SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Sometimes, the old actor remembers the war far too clearly. Though he was only a small child, he can tell you about the explosions, and the Nazi soldiers patrolling the streets. He can list the friends and relatives who didn’t survive. He punctuates his stories with angry imitations of machine-gun fire: “TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT.” The last thing he wants is for war to return to Crimea.

So what did he think when Russian soldiers suddenly appeared last week on the streets of the regional capital city, a silent, heavily armed presence that surrounded the local parliament and deployed around Ukrainian military bases?