Crimea is forming its own paramilitary force, days ahead of the vote on whether to split from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.  It comes as the west takes steps to make sure it can get a better view of what’s going on in Ukraine as Russia tightens its grip on Crimea.

NATO will fly AWAC jets over neighboring Poland and Romania to monitor the crisis in Ukraine and “enhance the alliance's situational awareness”.  Last week, NATO said it was launching a review of all military cooperation with Russia, in response to what witnesses describe as a massive Russian military incursion into Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. 

Russia says it has counter proposals to western demands that it leave Crimea.  The US and Europe are trying to force Moscow into bilateral talks with Ukraine to solve the crisis, but Moscow is refusing.  The response has been a suspension of Visa talks, and economic and banking sanctions that could formally approved by the EU on 17 March.  If Russia doesn’t pull back, a third step would likely involve an arms embargo and trade restrictions. 

But Russia isn’t pulling back.  Russian attackers seized a Ukrainian military hospital in the Crimean capital Simferopol, herding the staff into the lobby to meet the “new management”.  Another group attempted to take a Ukraine military transport base, but failed.

Crimea’s new pro-Russian armed force seems to have drawn its members from the youth wing of the pro-Russian party that had only three seats in the local parliament before the crisis, but took control after Kiev changed hands.