Local Editor

Two Russian warships that crossed Turkey's Bosphorus Strait early Tuesday headed towards the Black Sea, Turkish media reported.

The reported ship movements came with Russia and the West locked in a standoff over Ukraine's Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea.
Turkey's state run Anatolia news agency, carrying a picture of one of the warships, said Russia had "summoned" the vessels back to its Black Sea fleet to strengthen its military presence in Crimea.

A Ukrainian vessel was also seen crossing the Dardanelles Strait off Turkey's west coast and was expected to cross into the Black Sea, the agency said.
The Turkish military also said that it scrambled eight F-16 jets on Monday after a Russian spy plane was detected flying parallel to its Black Sea coast.

Turkey, a NATO ally, has repeatedly voiced fears about the fate of the Turkish-speaking Tatar minority in Crimea, which was part of the Ottoman Empire until it was conquered by Russia in the late 18th century.

Also on Tuesday, Russia carried out a successful test launch of an "advanced" intercontinental ballistic missile, state news agencies reported amid a fierce standoff between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.
"The purpose of the launch is to test the advanced payload of the intercontinental ballistic missile," Russia's three main news agencies quoted a top defense official as saying.
But the official said Russia informed the United States earlier this week that it would carry out the test launch.
"We have been notified of this test earlier this week. It's not unexpected," the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said the launch involved the RS-12M Topol -a road-mobile missile last reportedly tested by Russia on December 28.
The defense official provided no details of the missile's advanced features, saying only that it was launched from Russia's Kapustin Yar rocket launch site near the southern city of Volgograd.

The missile successfully hit its target in the Sary Shagan ballistic missile test range that Russia leases in Kazakhstan.
The Russian defense official said the test was designed to check the warhead's ability to "penetrate missile defense systems".
Hours earlier, the Russian President stated: "Russia will not go to war with the people of Ukraine, but will use its troops to protect citizens, if radicals with clout in Kiev now try to use violence against Ukrainian civilians, particularly ethnic Russians."
Vladimir Putin, who was given a mandate by the Russian senate to use military force to protect civilians in Ukraine, said there is no need for such an action yet.
Putin cited the actions of radical activists in Ukraine, including the chaining of a governor to a stage as public humiliation and the killing of a technician during an opposition siege of the Party of Regions HQ, as justification for Russia to be concerned for the lives and well-being of people in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Incidents like those are why Russia reserves the option of troop deployment on the table.
"If we see this lawlessness starting in eastern regions, if the people ask us for help - in addition to a plea from a legitimate president, which we already have - then we reserve the right to use all the means we possess to protect those citizens. And we consider it quite legitimate," he said.

Russia is not planning to go to war with the Ukrainian people, Putin stressed, when a journalist asked if he was afraid of war. But Russian troops would prevent any attempts to target Ukrainian civilians, should they be deployed.
"We are not going to a war against the Ukrainian people," he said. "I want you to understand it unambiguously. If we do take a decision, it would only be to protect Ukrainian citizens. Let anybody in the military dare, and they'd be shooting their own people, who would stand up in front of us. Shoot at women and children. I'd like to see anyone try and order such a thing in Ukraine."

Putin dismissed the notion that the uniformed armed people without insignia who are currently present in Crimea are Russian soldiers. He said they are members of the Crimean self-defense forces and that they are no better equipped and trained than some radical fighters who took part in the ousting of Yanukovich.

He assured that the surprise military drills in Russia's west which ended on Tuesday had nothing to do with the Ukrainian situation.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team