Russian military forces are engaged in naval and logistical exercises in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry says. “The logistic support units embarked on working out the practical tasks of logistics support in the naval and land ranges of the Republic of Crimea,” Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov announced on Friday.

He said Russian vessels conducted service recovery tasks at sea, and the Southern Military District’s logistics units evacuated equipment from the battlefield, transported military equipment and performed mass jet refueling missions at the Opuk range.

Meanwhile Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he would not hesitate to announce the mobilization of Ukrainian army forces in response to what he described as military build-up by Russia in Crimea. “In the event of the exacerbation of the situation in the east and in Crimea… we will have to impose martial law and order mobilization,” Poroshenko said on Thursday.

Poroshenko also said he had ordered all Ukrainian army units near Crimea and in the eastern Donbass region to stand at the highest level of combat readiness.

Presstv