Ukrainian troops place a Ukrainian national flag into a flagpole as armed man in military uniform stand near the entrance of the Ukrainian military air base outside Sevastopol
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has told EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton an EU-brokered agreement signed on 21 February should be the basis for stabilising the situation in Ukraine.
In a statement issued this morning, Russia's Foreign Ministry said that at a meeting yesterday 'Lavrov emphasised that the normalisation of the situation in that country should be based on the founding principles of the agreement about regulating the crisis in Ukraine on Feb 21'.
He said the agreement foresaw constitutional reform which would take into account the wishes of all regions in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday delivered a robust defence of Russia's actions in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
He said that he would use force in Ukraine only as a last resort, easing fears that East-West tension over the former Soviet republic could lead to war.
But tension remained high on the ground.
Russian forces fired warning shots in a confrontation with Ukrainian servicemen at an air base, and Russian navy ships were reported to have blockaded the strait separating the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula from Russia.
At his first news conference since the crisis began, Mr Putin said Russia reserved the right to use all options to protect compatriots who were living in 'terror' in Ukraine but that force was not needed for now.
His comments, coupled with the end of Russian war games near Ukraine's borders, lifted Russian bonds and stock markets around the world after a panic sell-off on Monday.
Mr Putin denied the Russian armed forces were directly engaged in the bloodless seizure of Crimea, saying the uniformed troops without national insignia were 'local self-defence forces'.
'As for bringing in forces, for now there is no such need, but such a possibility exists,' he said.
'What could serve as a reason to use military force? It would naturally be the last resort. Absolutely the last.'
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