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SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Several hundred troops in green camouflage, without insignia and carrying military-style automatic rifles, entered and secured areas of the civilian airport in Crimea’s regional capital of Simferopol early Friday and deployed elsewhere, drawing protests from the new Ukrainian government against what it called a Russian invasion.
In an unscheduled appearance at the White House on Friday afternoon, President Obama said the United States is "deeply concerned" by reports of military movements by the Russian federation inside Ukraine, and warned that "there will be costs for any military intervention." He added: "Any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty... would be deeply destabilizing.”
In Kiev, Ukraine’s new interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said the armed men were Russian troops.
The Ukrainian parliament demanded Friday that Russia halt what lawmakers described as violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The legislature called for a U.N. Security Countil meeting on the crisis.
“What is happening can be called an armed invasion and occupation. In violation of all international treaties and norms. This is a direct provocation for armed bloodshed in the territory of a sovereign state,” Avakov said.
Avakov said troops from the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet, berthed principally at the Crimean port of Sevastopol, had also secured entrances to the Belbek military airport near the city.
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