In a public acknowledgment of defeat, Ukraine’s acting President ordered his beleaguered troops to withdraw from the Crimean Peninsula because of Russian threats to the troops and their families.  The families will be evacuated as well.

“The National Defense and Security Council has instructed the Defense Ministry to carry out a re-deployment of military units in Crimea and evacuate their families,” acting president Oleksandr Turchynov told parliament in Kiev.

Russian troops had already taken over the Ukrainian marine base at Feodosia, one of the last remaining symbols of Kiev’s resistance, and stormed and captured a Ukrainian landing ship.  No casualties were reported in either incident.

But concerns are growing over the fate of Colonel Yuliy Mamchur, the commander of the Belbek Air Force base near Sevastopol.  The Russians sent armored personnel carriers smashing through that base's walls to take control of that base over the weekend.  One Ukrainian serviceman was reportedly hurt.  President Turchynov released a statement saying Mamchur was “abducted” by the Russians.  Maidan protest leader and former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko believes that Mamchur is being held by the Russian military in a jail in Sevastopol.