| Ukraine tonight announced plans to withdraw its troops from Crimea after masked Russian-speaking soldiers backed by unarmed volunteers took control of its naval base in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol this morning. Several hundred so-called Crimea self-defence soldiers - consisting mainly of unarmed volunteers - took down the gate alongside armed troops and made their way onto the headquarters' premises where they raised the Russian flag. Shortly after the incident, Ukraine's acting Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh said in Kiev that the country's forces would not withdraw from Crimea despite President Vladimir Putin signing a treaty to make it part of Russia. But an hour later, Ukrainian servicemen, unarmed and in civilian clothing, began walking out of the headquarters. This evening Ukraine announced plans to withdraw troops from Crimea. Scroll down for video +35 Flying the flag: A soldier holds up a Russian flag on the roof of Ukraine's naval headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimean, on Wednesday morning after the base was stormed by pro-Russian forces +35 Taking control: Pro-Russian self-defence force members break through an entrance to the Ukrainian Navy headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea, on Wednesday +35 Being cut out: A member of the Pro-Russian self-defence force reaches for a knife as he takes down a Ukrainian Navy flag at the Ukrainian Navy headquarters in Sevastopol +35 Transformation: Ukrainian Navy flags and insignia are removed from inside the Ukrainian Navy headquarters +35 Ejected: Ukrainian soldiers fold a Ukrainian flag removed by the Crimean pro-Russian self-defence force after they were forced to leave Ukrainian Navy headquarters Russian soldiers storm the Ukrainian naval HQ in Sevastopol National Security and Defense Council secretary Andriy Parubiy said on Wednesday night that Ukraine will seek U.N. support to turn Crimea into a demilitarized zone as it seeks to relocate armed forces to the mainland. Ukraine's military, which is heavily outnumbered in Crimea, has come under increased pressure since the region was nominally incorporated into Russia on Tuesday. Earlier today, many Ukrainian soldiers were seen clutching bags containing their belongings, with their service uniforms in their arms as they abandoned a naval base under the watchful gaze of heavily-armed pro-Russian soldiers. +35 Sending a message: Russian flags fly at the top of a chimney near the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in Sevastopol +35 Waving goodbye: Ukrainian servicemen leave a Ukrainian military unit after it was taken over by Russian forces in Sevastopol, Crimea +35 Going home: Ukrainian soldiers left the base with their belongings after being forced out of the building +35 A Ukrainian officer leaves as Russian soldiers take over the Ukrainian navy headquarters in the Crimean city of Sevastopol Some of the Ukranian servicemen were said to be in tears as they left, saying they had nowhere to go. They will reportedly be offered the choice of defecting to the Russian forces or being sent back to Kiev. RUSSIA HINTS IT WILL IMPOSE ITS OWN SANCTIONS AND OTHER 'MEASURES' ON U.S.Moscow will respond in kind to U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian officials over the Crimea dispute and is considering other steps if Washington escalates the confrontation, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said today. On Monday, the United States and the EU announced sanctions on a handful of officials from Russia and Ukraine accused of involvement in Moscow's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region. Washington has threatened further sanctions. 'We are looking at a broad range of responsive measures. They can be identical measures regarding certain lists of American officials - not necessarily representatives of the administration ... who have influenced American policies,' Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Interfax. 'There is also the possibility of passing asymmetrical measures, that means steps which, let's say ... won't go unnoticed in Washington,' he added. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called the sanctions 'unacceptable'. But some of the Russians included on the list of individuals have largely scoffed at the measures which would freeze their assets in the United States. The Russian-speaking troops, who arrived on the base after the storming, wore helmets, flak jackets and uniforms with no identifying insignia. By afternoon, they were in full control of the naval headquarters, a set of three-story boxy white concrete buildings with blue trim. It was not immediately clear how many, if any, Ukrainian servicemen remained on the base. Ukraine's Defence Ministry said no one was injured in the raid, which it said was led by pro-Russian militiamen and Cossacks. It comes after the first bloodshed of the crisis on when Ukrainian Warrant Officer Kakurin S.V. was shot dead at another Military base in Simferopol, Crimea, on Tuesday. A member of a local Crimea self-defence brigade, loyal to the Russian Federation, was reportedly also shot dead. Other pro-Russian self-defence members are now surrounding the base and calling for retribution after blaming Ukrainian soldiers for the shooting. Meanwhile Interfax Ukraine news agency said the commander of the Ukrainian navy, Admiral Serhiy Haiduk was driven away by officers of Russia's FSB intelligence service following the takeover of the naval base this morning. The report could not be independently confirmed but Crimea's Ministry of Defence reported he was detained by 'unknown persons'. The first group of servicemen to leave the base on Wednesday morning were followed within a few minutes by a handful of troops in Ukrainian uniform, looking shell-shocked at the dramatic turn of events. 'This morning they stormed the compound. They cut the gates open, but I heard no shooting' said Oleksander Balanyuk, a captain in the navy. Tension remains high around Crimea's Ukrainian bases +35 Quiet exit: The servicemen in the Ukrainian naval headquarters in Sevastopol were reported to have peacefully given up their base after it was taken over by pro-Russian protesters +35 Changing hands: The naval headquarters in Sevastopol are now under the control of Russian forces +35 A woman, believed to be a Ukrainian servicewoman, pictured carrying her uniform as she leaves a military base in Perevalnoye, near the Crimean city of Simferopol +35 Masked: Pro-Russian supporters pictured after breaking into Ukraine's naval headquarters in Sevastopol 'This thing should have been solved politically. Now all I can do is stand here at the gate. There is nothing else I can do,' he told Reuters, appearing ashamed and downcast. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported that Alexander Vitko, commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet which is based in Sevastopol, had been involved in talks at the headquarters. Viktor Melnikov, in charge of the the 'self-defence' unit, said talks were going on to negotiate a surrender. 'We've had difficult negotiations with the command here,' he told reporters. 'Some Ukrainian servicemen are already leaving, without their uniforms, but there was no violence.' Meanwhile in Kiev, Ukraine's defense minister and deputy prime minister had planned to travel to Crimea on Wednesday in what they said was a bid to avert an escalation in hostilities. But the prime minister in Crimea warned after the announcement of their departure that they would not be allowed in and would be turned back. White House condemns Russia's use of force in Crimea +35 Clashes: Crimean pro-Russian self-defence forces scuffle with Ukrainian servicemen outside the Ukrainian navy headquarters +35 Evicted: Ukrainian servicemen have been forced to leave the base after it was taken over by Russian soldiers and pro-defence volunteers +35 Stand-off: Unarmed members of Pro-Russian self-defence forces (pictured left in civilian clothing) force themselves through a group of Ukrainian military men outside the Ukrainian Navy headquarters +35 Pro-Russian self-defence forces hold on to a Ukrainian military man outside the Ukrainian Navy headquarters. The unarmed militia waited for an hour before storming the headquarters when the commander of the Russian Black Sea fleet arrived Russian Constitutional Court verifies Crimea's annexation 'They are not welcome in Crimea,' Sergei Aksyonov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. 'They will not be allowed to enter Crimea. They will be sent back.' Interfax later cited Welfare Minister Lyudmila Denisova as saying the officials had been denied entry to Crimea. She said an emergency session of the National Security and Defense Council will held in response. It comes as Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was released from a hospital in Berlin with plans to return to Kiev. The Charite hospital said the 53-year-old received two injections into her spinal column as part of treatment for three slipped discs she suffered while imprisoned. It says the injections have 'drastically reduced' her pain and improved function in her right leg. She has also undergone 'intensive' physiotherapy, which doctors are recommending she continues in Ukraine. +35 Pressing forward: President Vladimir Putin, pictured on Wednesday, has signed a treaty to annex Crimea +35 'We're in this with you': U.S. Vice President Joe Biden vowed America will defend any NATO member from aggression as ex-Soviet states expressed concerns over the developments in Crimea +35 On her way back to Kiev: Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko plans to return to Ukraine after being released from hospital in Berlin, pictured +35 The Charite Hospital in Berlin, Germany, where former Ukrainian Prime Minister Tymoshenko was being treated there for chronic back pain Tymoshenko, who arrived for treatment on March 7, was expected to leave later in the day. She was freed last month after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Ukraine. Tymoshenko holds no post in Ukraine's new government but is believed to wield behind-the-scenes influence. Her release follows thousands of Russian soldiers taking control of Crimea in the buildup to a weekend referendum last weekend in which the region, with ethnic Russians in the majority, voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and join Moscow. It resulted in Russian President Vladimir Putin signing a treaty on Tuesday to