Ukraine’s interim government was able to spin a border incident with Crimea today as both a Russian “invasion” and a grand military victory for Ukraine, when a small number of Russian troops deployed to the Arabat Spit crossed into the Ukrainian half and returned to the Crimean side amid a Ukraine air force deployment.
The Arabat Spit is a narrow sandbar that runs along the east coast of Crimea. Most of it belongs to the Crimean region of Lenine Raion, but a fraction in the north is part of Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast.
The Russian troops were sent to protect a gas terminal on the spit, and deployed by helicopter from outside the town of Strilkove, right along the frontier. They landed on the Kherson side though, which is what caused the fuss.
The Arabat Spit formed in the early Middle Ages from sediment, and remained virtually uninhabited for centuries. Its primary industry, at least on the narrow Crimean side, is the production of salt from the Sivash lagoons that lie between it and the Crimean peninsula.
This is a far more important story if the Russians did leave.
The only way this crisis ends with anything less than a new cold war is if Russia shows restraint, and doesn't send his troops into Ukraine proper.
The withdrawal of this small contingent would imply that Putin is only interested in the Crimea, and not the eastern half of Ukraine.
I wish Putin would send his troops all the way to the Polish border. Those Ukrainian fascist f*cks have been asking for a good ass-kicking since at least 1941, if not earlier. 'Ukrainian nationalism' is an oxymoron in the same league as 'athletic scholarship' or 'military intelligence' and those brave Ukrainian 'patriots' will wilt like stinking turd-blossoms before a phalanx of Russian T-80s.