Interim Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov has called on the nation not to panic about Russian military troops invading Crimea.
Many of Crimea's 2.2 million people are not only heeding Turchynov's call, they are celebrating the curious arrival of the neighboring country's soldiers by taking pictures with the troops or making them tea. Many others, however, regard friendliness with the Kremlin invaders as treason.
It's fair to say that most Ukrainians want their national sovereignty and territory respected by the international community, including their Russian neighbors.
These images and the complicated Ukrainian-Russian history add up to a bizarre non-shooting war (so far) between Slavic neighbors who are engaging each other in staredowns at various military bases.
Taking pictures with these Russian invaders has lately become a popular amusement for citizens of Simferopol, the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Young women smile as they pose next to the men holding machine guns and post the photos to Instagram.
This old lady wears a black-and-orange George Ribbon, a symbol carried by Russia supporters in Ukraine, as she poses for a photo with an armed man of unclear allegiance, believed to be Russian:
Some invaders are friendly enough to pose for the sake of better photo composition:
“I’m not ashamed,” Anna Yurtayeva from Simferopol wrote under this photo:
Some just can’t resist taking a photo with a uniformed man…
…while other looked like they were forced to pose for a photo:
“We are doing well,” says Igor Slipets’ caption under this photo of himself with unknown men with machine guns who occupied the streets of his city with no explanation.
“My personal guard,” Irina Danilevskaya says about the armed man behind her back:
This photo came with a hashtag “journalists are lying.”
Normal day in Simferopol now includes an armed foreign army officer posing for a photo with your kids.