incorporate Crimea into its territory. Putin said his move to take control of Crimea was justified by what he calls 'fascists' in Kiev who overthrew pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich last month after three months of often deadly street protests. +35 On the move: Russian military personnel take positions on a hillside as they move towards a Ukrainian military base in Perevalnoye, Crimea +35 Surrounded: Russian military personnel move towards a Ukrainian military base in Perevalnoye, Crimea, on Wednesday +35 Armed guard: Soldiers surround a Ukrainian military unit in the village of Perevalnoye, outside Simferopol, after pro-Russian activists stormed the Ukrainian navy headquarters in Crimea +35 Residents lead a horse past the territory of a Ukrainian military unit in the village of Perevalnoye which is surrounded by soldiers Ukraine and Western governments have dismissed the referendum, which has triggered the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War, as a sham, and say there is no justification for Putin's actions. Moscow officially denies deploying extra troops and Russian soldiers in the region are wearing unmarked uniforms, making it difficult to verify exactly who is who on the ground. In Crimea's main city, Simferopol, where one Ukrainian serviceman was killed after a shooting on Tuesday, the situation was calm on Wednesday. It was the first death on the Black Sea peninsula from a military clash since the region came under Russian control three weeks ago. Ukrainian prime minister Yatseniuk denounced it as a 'war crime'. The soldier has since been identified as warrant officer S. V. Kakurin. A spokesman for the Ministry Of Defence Of Ukraine paid tribute to the soldier as 'gentle and civilised man' who had recently transferred to his unit at the 13th Photogrammetric Center. +35 Russian soldiers set up guard in Sevastopol as Moscow's grip tightened on the peninsula despite Western warnings its 'annexation' would not go unpunished +35 A Russian soldier stands guard in front of a placard reading 'Fascism will not pass! All to the referendum!' near the Ukrainian navy headquarters WHAT ANNEXING CRIMEA WILL COST RUSSIA'S GOVERNMENTRussia announced on Wednesday it will cover Crimea's estimated 55 billion rouble ($1.53 billion) budget deficit with funds from the federal budget. It comes after the Russian government said on Monday had provided 15 billion rubles ($400 million) in aid to the region, which he said had doubled the Crimean budget overnight. But absorbing the Black Sea peninsula, which has long been a corruption-riddled backwater in economic terms, is likely to cost the Kremlin far more. Moscow is now trying to calculate the price tag of bringing in a region that - in the words of Russian Regional Development Minister Igor Slyunyayev - has an economy that 'looks no better than Palestine'. CHALLENGES As part of Ukraine, about 40 per cent of Crimea's annual budget of roughly $500 million was propped up by subsidies from Kiev. Russia would be expected to at least match - and probably far exceed - the Ukrainian annual contribution to raise living standards in its new territory. Living standards in Crimea are drastically different from Russia. The GDP per capita in Russia, home to more than a hundred billionaires, is about $14,000. In Crimea, it's about $5,000. Demographics are one major hurdle. More than 500,000 people - about a quarter of the population - are pensioners. Pensions in Russia are about double what they are in Ukraine, and former Russian tax minister Alexander Pochinok estimated that paying pensions in Crimea alone would cost 70 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) per year. Many Crimean residents make their living through tourism, although much of that money is kept off official ledgers and therefore difficult to tax. About 70 per cent of tourists in recent years have been Ukrainians, in large part because the peninsula's only road and railroad links are to mainland Ukraine. The industry is likely to be hard hit as many Ukrainian travelers stay away this summer, although Russian authorities have pledged to reduce the cost of air travel to the peninsula to bolster travel to the region. Crimea is also highly dependent on Ukraine for energy and water, most of which is supplied across the thin strip of land that connects the peninsula to the mainland. About 80 per cent of the region's electricity is supplied across the isthmus. The governor of Russia's southern Krasnodar region, which is separated from Crimea by a stretch of water called the Kerch Strait, pledged to provide electricity to the peninsula by building an underwater supply system. Other officials have said Crimea may need to build its own electricity plant - a project that could come with a price tag of nearly $1.7 billion, analysts say. But even as the Crimean government has threatened to nationalize Ukrainian government property, Kiev has promised not to turn off the taps to energy and water. Russia has promised to bolster infrastructure in the region. Moscow and Kiev have been talking about building a bridge over the Kerch Strait for more than a decade, but the project has repeatedly stalled. In recent weeks, Russian officials have eagerly revived the project, which is estimated to take years and cost at least 50 billion rubles ($1.4 billion). They also are now discussing building a railroad and underwater tunnel across the strait. But even if all of these projects add up to billions of dollars, it may still be small change to the Russian government. 'For Russia's budget this is not a big deal,' said Nataliya Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank. 'Even if you spend $5 billion or $10 billion, this is not money that dramatically changes things.' Russia had a total of over $170 billion stashed in two rainy day funds as of late February. It tapped into this money to try to shore up the regime of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia last month. Orlova argued that Crimea's annexation could in fact turn out to be positive for Russia's economy in the short term, because investment could spur a consumption boom in Crimea. But Crimea has long been known as an organized crime hub, and the Kiev government's longstanding reluctance to meddle in the autonomous region has meant that a culture of corruption has been tacitly allowed to flourish in the region since the Soviet collapse. They added that he was standing unarmed at his post at a watchtower when he was shot twice - receiving a bullet wound to his head and through his heart. It comes as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon headed to Moscow and Kiev to try to resolve the crisis between Russia and Ukraine over the Crimean Peninsula. U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said he will meet President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials in Moscow on Thursday. On Friday, Ban will travel to Kiev for talks with the acting-president and prime minister. Dujarric said the trip is part of the secretary general's 'diplomatic efforts to encourage all parties to resolve the current crisis peacefully.' Ban has repeatedly called for a solution guided by the principles of the U.N. Charter including sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of Ukraine. +35 Ukrainian Coast Guard vessels docked in the Black Sea port of Odessa as the country's border guard service announced all its vessels have left Crimea and Crimea's naval ports are now under the control of Russian forces +35 A Ukrainian woman holding a bunch of flowers pays her respects to victims of the Maidan movement on Independence Square, in Kiev, Ukraine, on Wednesday +35 Kiev inhabitants pass an improvised monument dedicated to the victims of the Maidan movement, near Independence Square, as Russia tightened its hold on the Crimea Amid the growing Crimea crisis, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - which like Ukraine were all parts of the old Soviet Union - have expressed growing apprehension over Moscow's intentions. UKRAINE'S ARMY TEXT APPEALUkrainians have donated more than one million dollars to the country's impoverished armed forces through a telephone appeal set up by the country's Ministry of Defence. The ministry's official Facebook page says: 'Support the Army of Ukraine! Citizens' campaign to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine with material, technical and medical supplies.' Ukrainians donated some 9.9m hryvnyas ($1m; £611,000) in less than three days with a substantial portion coming through mobile phone text messages, the ministry says. The appeal asked people to text 565 to automatically transfer 5 hryvnyas to the fund. According to ministry figures, more than half of the money was pledged by individuals, but Ukrainian businesses also sent significant amounts. Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov recently said only 6,000 troops are combat-ready due to a lack of funding. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is currently in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius as part of a trip to reassure the three countries, all European Union and NATO members, of Washington's support. He also warned Moscow it was on a 'dark path' to isolation on Wednesday after the takeover of Ukraine's naval headquarters. 