SIMFEROPOL, CRIMEA – We know Crimea voted to join Russia. We know the European Union and the United States said they wouldn’t recognize the outcome of the vote, and imposed some of the most serious sanctions against Russian officials since the Cold War.
Tuesday, despite warnings from the international community, Russia went ahead and officially declared Crimea a part of Russia.
Now, Ukraine’s kicking into action. The country began training about 500 newly-recruited national guard troops, and not a minute too soon, apparently. At a Ukrainian military base (in Crimea) a Ukrainian chief warrant officer was killed and a second person was hurt when the base was attacked by armed people in masks who said they were there to arrest Ukrainian military personnel.
That prompted the Ukrainian defense ministry to authorize its troops in Crimea to use weapons.
Now the question is do those sanctions from the West mean anything? They didn’t seem to bother Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, who apparently laughed off the list of sanctions given by President Obama.
However, Russia is really left standing alone in this whole thing, so we’ll see who has the last laugh.
