawn up plans to evacuate all of its military personnel and their families and was prepared to relocate as many as 25,000 of them to mainland Ukraine.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and sailors have been trapped on bases and other installations here for more than two weeks, surrounded by heavily armed Russian forces and loosely organized local militia. While the provisional government in Kiev has insisted that Russia’s annexation of Crimea is illegal and has appealed to international supporters for help, the evacuation announcement by the head of the national security council, Andriy Parubiy, effectively amounted to a surrender of Crimea, at least from a military standpoint.
It came hours after militiamen, backed by Russian forces, seized the headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy in Sevastopol and detained its commander, in what appeared to be the start of a concerted effort to oust the Ukrainian armed forces from outposts throughout the peninsula.
Officers of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which is also headquartered here, later entered the base through its main gates as Ukrainian military personnel streamed out carrying clothing and other personal belongings.
In Kiev, the provisional government also said that it would quit the Commonwealth of Independence States, the group of former Soviet republics, and that it was considering imposing visa requirements on Russian citizens – a step that would potentially create huge inconveniences for Ukrainians as well, in the likely event that Russia reciprocated.
Russia did not flinch. Outside Moscow, President Vladimir V Putin opened a meeting of senior government ministers by demanding updates on the transportation and infrastructure in Crimea. Putin ordered that the government move swiftly to begin construction of a bridge that would provide an overland link for cars and trains directly between Crimea and Russia. At present, no such link exists.
The takeover of the base proceeded as anger intensified in the West over Russia’s move to annex Crimea, with calls for Russia’s expulsion from important international bodies like the G-8 grouping of leading economic powers. At the same time, Vice President Joseph R Biden Jr continued his effort to reassure American allies in the Baltic region, once part of the Soviet Union, that the United States would protect them from any aggression by Russia.
The United Nations said Wednesday that Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, would travel to Moscow and Kiev on Thursday and Friday for meetings with leaders, including Putin, whose moves to reclaim Crimea have set off the biggest crisis in East-West relations since the Soviet Union’s demise two decades ago.