'As long as Russia continues on this dark path, they will face increasing political and economic isolation,' said Biden, referring to reports of armed attacks against Ukrainian military personnel in Crimea. His comments come as NATO's chief was expected to describe Russia's advances in Ukraine the greatest threat to European security and stability since the end of the Cold War. In in a speech set for Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was expected to say that Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's strategic Crimea Peninsula is a wake-up call for international partners committed to a free and peaceful Europe. An advance copy of Rasmussen's planned speech at the Brookings Institution think-tank was obtained by The Associated Press. Rasmussen was expected to describe other NATO priorities - including the war in Afghanistan, peacekeeping in Kosovo and stopping piracy off the coast of Somalia. But he also will say NATO must focus on the long-term impact of Russia's aggression on its own security. +35 Takeover: A free 'Russian newspaper' was being distributed on the streets of Simferopol in Crimea on Wednesday +35 Waiting game: An armed member of the Russian forces waits outside the Ukrainian Navy headquarters in Simferopol onTuesday night +35 Armed: Members of the Russian forces pictured outside the Ukrainian Navy headquarters in Simferopol on Tuesday night +35 A Ukrainian soldier stands guard at a check point at the border between Ukraine and Crimea near kherson on Tuesday +35 Blockade: Ukrainian soldiers at the Ukraine bored with Crimea after both sides suffered their first casualties that threatened to see the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War spin out of control A REGION WORTH FIGHTING FOR? WHY RUSSIA COVETS THE CRIMEAFlashpoint: A picture of soldiers during the Crimean War, circa 1855 Crimea is a region synonymous with military glory for Russians, imperial and Soviet. Catherine the Great first annexed the region in 1783 after defeating the Ottoman Turks and built a naval base and the city Sevastopol. The Russian Black Sea fleet has been there ever since. What Crimea is best remembered for in the West is the Crimean War of the 1850s. The conflict was initially between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire but drew in Britain and France. It ended with the Treaty of London of 1856. The region only became part of Ukraine in 1954, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who was himself Ukrainian-born, signed it over to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from Russia. Pro-Kremlin campaigners call this a 'historical accident'. Ethnic, cultural and religious ties are also very Russian, leading some pro-Kremlin Crimeans to freely admit they would like Crimea to join the Russian Federation. Currently, there are two million ethnic Russians who live on the peninsula, making up almost 60 per cent of the population. Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars – the peninsula's original Turkic-speaking Muslim inhabitants – account for the rest. But it has not always been that way. By 1900 Crimean Tatars, previously the major population, had been reduced to half of residents. After the Soviet revolution they were reduced to a quarter. The Crimea has remained a stable feature of geopolitics for over a century and a half Then Stalin forcibly deported many of them to Central Asia and replaced them with Slavs from Russia or Russian-influenced parts of eastern Ukraine. As a result Crimea was largely 'russified' over the two centuries after its incorporation into the Russian Empire and its indigenous Muslim population swamped or displaced. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Tatars remained or have returned, but they are still a minority numbering about 15 per cent of the population. They reject the notion of union with Russia and are loyal to Kiev – another volatile element in an already combustible ethnic mix. Most of Stalin's newcomers were from poor urban backgrounds; they moved into homes vacated by deportees and had weak ties with Ukraine. They freely admit they would like Crimea to join the Russian Federation. 'It's a myth that Ukraine is not part of Russia. We don't believe it,' Oleg Rodilov, a pro-Russian MP in Crimea's autonomous parliament said in 2008. It would be wrong to accuse him of 'separatism', he added. 'For you, Ukraine and Russia are a priori different states. For us they are a priori the same,' he said. The links of culture, language and Orthodox religion made Ukraine and Russia an indivisible entity, he said. Also, both countries were Slavic, he said. 'We don't believe there is any difference. We have been together for 350 years.' Ukraine's recent civil conflict has fanned this tension in Crimea.
| About The Crimean War
The Crimean War (1853 – 1856) was a conflict between Russia and combined British, French and Ottoman Forces fought on the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula. The Great Powers- Russia, Britain and France vied for territory in the declining Ottoman Empire and over rights for Christians in the Holy Land, then under Ottoman control. The war was also one of the first modern wars, featuring the use of railways, telegrams and photography. British photographer Roger Fenton became one of the world’s first war photographers, documenting scenes of military personnel and encampments during 1855. “Roger Fenton (1819-1869) began experimenting with photography ca. 1851 and continued until 1862. His Crimean War photographs represent one of the earliest systematic attempts to document a war through the medium of photography. Although Fenton spent fewer than four months in the Crimea (March 8 to June 26, 1855), he produced 360 photographs under extremely trying conditions for publication by Thomas Agnew & Sons which began to issue sets of photographs in November of 1855. The Library’s collection of 263 unpublished photos is possibly a set of prints kept and annotated by Fenton himself.” – Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. “These photographs present a substantial documentary record of the participants and the landscape of the Crimean War, although there are no actual combat scenes. Comprised mainly of portrait photographs of British military personnel, as well as some French and Turkish military personnel, including a nurse attached to the French troops, leaders of the allied forces, Lord Raglan, Maréchal Pélissier, and Ömer Lûtfi Paşa, and Fenton dressed as a Zouave. The views show cavalry and artillery camps, a mortar battery, a cemetery; buildings, the harbor, and ships at Balaklava; the plains between Balaklava and Sevastopolʹ, and distant views of Sevastopolʹ.” British soldiers during the Crimean War. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # Ships at at the Cattle Pier on Cossack Bay, Balaklava, during the Crimean War, 1855. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # 1855: Balaklava, Ukraine, looking seaward with the harbour crowded with sailing ships. Balaklava was the British headquarters during the Crimean war. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # 1855 - Allied leaders and their aides-de-camp standing on steps. Lord Raglan's Head Quarters, with Lord Raglan, Marshal Pélissier, Lord Burghersh, Spahi & Aide-de-camp of Marshal Pélissier. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)# English and French soldiers having a drink together in the lines before Sebastopol during the Crimean War. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # A mobile darkroom used by photographer Roger Fenton during the Crimean war, where he developed negatives within 10 minutes of their exposure. His assistant Marcus Sparling is seated on the box. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # 1855 - Captain Thomas Longworth Dames, Royal Artillery, three-quarter length portrait, wearing uniform, standing near wall, bell tent in background. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # 1855 - View of encampment showing bell tents, huts, soldiers, and horses. View looking towards Kadikoi. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # 1855 - Colonel Brownrigg, ull-length portrait, seated, facing right; and two captured Russian boys, one standing and one sitting, at entrance to tent. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # 1855 - Captain Morgan sitting on horse, holding reins, facing left. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # 1855 - Men seated by railroad bed under construction next to Balaklava harbor. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # 1855: Lietenant Colonel Halliwell being poured a drink at an army camp in Russia, during the Crimean War. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # 1855: Edward Birch Reynardson, a British army officer of the Grenadier Guards, stationed at Balaklava during the Crimean War. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # 1855 - Officers and men of the 8th Hussars. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)# 1855 - Lieutenant General Sir Harry Jones, half-length portrait, standing with arm resting on stone wall. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # The War Council's commanders-in-chief of the Allies, Lord Raglan, Omar Pasha and General Pelisier having a meeting during the Crimean war. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # 1855 - Group of Tatars at work repairing roadway in Balaklava; wooden hut, "Store 14th Regiment", in the background. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # 1855 - Camps on plateau before Sebastopol. View of British camp with Turkish camp in the distance. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # 1855 - The old Genoese Castle at Balaklava, from above the castle pier. View of ships in Balaklava harbor and hill with castle or fort ruins, conical tents, buildings, and animals. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # English war photographer Roger Fenton (1819 - 1869) in the uniform of a Zouave soldier. (Photo by Marcus Sparling/Getty Images) # Sir William Howard Russell (1820 - 1907), war correspondent of 'The Times' (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # 1855 - Lieutenant General Sir John Campbell, full-length portrait, seated inside tent, facing left; Captain Hume, full-length portrait, standing outside tent, facing front. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # Mortar batteries in front of Picquet House, Light Division, during the Crimean War, circa 1855. The British soldiers are positioned behind a berm, or raised earth fortification. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # Members of the 4th Light Dragoons at camp in the Crimea, circa 1855. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # The Allied Fleet in Balaklava Harbour. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # The camp of the British Foot Guards at Balaklava during the Crimean War, 1855. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # 8th Hussars soldiers preparing a meal at the Cookhouse in the field during the Crimean War, 1855. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # Mortar teams having a rest during the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimean War. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) # Captain Henry Duberly, paymaster of the 8th Hussars, with his wife Frances Isabella during the Crimean War, 1855. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # 1855 - Captains Ralph Budd, John Dwyer, William Cosmo Trevor, Frederick Hammersley, John Barlow, and Angus(?) Hall, full-length portrait, three standing next to, and three sitting on, a caisson. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # 1855 - Mr. Thompson, full-length portrait, seated on a gabion, facing front, surrounded by attendants of Ismail Pacha. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # Captain William Cecil George Pechell (standing, third from right) and men of the 77th Regiment in their winter dress in the Ukraine, during the Crimean War, circa 1855. Pechell was killed at Sebastopol on 3rd September 1855, having received honourary mention in the despatches only a few days before. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # Spent cannon balls from the battlefield are scattered in the 'Valley of the Shadow of Death' on the plain of Balaklava during the Crimean War. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Getty Images) |
