Today (March 17), at 15.00 the “Envoys” of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation’s Command have arrived today at the logistics battalion of the Ukrainian Navy (military unit A2904). The commander of the military unit, Lt. Col. Sadovnik was presented with an ultimatum specifying three possible options for their further actions:

1. The battalion personnel receives financial assistance from the Russians in the amount of UAH 4,000 [$410] and withdraws to the mainland territory of Ukraine.

2. The unit personnel breaks the contract with the Defense Ministry of Ukraine and remain to work as civilian personnel under the patronage of the Russian Federation, for which they are promised a monthly salary in the amount of UAH 2,700 [$277].

3. Servicemen are to write two reports simultaneously: the first one is their resignation from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the second one is their request to be enrolled into the Armed Forces of Russia. The command has “notified” the Russian side that they will not consider any of the given options and the Black Sea Fleet officers sarcastically “promised to return” in a few hours. It looks very suspicious that the “self-defense” representatives who were inside and around the military unit, urgently left its territory and left a few observers. It is possible that they are arming themselves to perform the final mopping up this night of the personnel who do not want to break the Oath of allegiance to the people of Ukraine. Recall that the day before yesterday (March 15) the members of “Sevastopol self-defense” were given the box respirators, armor vests and traumatic guns “Flaubert” — in the spontaneous order and without any appointment.

Translated by Vladimir Kolesnikov