Russia to deploy troops in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to officially deploy Russian troops in Ukraine Saturday, defying warnings not to intervene issued a day earlier by his U.S. and other western counterparts. Russia's upper house of parliament approved Putin's request to use Russian forces in Ukraine - less than two hours after the request was made.

Though a major escalation in the openness of Russia's commitment, Saturday's move comes as Russian troops and their local allies have already largely taken control of Crimea, a restive province of Ukraine that belonged to Russia until 1954 and remains predominantly pro-Russian.

Heavily armed troops, many from Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, surrounded key facilities across the region in the last day. The newly installed pro-Russian leader of Crimea Saturday formally asked Russia to deploy its troops to help secure the region. Sergei Aksenov said on Saturday that servicemen from Russia's Black Sea fleet were guarding important buildings in the Black Sea peninsula.

In a statement Aksenov declared that Crimea's armed forces, the police, the national security service and border guards will answer only to his orders.

Earlier, the Ukrainian defence minister said Moscow had already deployed some 6,000 extra troops to Crimea.

Kiev has accused Moscow of deliberately trying to provoke a confrontation.

President Putin submitted the request "in connection with the extraordinary situation in Ukraine and the threat to the lives of Russian citizens", the Kremlin said.

He asked the upper house - which constitutionally must approve such a motion - for Russian armed forces to be used "until the normalisation of the political situation in that country".

Crimea is largely Russian-speaking and is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Earlier, the newly-elected pro-Moscow leader of Crimea appealed to Mr Putin for help to ensure peace on the peninsula - a request that would "not leave unnoticed" the Kremlin said at the time.

It follows days of military activity in Crimea during which unidentified, but believed to be pro-Russian, armed men moved in to take over the regional parliament, state television and telecommunications hubs.

Witnesses also spoke of seeing a build up of Russian armoured vehicles and troops in the area.