| Ukraine suffers its first deaths in Crimea as the crisis between Russia and Ukraine hits a 'military stage'. A Ukrainian serviceman and a member of a local self-defence brigade were shot dead, and many more were arrested in a Military base in Simferopol as the crisis between Russia and Ukraine escalates closer to all-out war. News of the death of the militia member, who is said to be loyal to the Russian Federation came from the news service Interfax The Ukrainian base was stormed by armed men at a military base in Simferopol in the Crimean Capital. The men arrived in a truck bearing the Russian flag, and proceeded to storm the compound, firing shots and clearing the Ukrainian compound of its troops, arresting most of the soldiers, killing one, and injuring another. Following the base attack, Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has now warned that the conflict with Russia has escalated, saying: 'The conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage. 'Russian soldiers have started shooting at Ukrainian military servicemen, and that is a war crime.' As a response, Ukrainian troops have been authorised to open fire in self defence after suffering their first casualty in the dramatic escalation to the now military crisis between the two countries. After the attack Britain warned that the West and Russia faced a changed relationship in coming years, and London has suspended all bilateral military cooperation and halted arms exports to Russia. Scroll down for down +43 Armed Russian forces arrest Ukrainian army officers during an operation in Simferopol, after the crisis moves from from political to military action between the two countries, after one Ukrainian serviceman has been shot dead +43 Armed Russian forces take part in a military operation at a Ukrainian military base in Simferopol, which led to the first act of bloodshed when a Ukrainian serviceman was shot dead +43 An armed man clears a roof of an Ukrainian military unit in the Ukrainian military base, thought to be a Russian soldier instigating an act of war on behalf of his country Ukraine's interim president Oleksandr Turchnynov later issued a statement placing responsibility for 'the blood of Ukrainian soldiers on the leadership of the Russian Federation and specifically President Putin.' Regional defence ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said the soldier died after being shot in the neck when a group of gunmen stormed a Ukrainian military base in the northeast of Crimea's main city of Simferopol. The men that stormed the Ukrainian compound did not have direct markings apart from the truck, but they were wearing the military uniforms of Russian Federation servicemen.' Another soldier, part of the local Ukrainian self-defence brigade, was also shot, and died later, but there were no specifications as to whether the base was stormed by Russian soldiers or pro-Kremlin militia who also patrol the peninsula. But the Ukrainian defence ministry said: 'For their self defence and protection of their lives, Ukrainian servicemen...deployed in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are allowed to use arms.' Ukrainian authorities have previously forbidden its Crimean soldiers from opening fire - in some cases forcing them to stand guard at their bases with empty rifles - in order not to provoke a Russian offensive that could spill into an all-out war. The first soldier who was shot dead, indicating the first bloodshed of the now military conflict, was identified as warrant officer S. V. Kakurin. Reports have emerged that the incident may have occurred when when the a pro-Russian militia attempted to climb a wall in the Ukrainian compound, and was told to get back by Ukrainian forces. Russian soldiers then intervened and shots were fired, with one soldier being shot in the neck, dying on the scene, and another being wounded. British Prime Minister David Cameron, reflecting Western worries that Putin's encroachment could spread farther in Ukraine and beyond, said 'The Russian moves were in flagrant breach of international law and send a chilling message across the continent of Europe. 'President Putin should be in no doubt that Russia will face more serious consequences.' NATO has also condemned the activity, saying they are heading down 'a dangerous path'. +43 Armed Russian forces take part in the military operation - causing the first bloodshed in the escalating conflict between the two countries +43 The arrests of the Ukrainian military officers is not the first act of aggression by Russia but it is one of the most direct +43 Unidentified armed men search an area close to an Ukrainian military unit in Simferopol, after gunfire at the military facility in the capital of separatist Crimea killed one serviceman and a member of a local self-defense brigade The shooting has caused Ukraine to strengthen their frontier defences in response to the seizure of Crimea, digging anti-tank trenches across a stretch of a highway that links Russia to Ukraine. In addition, they put a stretch of anti-tank chicane of house high concrete blocks to strengthen the area, in a move that was to show the media they are ready for an attack. Sergeant Olesky Romanenko, a soldier on the border, said: 'We are ready to defend out country.' While there was no sign of large unit armed activity in the region, a few military trucks and armoured vehicles were seen moving around in the area. Border guards are instead more concerned about what Kiev calls 'Kremlin agents' from Russia to spread dissent and spark violent street clashes in the Russian-speaking cities of Donetsk and Khariv. Ukraine says these agent's goals are to 'turn local people against the leaders in Kiev', in order to justify Moscow moving to 'protect' ethnic Russians, as in Crimea. Many civilians are worried about the border for more economic reasons, with one businessman, Sergei Alexandrovich, from Rostov, saying 'We've got very good economic relations. 'It would be very bad for business if the border closes.' Another said: 'This is a tense situation. 'It's all a political game in which ordinary people are suffering.' +43 Many unmarked soldiers stormed the Ukrainian compound inside Crimea, but experts have said while they did not bear markings, they were identified as wearing military uniforms that are worn by the servicemen of the Russian Federation +43 The truck used in the storming of the Ukrainian compound bore Russian markings, which has led the Ukrainian defence ministry to believe the attackers were Russian +43 Armed members of the Russian forces wait outside as Ukrainian soldiers stand guard inside the Ukrainian Navy headquarters in Simferopol. Previously the Ukrainian forces had been told not to fire at advancing Russian forces, but have now been given the go-ahead for armed self-defence +43 Most of the Russian's offensive has bee blockades, as have they slowly but surely block off the vital Ukrainian military forces that would be needed to wage a war +43 The dispute between the two countries has been largely cold, with posturing on both sides and no active combat, and the death of the Ukrainian soldier today may be the catalyst that pushes the escalating crisis to war +43 Ukraine said one of its soldiers was killed in Crimea today in the first case of bloodshed since Russian troops and pro-Kremlin militia seized the rebel peninsula almost three weeks ago +43 The highly armed Russian forces have been taking part in military operations all over Ukrainian territory, even before Putin ordered the annexing of Crimea, but this incidence is the first of shots being fired and striking a living target There has been no immediate reaction to the reported death from either Russian authorities in Moscow or the peninsula's rebel leadership. Vladimir Putin signed a decree to add Crimea to the Russian map today as the Ukrainian army officer was shot dead in the region. With Ukraine vowing it will fight to protect the Black Sea peninsula, the incident will spark fears the two countries are edging ever closer to war. But since Putin signed the degree, workers have already started dismantling the autonomous Crimean government, despite many powerful international figures claiming they do not recognise the annexing which came into affect as a product of the signing. Workers started with the signs on the building of Crimean Parliament building, taking down the gold-coloured metal letters that indicated the building's status, and the country's status, as independent. +43 Since the decree was signed, workers have begun dismantling the autonomous government of Crimea, starting with the signs +43 Workmen change the lettering on the Parliament building to a sign that reads 'Crimean Autonomous Council', only days after the vote and mere hours after the annexing of Crimea +43 The dismantled Crimean Parliament signs. President Vladimir Putin and leaders of Crimea signed a treaty accepting the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as part of the Russian territory WORLDWIDE REACTION TO THE ANNEXING OF CRIMEAUNITED STATES White House spokesman Jay Carney- 'We condemn Russia's moves to formally annex' Crimea. 'With sanctions already designated against Russian officials, there are more to come.' US President Barack Obama, who then called on members of the G7 - minus G8 member Russia - to join him in The Hague to discuss the crisis next week - 'The Crimean 'referendum,' which violates the Ukrainian constitution and occurred under duress of Russian military intervention, (will) never be recognised by the United States and the international community.' US Vice President Joe Biden - 'Russia has offered a variety of arguments to justify what is nothing more than a land grab.' BRITAIN British Foreign Secretary William Hague, announcing that Britain will suspend all bilateral military cooperation with Russia - 'It was regrettable to hear President Putin today choosing the route of isolation' - GERMANY German Chancellor Angela Merkel - 'The one-sided declaration of Crimea's independence and the absorption into the Russian Federation that started today are unacceptable blows against the territorial integrity of Ukraine. 