Regional Outlook : A <i> Dacha</i> Duel in Crimea Between Russia, Ukraine : Under cover of political chaos, a land grab rages in Sevastopol, home of the Black Sea Fleet.

A sailboat bobs on the gentle tide of Sevastopol’s Azure Bay, a sea gull soaring against the setting sun. It is a picture of tranquillity, an imaginary scene painted on an admiral’s house.

The reality of the atmosphere in this historic naval port on the Crimean peninsula is heated, a conflict between Ukraine and Russia over who owns what, including Sevastopol.

“This dacha belongs to the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Adm. Mikhail Khronopulov,” explained Boris Nesterenko, a retired officer, as he admired the spacious three-story house. Five other big dachas shared the bluff overlooking the bay.

“Rumor has it that the deputy commander of Russia’s Pacific Fleet owns one of them,” Nesterenko said. “Naval officers from throughout the (former) U.S.S.R. have built dachas here.”

In the hierarchy of military dachas, size reflects rank. So, junior officers in the 81st Marine Brigade, stationed just minutes away from Khronopulov’s exclusive enclave, rate only tiny cottages crammed into a field outside their base.

“Those weren’t there a year ago,” Nesterenko said. “But in the last two years, the military has been exploiting the political chaos to seize city land for itself.”

This is Ukraine, but the military here is mainly Russian. With the conflict over political control of Sevastopol heating up, the “ dacha factor” may make it impossible to settle.

Despite the picturesque cliffs and seaside location, the marines’ dacha community is no Malibu. But for their owners, the cottages are all that they can call home. Their forces nearly tripled from 800 in 1992 to 2,200 today, the elite marines are reportedly preparing for what many here call the Third Defense of Sevastopol.

The First Defense of the strategic port was against England, France and Turkey in the Crimean War. The second, against Nazi Germany.

Today, the enemy is Ukraine. “Those boys are being trained to hate Ukraine,” Nesterenko said. “And they will kill for their dachas .”

For the generals and politicians in Kiev and Moscow, the two-year custody battle over the Soviet naval force in the Black Sea is a geopolitical problem. “Whoever controls the fleet controls Sevastopol, and whoever controls Sevastopol will control Crimea,” said Capt. Akhmet Aivazov, a Crimean Tatar serving in Ukraine’s nascent naval force.

With only four ships, the Ukrainian navy is not much of a force, and it is an uneasy neighbor to the hundreds of Black Sea Fleet warships in Sevastopol’s South Bay.

In theory, those ships are jointly commanded by Ukraine’s President Leonid Kravchuk and Russia’s Boris N. Yeltsin. In practice, however, Moscow calls the shots and some officers have already sewed the insignia of Russia’s armed forces on their uniforms.

Ships are a different matter. Under an accord reached last month, Ukraine would have gotten 164 of the Black Sea Fleet’s 833 ships--about what it needs, according to naval officers. Russia would have taken the rest.

Talks broke down, however, when both sides insisted on basing their navies in Sevastopol. Ukraine suggested that the Crimean port of Donuzlav about 30 miles north of Sevastopol would be a splendid base for the Russians. The latter countered that Sevastopol suits them fine and suggested Ukraine ship its navy to Odessa, west of Crimea.

Ask any sailor in Sevastopol about the future of the Black Sea Fleet and he’ll talk about his home.

Capt. Sergei Zinchenko, a 32-year-old patrol boat commander born and bred in Sevastopol, has no intention of leaving. “Where am I to go?” he asked. “My family, my home is here.”

Even the less fortunate, who are still on waiting lists for government-issued apartments, have a lot to lose. If they move to a different city, they must go back to the end of the line.

Housing is not just a problem for the Black Sea Fleet and its Russian sailors. Sevastopol-based officers who swore loyalty to Ukraine and transferred to its navy are also tied to the city by apartments and dachas.

“If Russia forces us out of Sevastopol, those officers will have to abandon their homes,” said Oleh Chybuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian navy.

In the improbable event that Moscow’s portion of the Black Sea Fleet was forced to set sail for naval bases in frigid Murmansk or Vladivostok, serving in the Russian navy would be less attractive. But sunny Sevastopol has always been considered a plum posting.

The natural beauty and Mediterranean climate of the “Crimean Riviera,” the Soviet Union’s summer fun playground, with its mountains, beaches and wineries, are just an hour’s drive away.

Secret cities hide inside Sevastopol like Matrioshka dolls. Even the dachas overlooking the Azure Bay conceal a subterranean city below their basements, a World War II command post massive enough to house 70,000 soldiers and underground airplane hangars.

Not all of Sevastopol’s secrets are buried underground. A Byzantine cave monastery carved out of sandstone cliffs village awaits. And the ruins of Chersonesus Taurica, the first city to arise on this jagged corner of Crimea’s coast, are fenced off from modern Sevastopol in a huge preserve.

Today, Sevastopol residents picnic and sunbathe amid its excavated ruins in the summertime, inspiring one wistful visitor to scribble: “I so want to return here” on a column in one of the Byzantine basilicas.

The Sevastopol lifestyle has its downside.

The city is expensive. Water, manufactured goods, bread, meat, electricity--nearly everything except produce, wine and fish--are shipped from the Ukrainian mainland at subsidized but still high prices. So, when locals chant the famous phrase: “Sevastopol is the city of Russian glory,” Kiev retorts: “Sevastopol is a city of Ukrainian subsidies,” siphoning more per capita spending out of the Ukrainian budget than any other city.

But the bottom line is not persuasive in a city that never had to balance its own books. A June 26 plebiscite among Sevastopol residents declaring the city to be “the main naval base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet” is widely expected to pass. And Friday the Crimean parliament declared the peninsula independent of Ukraine, a move the Ukranian government promptly rejected.

“Ukraine should have insisted on dividing the fleet two years ago,” said Boris Nesterenko as he contemplated the hundreds of dachas, crowned with Mediterranean red tile, dotting the hills around Sevastopol’s South Bay. “Russia will never leave now,” he said.