The pro-Russian camp is also experiencing euphoria, which could be witnessed in Crimea in recent days with numerous street celebrations attended by thousands of people showing off Russian and Soviet symbols, after the March 16 referendum which led to Putin to order the transfer of Ukraine’s Crimea to Russia. After the new government took power, Berkut riot police officers sought shelter in Crimea and got welcomed as local heroes and victims of what many of the peninsula’s two million residents believe was a violent, fascist takeover by nationalists in Kyiv. The Russian military takeover has already prompted more than 500 people, including Ukrainian activists and Crimean Tatars, to seek shelter outside the peninsula in recent weeks, according to Ukrainian Border Guard Service statistics. “Get out of Crimea, otherwise we will kill you,” they said, Kiriushchenko reported. The Berkut arrived demanding the five “Maidanovtsy,” but the Russian officers, to the enormous relief of the detainees, did not turn them over. This is the everyday terror that Crimeans are facing under Russia’s control, an invasion condemned as illegal by most of the world. “I was having long political discussions with my polite interrogators,” she added.
– Three female Ukrainian activists drove into Crimea just before its referendum and ended up kidnapped, beaten, and tossed in the same jail, they tell the Daily Beast. They were driving into Crimea—one on her own, and two together—to spread their views when Cossacks, Russian militia, and Ukrainian "Berkut" riot police dragged them onto a road near Armyansk. "I could not believe that Berkut was beating us, humiliating us, cutting our hair off and threatening to kill us in broad daylight," said Kateryna Butko, 25. It was bad for their male friends, too, who were stripped down to their underwear and had guns fired beside their heads. All were taken to a Russian navy base in Sevastopol, where Russian military questioned them about their activities. "I was having long political discussions with my polite interrogators," said Butko. The Russians even let her go out with Russian journalists, hoping she would speak well of Russia later, but the trio seemed unconvinced after being freed: "I would not advise any activists to go to Crimea these days," said one. Makes sense, considering that Crimea has seen more than 20 kidnappings lately, the Guardian reports, and KyivPost says kidnappings and assaults of Ukrainian activists and journalists "have become the norm" since Russia invaded.