'The so-called referendum breached international law, the declaration of independence which the Russian president accepted yesterday was against international law, and the absorption into the Russian Federation is, in our firm opinion, also against international law.' EUROPEAN UNION EU president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission head Jose Manuel - 'The European Union does neither recognise the illegal and illegitimate referendum in Crimea nor its outcome. 'The European Union does not and will not recognise the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation.' UKRAINE Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov - 'Russia is playing a dirty game to annex Crimea. World War II began with the annexation by Nazi Germany of other countries' territories. Today, Putin is following the example of 20th century fascists.' FRANCE French President Francois Hollande - 'France does not recognise the results of the referendum held in Crimea on March 16, or the annexation of this region of Ukraine to Russia.' Kerry: Putin's rhetoric doesn't jibe with reality +43 Another demonstrator in Sevastopol holds the hammer and sickle in the same hand as the flag of the Russian Federation as crowds celebrate their decision to secede from Ukraine following the Western-backed coup +43 Tsar Vladimir: Thousands of pro-Russian people watch Putin's speech on big screens in Sevastopol The incident came after Vladmir Putin gave a firebrand speech that both encouraged his country to recapture old former-Soviet territories, and warned the West not to get in the way or interfere. Russian politicians and media were last night demanding Putin go further, grabbing back more former Soviet regions and states. The nationalistic frenzy whipped up by the return of Crimea - in defiance of the West - led to calls on state-run TV for Moscow to take back oil and gas-rich Kazakhstan and authoritarian Belarus as well as more slices of a battered Ukraine, already filleted by the Kremlin. Putin was last night riding the crest of an adulatory wave after righting what many Russians see as an historical wrong and reintegrating Crimea and the Black Sea fleet headquarters of Sevastopol back in to Russia after a gap of 60 years. Putin told the joint session of the Russian parliament that he would not accept NATO 'next to our home or on our historic territories'. He also accused the West of hypocrisy in pushing for self-determination for Kosovo but denying Crimea, he said the peninsula had been 'robbed' from Russia in Soviet times while 'regions of Russia's historic south' were only now Ukrainian because of a Bolshevik blunder. In an emotional and historic address he said: 'In the hearts and minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia.' CRIMEA: A RUSSIAN STATE ONCE MOREPUTIN'S DECLARATIONS 'In people's hearts and minds, Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia,' Putin declared in his emotional speech, dismissing Western criticism of Sunday. Putin said his actions followed what he described as Western arrogance, hypocrisy and pressure, and warned that the West must drop its stubborn refusal to take Russian concerns into account. Addressing the West, Putin said: 'If you push a spring too hard at some point it will spring back. 'You always need to remember this.' While Putin boasted that the Russian takeover of Crimea was conducted without a single shot, a Ukrainian military spokesman argued that the Ukrainian serviceman who was killed when the military facility in Crimea was stormed just hours after Putin's speech indicated Putin, and Russia, had officially committed a war crime. 'We don't want a division of Ukraine, we don't need that.' Regarding the West again, Putin said: 'They have constantly tried to drive us into a corner for our independent stance," Putin said. "But there are limits. And in the case of Ukraine, our Western partners have crossed a line. 'They have behaved rudely, irresponsibly and unprofessionally.' Putin said that the Soviet collapse made Russians 'the largest divided people in the world. 'I have heard residents of Crimea say that back in 1991 they were handed over like a sack of potatoes. 'What about Russia? It lowered its head and accepted the situation, swallowing the insult. Our country was going through such hard times then that it simply was incapable of defending its interests.' HISTORY OF CRIMEA Crimea had been part of Russia since the 18th century until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine in 1954, a mere formality until the 1991 Soviet breakup. Both Russians and Crimea's majority ethnic Russian population see annexation as correcting a historic insult. Putin argued that today's Ukraine included 'regions of Russia's historic south' and was created on a whim by the Bolsheviks. But despite the massing of thousands of Russian troops on Ukraine's eastern border, Putin insisted his nation had no intention of invading other regions in Ukraine. Putin says Crimea returns to its 'Home Port' of Russia Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague said President Vladimir Putin had chosen the 'route of isolation' by signing a treaty annexing Crimea just two days after a hastily arranged referendum on the breakaway peninsula. He said: 'We should be ready to contemplate a new state of relations between Russia and the West in the coming years that is different from the last 20 years. 'This is a relationship that would be one in which institutions such as G8 are working without Russia, and military cooperation and defence exports are permanently curtailed, in which decisions are accelerated to reduce European dependence on Russian energy exports. 'We have suspended all such military cooperation.' Britain was also suspending all existing licences for the export of arms to Russia, because it fears the equipment could be used by Russian forces against Ukraine. Hague said Britain encouraged other EU states to take similar action. Hague said Britain was scaling back military ties with Russia, which were only recently revived after relations between the two countries were almost halted by the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. The EU has also been hindered by Russian activity, with Herman Van Rompuy cancelling a confidential meeting that was meant to take place between him and Russia. 'The mission was cancelled because the Russians made it public,' a diplomat said. Another diplomat added: 'We must find a solution as quickly as possible to stop a return to the Cold War.' Sanctions against Russia instituted by the U.S. have been condemned by John Kerry's Russian counterpart Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said that Western sanctions against Moscow over Crimea were 'absolutely unacceptable', and said there would be consequences. Handle Putin: Crimea will be part of Russia +43 On the crest of a wave: Russian President Vladimir Putin stands next to Crimean Premier Sergey Aksionov as he addresses a rally in Red Square, Moscow, celebrating Crimea's decision to join with Russia +43 Ukrainian soldiers guard a gate of an infantry base in Privolnoye, Ukraine +43 Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a treaty for Crimea to join Russia Many Ukrainian military facilities in Crimea have been under the control of Russian forces for several weeks after Russian troops poured into the Black Sea peninsula ahead of a referendum at the weekend which handed over control from Ukraine to Russia. Yatseniuk said he had ordered Ukraine's defence minister to call a meeting with his counterparts from Britain, France, and Russia - signatories to a 1994 treaty guaranteeing Ukraine's borders to 'prevent an escalation of the conflict'. Mr Putin defiantly added Crimea to the map of Russia despite protests among the international community. In the emotional 40-minute speech televised live from the Kremlin, Mr Putin claimed the move corrected past injustice and responded to what he called Western encroachment his country's vital interests. +43 A Russian girl holds a Russian national flag during rally celebrating Crimea and Sevastopol joining Russia on Red Square +43 Russians hold flags showing Russian President Vladimir Putin and the slogan reading 'We are together!' +43 People attend a rally called 'We are together' to support the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea to Russia at the Red Square in central Moscow +43 An elderly woman holds a calendar depicting Soviet leader Josef Stalin while watching a large screen showing a broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech He said Crimea had remained 'in people's hearts and minds, and has always been an integral part of Russia.' Mr Putin dismissed Western criticism of Sunday's Crimean referendum - in which residents of the strategic Black Sea peninsula overwhelmingly backed breaking off from Ukraine and joining Russia - as a manifestation of the West's double standards. Mr Putin said the move followed what he described as Western pressure, arrogance and its stubborn refusal to take Russian concerns into account. THE FRIGHTENING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PUTIN'S AND HITLER'S SPEECHESVLADMIR PUTIN Putin claimed he would not invade other parts of Eastern Ukraine if Russia is allowed to exercise influence. Putin said: ‘Don’t believe those who try to frighten you with Russia and who scream that other (Ukrainian) regions will follow after Crimea. ‘We do not want a partition of Ukraine, we do not need this.’ ADOLF HITLER Hitler also claimed that his ambitions would stop at the Sudetenland. ‘What more is wanted? I have declared that the frontier between France and Germany is a final one. Germany has no interests in the West, and our western wall is for all time the frontier of the Reich on the west. ‘Moreover, we have no aims of any kind there for the future.’ Five months later he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, 19 months later he invaded France. Vladmir Putin's speech bore remarkable similarities to the words spoken during Adolf Hitler's speech where he spoke about the Nazi seizure of the Sudetenland +43 Russian President Vladimir Putin (second right), Crimea's Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov (front left), Crimean parliamentary speaker Vladimir Konstantinov (back left) and Sevastopol Mayor Alexei Chaliy shake hands after a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow 'If you push a spring too hard at some point it will spring back,' he said, addressing the West. 