SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Tempers between pro- and anti-Russian groups ran hot in the Crimean capital Simferopol on Wednesday when a self-described self-defense unit comprised of a rag-tag group of men, who said they were supporters of Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation, violently confronted a peaceful group mostly made up of women who held signs demanding peace and unity in Ukraine.
More than 50 men charged at them just after noon local time, tearing apart their signs and calling them "bitches" and "fascists" from Kiev.
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"You are neo-Nazi scum sent here from Kiev to destroy our Crimea!" one man shouted.
In response, one woman shouted back that she had been born and raised on the peninsula. "This is my home. I speak Russian just like you. But I'm not twisted and don't fall for Putin's propaganda, like you do!" she yelled back.


Several men rushed a group of women who were protesting with signs in Simferopol, Crimea on Wednesday.
Image: Anastasia Vlasova
Olga, a young professional from Simferopol, speaks to the Kyiv Post, in the video below, after men from a pro-Russian protest group attacked her and others who held signs demanding peace for Crimeans and Ukrainians.

Nikolai Kovolenko, a longtime Simferopol resident and staunch supporter of Crimea becoming a part of the Russian Federation says people in autonomous republic want the West to stay out of their affairs. "No NATO, no U.S., no EU; only Russia," he says.

Christopher J. Miller is an editor at English-language newspaper the Kyiv Post in Ukraine.