Despite orders to withdraw from the peninsula yesterday, two Ukrainian military bases remained holdouts into the weekend in Crimea, the Belbek Airbase at Sevastopol and the naval base at Novofederovka. It didn’t last.

 

The Novofederovka naval base was surrendered early Saturday to a group of pro-Russian protesters, and more ships were seized by the Russian military along the coast, effectively ending Ukraine’s naval presence in Crimea. The Zaporizhya, Ukraine’s 45-year-old submarine, was also captured.

Belbek was something of a different case, with its commanders claiming they never got the orders from Ukraine to withdraw, and complaining no one wanted to take the blame. They vowed yesterday to just wait for Russia to take them over so they could leave.