Update | Ukrainian PM accuses Russia of war crime after soldier killed in Crimea
Russian president says the historic move puts right past wrongs, and warns the West to stop pushing his country into a corner
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said the conflict in the Crimean peninsula had entered a military phase, and accused Russia of committing a "war crime" after gunfire yesterday fatally wounded a Ukrainian soldier.
He was speaking hours after Vladimir Putin added Crimea to the map of Russia, a move the Russian president described as correcting past injustice and responding to what he called Western encroachment upon his nation's vital interests.
A Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman said the soldier was killed and another wounded in a raid on a Ukrainian military base in Crimea, whose people voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in a referendum on Sunday that the West didn't recognise.
"The conflict is moving from a political one to a military one because of Russian soldiers," Yatsenyuk told a meeting at Ukraine's defence ministry. "Today, Russian soldiers began shooting at Ukrainian servicemen and this is a war crime without any expiry under a statute of limitations."
Yatsenyuk 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".
In an emotional 40-minute speech that was televised live from the Kremlin, Putin pushed almost every button of the collective Russian psyche as he justified the incorporation of Crimea.
"In people's hearts and minds, Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia. When Crimea suddenly ended up being in another state, Russia felt it was not simply robbed - it was plundered," he said.