Guided by the opinion of the townspeople expressed at the rally, the head of the Sevastopol city administration, Vladimir Yatsuba, announced his resignation on February 24. During negotiations on the transfer of powers, employees of the SBU and the prosecutor’s office appeared in the administration building with a warrant for the arrest of Chaly, but the Sevastopol residents who had gathered near the building forced the security forces to tear the warrant and leave the building. In Simferopol, several companies of volunteers have already gathered in the people’s militia of the Crimea. By the decision of 49 deputies of the Sevastopol City Council, A.M. Chaly was elected the head of the city. The people’s rally greeted the decision with cries of “Hurrah!”. The flag of the Russian Federation was hoisted in front of the entrance to the city administration.
THREATS FROM KYIV
In response to the rejection by the inhabitants of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol of the “new Kiev authorities”, the leaders of right-wing radical groups of Ukraine (VO “Svoboda”, “Right Sector”, “Patriot of Ukraine”, “Social-National Assembly of Ukraine”) issued a statement about the need to “punish” similar performances of the Crimeans. In particular, Igor Moseychuk, an activist of the Patriot of Ukraine organization convicted of terrorism and amnestied by the “new government”, publicly proposed to form “friendship trains” of right-wing radical nationalist militants and punish the inhabitants of the peninsula for their will.