Armed masked men who called themselves members of Ukraine's disbanded elite Berkut riot police force and local militiamen check vehicles at a checkpoint on a highway that connect Black Sea Crimea peninsula to mainland Ukraine near the city of Armyansk, 150 km north of Simferopol, on February 28, 2014. The sign on the bar reads: 'Fascism Shall Not Pass!' The spiralling tensions in a nation torn between the West and Russia took today a severe new turn when Ukraine's interim president Oleksandr Turchynov accused Russian soldiers and local pro-Kremlin militia of staging raids on Crimea's main airport and another base on the southwest of the peninsula where pro-Moscow sentiments run high. AFP PHOTO / VIKTOR DRACHEV