Russian Ships & planes Carrying Soldiers Said To Be En Route To Sevastopol.

Russian Ships and planes Carrying Soldiers Said To Be En Route To Sevastopol. HT: ZeroHedge.

Those tracking the developments in the Ukraine, and specifically the Russian response to this weekend's coup, will be interested to note that according to the Russian flot.com website, the large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov, previously known for its participation in the Syrian naval arms build up, is expected to arrive in the Crimean port of Sevastopol carrying 200 armed soldiers, sent from the nearby Black Sea town of Temryuk.

From Flot.com:

Today at 12:00 from the Russian port of Temryuk should arrive in Sevastopol, the large landing ship "Nikolai Fil'chenkov" with 200 soldiers on board. This was reported today by the chairman of the Ukraine "Freedom" faction Oleg Tyagnibok citing sources in the Crimean.

"I can show you the text message" - said Tyahnibok and read: "Today at 12:00 is expected the arrival from the port of Temryuk in the Russian Federation in the city of Sevastopol large landing ship Nikolai Fil'chenkov from the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. It will bring about 200 armed soldiers from the 328th Marine battalion, who are based in Temryuk and 10 BTR-80."


He also noted that "on February 22-23, ... IL-76 flights airlifted from Kubinka (Moscow region) to Anapa, personnel from the 45th Airborne Special Forces unit and additional divisions were relocated via four Il-76 flights from Pskov to Anapa. And from Sochi to Anapa were transported six Mi-8 helicopsters"- said Tyahnibok.

This appears to not be an isolated move as the naval build up seems to be escalating.

In a concurrent release, Izvestia Kiev reported that out of Kubinka, four ships carrying special forces, are being relocated to Anapa. From there, in four hours, they will depart fo Sevastopol at a speed of 10-15 knots, citing "Izvestia in Ukraine" as a source.  According to the source, the redeployment is "qualitative, not quantitative" and that the Ukraine is following these developments.
It remains to be seen if the Ukraine, or its brand new NATO BFFs, will respond in kind.

Related: From Flot.com:

Matviyenko: Russia does not doubt that the Crimea is part of Ukraine .

Russia does not question the fact that the Crimea - part of Ukraine, but understands mood of the people of the peninsula.

This was stated by Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko. "No inflammatory action, especially at the state level, Russia is taken. We believe today the fact that Crimea is part of Ukraine," - she said.

"But the fact is the fact that now there are felt sentiments related to the fact that residents of Crimea nobody asked opinions about the decisions that are made in Kiev", - said the speaker of the Federation Council in the "Time and Us" on TV channel

"However, the Russian Federation can understand The mood of the people in the Crimea " - she stated.

Matvienko said that the Russians care about the processes unfolding in the Crimea. "Many people in the Crimea are of Russian roots or are citizens of Russia. Therein lies our Black Sea Fleet," - she said.

Head of the Federation Council also recalled that recently met with the chairman of the Supreme Council of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov.

According to her, during the meeting the head of the Crimean parliament confirmed the intention of our ability to defend the autonomy of Crimea

"He stressed that in the case of amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine Crimea require greater autonomy for themselves, as in the autonomous republic is home to over 60% Russian, and they care about how it will address issues of school and higher education, development, language and culture" - added Matvienko.