'You always need to remember this.' But the Russian leader insisted his nation has no intention of invading other regions of Ukraine. 'We don't want a division of Ukraine, we don't need that,' he said. He also accused the United States of being guided in its foreign policy not by international law but by the 'rule of the gun.' +43 Armed men, believed to be Russian servicemen, stand guard outside a Ukrainian military base in Perevalnoye in Crimea +43 President Vladimir Putin pushed every emotional button of the collective Russian psyche as he justified the incorporation of Crimea, citing everything from ancient history to Russia's demand for respect to Western double standards +43 A Ukrainian interim forces officer (right) talks to recruits during their exercises not far from Kiev THE ODD MAN OUT: RUSSIA IN THE G8 GROUP OF WORLD POWERSWhat is the G8? The G8, otherwise known as the Group of Eight, is an assembly of world leaders who meet annually to discuss global issues. Each year, the G8 holds a Leaders’ Summit, in which Heads of State and Government of member countries meet to discuss and attempt to reconcile global issues. What countries are members? The G-8 includes the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, France, Italy and Canada. Russia joined to form the G-8 in the 1990s, but has been a bit of an odd man out at their annual meetings. Is the G8 important? Yes, but the G-8 has been eclipsed in recent years by the G-20, which includes China and emerging markets and was created to better represent the drivers of the 21st century global economy. When did it last meet? Leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, USA and UK met at Lough Erne in Northern Ireland for the G8 Summit in June 2013. When will it next meet? Russia has the G-8's rotating leadership and is scheduled to host a summit in Sochi in June, but the other members already had suspended preparations for that meeting over objections to Russia's involvement in Ukraine. +43 Ukraine's parliament has approved the partial mobilisation of troops to counter 'Russian interference' on its soil +43 A Ukrainian interim forces officer (left) supervises recruits during a shooting exercise +43 Members of Ukrainian self-defense forces march during their training on the Novi Petrivtsi shooting range near Kiev At the same time, Mr Putin also argued that today's Ukraine included 'regions of Russia's historic south' and was created on a whim by the Bolsheviks - a clear warning to both the new Ukrainian government in Kiev and to the West to respect Russia's interests. In response, Ukraine's new government called Mr Putin a threat to the whole world and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned that the U.S. and Europe will impose further sanctions against Moscow. 'The world has seen through Russia's actions and has rejected the flawed logic,' Biden said, meeting Tuesday with anxious European leaders in Poland. +43 British Foreign Secretary William Hague makes a statement to the House of Commons as MPs debate the ongoing situation in Ukraine SHOTS FIRED AND UKRAINIAN AIR COMMANDER TAKEN IN CRIMEAArmed men came to a Ukrainian military airfield in the Crimean peninsula, fired shots in the air and took away the base's commanding officer, a military spokesman said. The incident happened late on Monday at Belbek airport just outside the naval port of Sevastopol. 'Unknown armed people came to the base late on Monday, shots were fired in the air and the commanding officer was taken away in an unknown direction,' Vladislav Seleznov, a Ukrainian military spokesman said. In a separate incident on Tuesday, a group of about 30 members of the so-called 'Crimean Self-Defense' came to a compound of apartment blocks that houses families of Ukrainian servicemen and took its commander away, Seleznov said. 'They were there about 30 minutes ... They took away the commander of the compound, Lt. Colonel Vladislav Nechiporenko, in a yellow mini-van,' he said. The two incidents could not be independently verified. Seleznov could not say whether the incidents amounted to a violation of last week's truce in Crimea reached between the defence ministries of Ukraine and Russia that is scheduled to last until March 21. '(The annexation) has nothing to do with law or with democracy or sensible thinking.' Thousands of Russian troops have been massed along Ukraine's eastern border for the last few weeks - Russia says that was for military training while the U.S. and Europe view the troops as an intimidation tactic. 'If Ukraine goes to NATO or the EU, Mr Putin will do everything so that it goes there without the east and south,' said Vadim Karasyov, a Kiev-based political analyst. 'Mr Putin basically told the West that Russia has the right to veto the way Ukraine will develop. And if not, then Crimea is only a precedent of how pieces of Ukraine can be chopped off one by one.' Mr Putin argued the months of protests in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev that prompted President Viktor Yanukovych to flee to Russia had been instigated by the West in order to weaken Russia. He cast the new Ukrainian government as illegitimate, driven by radical 'nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites.' With strong emotion, Mr Putin accused the West of cheating Russia and ignoring its interests in the years that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse. 'They have constantly tried to drive us into a corner for our independent stance, for defending it, for calling things their proper names and not being hypocritical,' Mr Putin said. 'But there are limits. And in the case of Ukraine, our Western partners have crossed a line. They behaved rudely, irresponsibly and unprofessionally.' Following the speech before lawmakers and top officials, Mr Putin and Crimean officials signed a treaty for the region to join Russia. The treaty will have to be endorsed by Russia's Constitutional Court and ratified by both houses of parliament, but Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of upper house of Russian parliament, said the procedure could be completed by the end of the week. Putin: Crimea will be part of Russia +43 Ukrainian interim forces officer new recruits learn techniques of unarmed combat +43 Kiev had called last week for the initial mobilisation of reservists and approved the creation of a new National Guard of 60,000 volunteers, as Russian forces encircled Ukrainian military bases in Crimea +43 New recruits: The nation has only some 6,000 combat-ready soldiers Crimea had been part of Russia since the 18th century until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine in 1954. Both Russians and Crimea's majority ethnic Russian population see annexation as correcting a historic insult. In his speech at the Kremlin's white-and-gold St. George hall, which was often interrupted by applause, Mr Putin said the rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine had been abused by the new Ukrainian government. He insisted that Crimea's vote Sunday to join Russia was in line with international law and reflected its right for self-determination. To back that claim, Mr Putin pointed to Kosovo's independence bid from Serbia - supported by the West and opposed by Russia - and said Crimea's secession from Ukraine repeats Ukraine's own secession from the Soviet Union in 1991. He denied Western accusations that Russia invaded Crimea prior to the referendum, saying Russian troops were sent there in line with a treaty with Ukraine that allows Russia to have up to 25,000 troops at its Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea. The hastily called Crimean vote was held just two weeks after Russian troops had overtaken the Black Sea peninsula, blockading Ukrainian soldiers at their bases. The West and Ukraine described the referendum as illegitimate and being held at gunpoint, but residents on the peninsula voted overwhelmingly to join Russia. THE KOSOVO WAR: FEBRUARY 1998 TO JUNE 1999Kosovo is the disputed land which lies on the border of Serbia and Albania. War broke out there in February 1998 when forces under Yugoslav President Solbodan Milosevic tried to suppress an campaign for independence by the ethnic Albanians in the country. Fighting continued in the region until June 1999. A deal to end the crisis - negotiated by the international community in 1999 - was rejected by Milosevic. His continued persecution of the Albanians prompted NATO to intervene, launching air strikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia in March of that year. At the same time a campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Kosovo Albanians began. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled across the border to Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro. After 11 weeks of Nato bombings, Milosevic was forced to withdraw his troops. The UN was put in charge, until agreement could be reached on whether Kosovo would become indepdent or revert to Serbian control. In May 1999 Milosevic became the first serving head of state to be indicted for crimes against humanity, by the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague. Speaking in Donetsk, the center of the Donbass coal-mining region in eastern Ukraine, 37-year-old businessman Aleksei Gavrilov hailed Crimea joining Russia and said Donbass also historically belonged to Russia. 'Ukraine is just a made-up , fake project which was created to destroy Russia,' he said. 'Everything that Mr Putin said is perfectly correct and I support him completely!' Igor Nosenko, a bar manager, watched Mr Putin's speech in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. The United States and the European Union on Monday announced asset freezes and other sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the Crimean crisis. President Barack Obama warned that more would come if Russia didn't stop interfering in Ukraine. Earlier in the day, France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Europe-1 radio leaders of the Group of Eight world powers 'decided to suspend Russia's participation.' In his speech, Mr Putin made it clear that Russia wouldn't be deterred by Western sanctions, and asked China and India for their support. The Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution condemning U.S. sanctions targeting Russian officials including members of the chamber. The chamber challenged Obama to extend the sanctions to all the 353 deputies who voted for Tuesday's resolution, suggesting that being targeted was a badge of honor. Eighty-eight deputies left the house before the vote. Mr Putin found support even in unusual places. