Unidentified military ships are seen off the coast of Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine, 02 March 2014 morning. Russia ratcheted tension in the Ukraine crisis on 01 March with its upper house of parliament approving the use of armed forces in the Crimean peninsula, which is part of Ukraine: photo - EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Russian troops, though wearing no insignia but driving vehicles with Russian number plates, have seized the isolated peninsula of Crimea, where Moscow stations its Black Sea Fleet and where a majority of the population are either ethnic Russians or Ukrainian Russian speakers.
Following the Russian parliament on Saturday giving President Putin powers to use military force in Ukraine, "to protect Russians" and Russian interests in the region Ukrainian interim prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Russian military action "would be the beginning of war and the end of any relations between Ukraine and Russia".
Moscow also appeared to be moving more sea power towards the Crimea peninsula, with unidentified military ships seen off the coast of Sevastopol on Sunday morning.
Polish media is reporting that what appear to be Russian soldiers and 20 of their vehicles surrounded a Ukrainian base at Perevalne in Crimea demanding its surrender.
The BBC reports that Russian troops are digging trenches at the land border between Crimea and rest of Ukraine.
Ukraine acting president Olexander Turchynov has said Ukraine's airspace is closed to any non-civilian aircraft.
Andriy Paruby - Ukrainian Secretary of the Security Council and member of the nationalist Svoboda party, which has five members in the interim government in Kiev - said an order had also been given to the Foreign Ministry to seek US and British help in guaranteeing the security of Ukraine.
In 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons against joint guarantees by US, UK and Russia of its territorial integrity.
Armed forces, Paruby said, would step up security at energy facilities, including nuclear power plants, Reuters reports.
'Solidarity'
Poland's president Bronislaw Komorowski met with Polish defence and foreign ministers late on Saturday as tension escalated in Poland's eastern neighbour.
"After the Russian upper house gave consent to President Putin to use armed forces in the territory of Ukraine, the situation has become extremely dramatic," Komorowski said.
President Komorowski added that Poles had every right to feel "threatened by the potential use of Russian armed forces on Ukraine territory adjacent to Poland."
President, prime minister, ministers and leaders of opposition parties will be meeting in Warsaw and NATO ambassadors are also due to meet in Brussels on Sunday to discuss the situation.
Washington has proposed sending monitors to Ukraine under the flags of the United Nations or Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, though Moscow has vetoes in both organisations.
President Komorowski said he had spoken with President Oleksander Turchinov - in power since the fall of the President Viktor Yanukovych regime over a week ago - where he offered "words of solidarity and encouragement to undertake activities designed to stabilize the situation in Ukraine".
Earlier, Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk urged the international community to "exert the strongest pressure on Russia" to pull back from possible military confrontation.
Meanwhile, Russian media claims that ethic Russians are under threat from the new government in Kiev.
The state-backed Russian Itar-Tass news agency reports that Russia’s border guard service said some 675,000 Ukrainians left for Russia in January and February this year and warned that there are signs of a growing “humanitarian catastrophe”.
The state Russia Today television station also reports that pro-Russian demonstrations are spreading in the east of Ukraine in support of Russian intervention and against the government in Kiev. (pg)