Chess Pieces : Russian Armored Vehicles parked on border with Crimea,Ukraine

Ukraine's ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Thursday that Russian armored personnel carriers had been detected outside the confines of their base in Crimea, but said he hoped they had returned. Asked at a press conference whether military vehicles pictured outside the regional capital of Simferopol were Russian, the ambassador, Ihor Dolhov, said there had been an "identified movement of armored vehicles belonging to the Black Sea fleet of the Russian Federation." He said such movements away from the port of Sebastopol, leased to the Russian fleet, had to be agreed in advance with Ukraine and that there had been no such accord. He recalled Ukraine had called upon Russia to "refrain from actions leading to destabilization of Ukraine, particularly in Crimea."