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev hailed Crimea's vote to join Russia as a 'happy event.' In remarks Tuesday by online newspaper Slon.ru, he said Crimea's vote could also be an example for people in Ukraine's Russian-speaking eastern region. +43 +43 The first volunteers enroll in the Ukraine National Guard in Kiev (left) and (right) pro-Ukrainian activists demonstrate during the European foreign affairs ministers council, near EU headquarters in Brussels +43 A man holding a Soviet era red flag salutes in front of the parliament building after the end of the referendum in Simferopol, Crimea Many in Crimea's ethnic Tatar minority were wary of the referendum, fearing that Crimea's break-off from Ukraine will set off violence against them. Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliyev seemed to confirm those fears, saying in remarks carried by the RIA Novosti news agency that the government would ask Tatars to 'vacate' some of the lands they 'illegally' occupy so authorities can use them for 'social needs.' But Mr Putin on Tuesday vowed to protect the rights of Crimean Tatars and keep their language as one of Crimea's official tongues, along with Russian and Ukrainian. Meanwhile, the White House said the G7 world economic powers need to consider whether Moscow should keep its membership in their organisation. Mr Obama wants to gather leaders of the G7 nations and the European Union to meet on the sidelines of a nuclear summit next week in the Netherlands. Russia is one of 53 countries which will participate in the nuclear meeting in The Hague. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the meeting that Obama 'will focus on the situation in Ukraine and further steps that the G-7 may take to respond to developments and to support Ukraine.' +43 U.S. Vice President Joe Biden waves as he arrives at the Okecie military airport in Warsaw, Poland +43 Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet President, has praised Mr Putin's stance over the Crimea It comes as the leaders of the G8 world powers said today they have suspended Russia's participation in the club amid the tensions, France's foreign minister said today. The other seven members of the group had already suspended preparations for a G8 summit that Russia is scheduled to host in Sochi in June. France's Laurent Fabius went further today, saying on Europe-1 radio that 'concerning the G8... we decided to suspend Russia's participation, and it is envisaged that all the other countries, the seven leading countries, will unite without Russia'. Also today, Serhiy Taruta, governor of the eastern city of Donetsk, warned: 'We're going to have a war. Our people will take up arms and they will protect our country. 'A short distance away, thousands of Russian troops have been carrying out manoeuvres for the past few days. 'If they decide to come into Ukraine, this is the way they'll come - and there's nothing anyone can do to stop them.' +43 Ukrainian border guards patrol the road on the administrative border of Crimea and Ukraine not far the village of Strilkove in the Kherson region +43 Ukrainian border guards search a truck at a check point on the administrative border of Crimea and Ukraine Today, Ukraine unveiled the first 500 recruits to its newly-formed National Guard and paraded them on Kiev's Independence Square. Ukraine's military is trying to raise a force of 40,000. The nation has only some 6,000 combat-ready soldiers, but parliament on March 17 approved $670million (£400million) in emergency funding. On Sunday, Crimea voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and seek to join Russia. The West and Ukraine described the referendum, which was announced two weeks ago, as illegitimate. UKRAINE 'WON'T SEEK MEMBERSHIP OF NATO', NEW LEADERS SAYSUkraine's new pro-Western leadership is not seeking membership of NATO, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said today. Yatseniuk, who came to office after the removal of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich, also said decentralisation of power was a key plank of government policy, adding Kiev's efforts to integrate with Europe would take into account the interests of Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking industrial east. 'Strictly with a view to maintaining Ukraine's unity, the question of joining NATO is not on the agenda,' Yatseniuk, who normally speaks in Ukrainian, said in a 10-minute televised appeal delivered in Russian. 'The country will be defended by a strong, modern Ukrainian army.' Kiev pursued a policy of closer ties with the U.S.-led NATO alliance before Yanukovich took power in 2010. Yanukovich then formally scrapped the idea of Ukraine's eventual membership of NATO, declaring 'non-bloc' neutrality for his nation of 46 million sandwiched between Russia and the European Union. Yesterday, the United States and the European Union announced asset freezes and other sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian officials involved in the Crimean crisis. President Barack Obama warned that more would come if Russia did not stop interfering in Ukraine. Russian troops have been occupying the region for more than two weeks. But the chief executive of Russian oil giant Rosneft and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin spoken out defiantly on the sanctions, threatening to move business elsewhere. Igor Sechin, the head of Russia's largest oil company, told Russian news agencies today that he is not afraid of potential sanctions, calling them 'evidence of powerlessness'. Rosneft and Russian companies should not fear sanctions either, Mr Sechin insisted, saying 'Russian companies can move their business elsewhere' away from the US and Europe. Malcolm Rifkind, who chairs the British parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, told the BBC the sanctions were 'pathetic'. He said: 'All that the international community has done so far is implement visa sanctions and asset freezes on 22 or 23 individuals - that is a pathetic response.' Mr Rifkind, a senior lawmaker in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party, said the United States and European Union should get tougher with Putin, preferably with 'very robust financial sanctions'. 'Now it may be that as a result of what might happen that there will be a much tougher response including financial sanctions. If so that will be the right response,' he said. 'But I hear very disturbing signs that it is unlikely there will be European consensus on that: that we might say 'well only if Russia invades eastern Ukraine will it be necessary to go further'. That would be a shameful and very dangerous response.' Russia, however, still has a chance to back off. The treaty to annex Crimea has to be signed by leaders of Russia and Crimea, approved by the Constitutional Court and then be ratified by the parliament. Crimea had been part of Russia since the 18th century until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine in 1954. Both Russians and Crimea's majority ethnic Russian population see annexation as correcting a historic insult. He added that the Crimean poll has set an example for people in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, who should also decide their fate. Mr Gorbachev, 83, who resigned as the Soviet president on Christmas Day 1991, has voiced regret that he was unable to stem the Soviet Union's collapse. He has criticised Mr Putin's authoritarian policy, but said today that he supports his course in the Ukrainian crisis. Ukraine's turmoil, which began in November with a wave of protests against President Viktor Yanukovych and accelerated after he fled to Russia in late February, has become Europe's most severe security crisis in years. Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers have responded caustically to Western sanctions against officials involved in moves to annex Crimea, urging the United States and European Union to impose the same penalties on hundreds more members of parliament. A declaration adopted unanimously by the State Duma lower house said: 'We propose to Mr Obama and the ... Eurobureaucrats to include all State Duma deputies who voted in favour of this resolution on the list of Russian citizens affected by U.S. and EU sanctions.' U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has arrived in Poland on a trip designed to show America's resolve against Russia's intervention in neighbouring Ukraine. He landed in Warsaw, where he planned to have talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Bronislaw Komorowski. He will also meet Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves. The meetings with the Nato allies are part of a broader US campaign to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to back off in Ukraine. The US is imposing the most comprehensive sanctions against Russian officials since the Cold War. Later today, Mr Biden will fly to the Baltic nation of Lithuania to meet President Dalia Grybauskaite and Latvian President Andris Berzins. Latvia and Estonia share borders with Russia, and Poland and Lithuania are nearby. A REGION WORTH FIGHTING FOR? WHY RUSSIA COVETS THE CRIMEAFlashpoint: A picture of soldiers during the Crimean War, circa 1855 Crimea is a region synonymous with military glory for Russians, imperial and Soviet. Catherine the Great first annexed the region in 1783 after defeating the Ottoman Turks and built a naval base and the city Sevastopol. The Russian Black Sea fleet has been there ever since. What Crimea is best remembered for in the West is the Crimean War of the 1850s. The conflict was initially between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire but drew in Britain and France. It ended with the Treaty of London of 1856. The region only became part of Ukraine in 1954, when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who was himself Ukrainian-born, signed it over to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from Russia. Pro-Kremlin campaigners call this a 'historical accident'. Ethnic, cultural and religious ties are also very Russian, leading some pro-Kremlin Crimeans to freely admit they would like Crimea to join the Russian Federation. Currently, there are two million ethnic Russians who live on the peninsula, making up almost 60 per cent of the population. Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars – the peninsula's original Turkic-speaking Muslim inhabitants – account for the rest. But it has not always been that way. By 1900 Crimean Tatars, previously the major population, had been reduced to half of residents. After the Soviet revolution they were reduced to a quarter. The Crimea has remained a stable feature of geopolitics for over a century and a half Then Stalin forcibly deported many of them to Central Asia and replaced them with Slavs from Russia or Russian-influenced parts of eastern Ukraine. As a result Crimea was largely 'russified' over the two centuries after its incorporation into the Russian Empire and its indigenous Muslim population swamped or displaced. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Tatars remained or have returned, but they are still a minority numbering about 15 per cent of the population. They reject the notion of union with Russia and are loyal to Kiev – another volatile element in an already combustible ethnic mix. Most of Stalin's newcomers were from poor urban backgrounds; they moved into homes vacated by deportees and had weak ties with Ukraine. They freely admit they would like Crimea to join the Russian Federation. 'It's a myth that Ukraine is not part of Russia. We don't believe it,' Oleg Rodilov, a pro-Russian MP in Crimea's autonomous parliament said in 2008. It would be wrong to accuse him of 'separatism', he added. 'For you, Ukraine and Russia are a priori different states. For us they are a priori the same,' he said. The links of culture, language and Orthodox religion made Ukraine and Russia an indivisible entity, he said. Also, both countries were Slavic, he said. 'We don't believe there is any difference. We have been together for 350 years.' Ukraine's recent civil conflict has fanned this tension in Crimea.
| Control of Crimea, currently an autonomous republic within Ukraine, has shifted many times throughout its history. The Black Sea peninsula had at one point or another been home to Greeks, Scythians, Goths, Huns, Golden Horde Tatars and the Mongols, just to name a few. The Russian Empire wrested control of Crimea from the Ottomans and French and British armies during the Crimean War (1853–1856). Sevastopol was the site of bloody, protracted sieges during both the Crimean War and World War II, when the city held out against Nazi forces for eight months from October 1941 until July 1942. After the Soviet Army finally drove out the Germans in 1944, Joseph Stalin’s government forcibly relocated the entire population of Crimean Tatars to Central Asia for supposedly collaborating with the Nazis. During the height of the Soviet Union, on February 19, 1954, Nikita Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Oblast fromRussia to Ukraine, largely a symbolic gesture at the time. Russia’s historic ties to Crimea and its economic and strategic interest has put the territory at the heart of East-West conflict in Ukraine ever since. 1855: Victorious soldiers (Zouaves) pose after the taking of Malakoff in the Crimea. (Photo by Felice A Beato/Getty Images) # 25th October 1854: Charge of the heavy cavalry at Balaklava, in the Crimea. Original Artwork: Engraving by J J Crewe. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # The British 4th Light Dragoons encamped in the Crimea, circa 1855. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # 1855 - Group of Tatars at work repairing roadway in Balaklava; wooden hut, "Store 14th Regiment", in the background. (Roger Fenton Crimean War photograph collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) # A French vivandiere, or cantiniere, with French soldiers in the Crimea during the Crimean War, 1855. Vivandieres were women attached to regiments as canteen keepers and as unofficial nursing staff. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # circa 1855: Officers of the 89th Regiment, Princess Victoria's Royal Irish Fusiliers, at Cathcart's Hill in the Crimea. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # 19th June 1869: A Tartar shepherd-boy in the Crimea. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) # A group of Ukrainian peasants at Yalta, Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union, July 1930. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)# MASSANDRA, UKRAINE: A picture taken at the beginning of the 19th century shows the last Russian Tsar and founder of the Massandra winery Nicolas II (L) walking along his vineyards in Massandra, not far from the Crimean resort of Yalta. MASSANDRA WINERY/AFP/Getty Images # As the German invasion of the Ukraine continues, soldiers of the invading Wehrmacht troops are seen in the cover of a shell-marked wall, at an unknown location on the Crimean peninsula, in November 1941. (AP Photo) # 22nd November 1941: Locals watch as a German column passes through the city of Simferopol, the Crimean capital, which they had captured on 2 November. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) # As the German invasion of the southern Ukraine continues, soldiers of an advance division are seen at an unknown village, somewhere between the Crimean Mountains and the Black Sea, on March 12, 1941. A military convoy is moving down a street in the background. AP Photo) # This picture shows Nazi Stuka bombers in flight heading towards their target over coastal territory between Dniepr and Crimea, towards the Gate of the Crimea on Nov. 6, 1941. Apparently the narrow neck of the Russian black-sea Peninsula ris where the Germans are reported to be steadily pushing forward. (AP Photo) # The rock-like defence of Sevastopol, the Malta of the Crimea, on June 12, 1942, shows no signs of weakening under a new all-out offensive by General von Mannheim’s armies. Symbolic of the heroic garrison is this Russian girl sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who has killed by her accurate shooting the magnificent total of 300 Germans before Sevastopol. (AP Photo) # The bodies of two fallen Soviet soldiers lie at roadside, while a truck of the Romanian Army, with an artillery gun in tow, advances towards the city of Kerch, in June 1942, during the Battle of the Crimea in World War II. (AP Photo) # October 1942: German troops making a dash to escape in the Crimea are cut off by Russian forces. An armoured personnel carrier is seen rushing through a burning Russian village on their way to the Dnieper River. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) # circa 1944: Germans in the Crimea making their escape from the approaching Russians. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) # February 1945: American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), right, with Admiral William D. Leahy (1875 - 1959) and General George C. Marshall (1880 - 1950) at the conference in Yalta, in the Crimea. Russian premier Marshal Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953), left of centre at the table, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), with his back to the camera, are also amongst those present at the conference. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) # President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin, accompanied by Foreign Secretaries, Chiefs of Staff and other Advisors, met at Yalta in the Crimea in February 1945. (AP Photo) # With their foreign secretaries behind them, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin sit on the patio of Livadia Palace, Yalta, Crimea, Feb. 4, 1945. Standing, from left: Foreign Sec. Anthony Eden, Sec. of State Edward R. Stettinius, and Foreign Commissar Vyasheslav Molotov. (AP Photo) # circa 1950: A shady bus stop in Yalta. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images) # Black Sea Fleet sailor adjusts a former Soviet navy flag atop a fleet submarine, Wednesday, March 20, 1996 at the Sevastopol naval base, the Crimea, Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine so far have failed to divide their shares of the fleet ships, which still carry old Soviet naval flags along with Russian ones. (AP Photo/Sergei Volkov) # Some of 100 thousand Tatars, (Turkic ethnic group) who returned to their native land, stare from behind a barbed wire fence in a ìghettoî in Crimea on Sunday, Oct. 30, 1990, which they built with official permission near small village Koreis in Cremea, the slogan reads Motherland or death. (AP Photo/Vladimir Lagrange) # Crimean Tatars wipe their tears at a mourning rally during the 60th anniversary of deportation of ethnic Tatars under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 18, 2004. Thousands of people gathered in Simferopol main square to honor the memory of victims of the Soviet regime (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) # SIMFEROPOL, UKRAINE - MAY 18: A woman carries a flag during a demonstration for the Crimean Tartars May 18, 2003 in Simferopol, Ukraine. The demonstration marked the 59th anniversary of a mass deportation by Stalin's regime during World War II of the Crimean Tarters, the name given to Turkic people living in the Crimean Peninsula in what is now the Ukraine. Approximately 15,000 participants took part in this demonstration. (Photo by Sergei Svetlitsky/Getty Images) # CRIMEA, UKRAINE - AUGUST 18: Sunbathers lay out on the rugged beach of Yalta August 18, 2003 in Crimea, Ukraine. After the number of annual visitors to the Black Sea peninsula dropped from 8 million in the late Soviet era to just 3 million in the mid 1990's, about 4.5 million vacationers traveled to Crimea in 2002. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images) # SEVASTOPOL, UKRAINE - AUGUST 15: Russian sailors tend to a "Varshavyanka" submarine August 15, 2003 in Sevastopol, Crimea in the Ukraine. Sevastopol is the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russia and the Ukraine have an agreement keeping the base in Sevastopol through 2017. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images) # SEVASTOPOL, UKRAINE - AUGUST 15: Russian sailors linger on a street August 15, 2003 in Sevastopol, Crimea in the Ukraine. Sevastopol is the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Russia and the Ukraine have an agreement keeping the base in Sevastopol through 2017. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)
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