Pro-Russian leaders in Crimea made final preparations on Saturday for a referendum widely expected to transfer control of the Black Sea region from Ukraine to Moscow, despite an outcry and threat of sanctions from the West.
Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that declared the referendum invalid, as Ukraine's defense ministry said it scrambled aircraft and paratroops to confront a Russian encroachment beyond Crimea's regional boundary.
Ukraine's new rulers accused "Kremlin agents" of fomenting deadly violence in the Russian-speaking east and urged people not to respond to provocations Kiev fears Moscow may use to justify further incursions its takeover of Crimea. Russia issued a new statement saying it was ready to protect Ukrainians from nationalist militants it said were threatening eastern cities.
Sunday's vote in Crimea, dismissed by Kiev and Western governments as illegal, has triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War and marks a new peak in turmoil in Ukraine that goes back to November when now ousted President Viktor Yanukovich walked out on a trade deal with the European Union.
Though the situation was calm on the Black Sea peninsula itself on Saturday ahead of the vote, tensions remained high in eastern Ukraine where two people were killed in Kharkiv late on Friday.
Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, whose election in a closed session of the regional parliament is not recognized by Kiev, said there were enough security personnel to ensure the poll would be safe.
"I think we have enough people - more than 10,000 in the self-defense forces, more than 5,000 in different units of the Interior Ministry and the security services of the Crimean Republic," he told reporters.
In Kiev, the Ukrainian parliament voted to dissolve the Crimean regional assembly which has organized the referendum and backs union with Russia.
And on Kiev's Independence Square or Maidan - lodestar of the revolt against the Moscow-backed Yanukovich - hundreds of people chanted "Crimea is Ukraine! Crimeans, we support you!"
One Ukrainian nationalist leader in the Kiev legislature said the Crimean assembly must be sanctioned to discourage separatist movements in the mainly Russian-speaking east.
Aksyonov and Moscow do not officially recognize that Russian troops have taken control of Crimea, and say that thousands of unidentified armed men visible across the region belong to "self-defense" groups created to ensure stability.
But the Russian military has done little to hide the arrival of thousands of soldiers, along with trucks, armored vehicles and artillery. Masked gunmen surrounding Ukrainian military bases in Crimea have identified themselves as Russian troops.
Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that declared the referendum invalid, as Ukraine's defense ministry said it scrambled aircraft and paratroops to confront a Russian encroachment beyond Crimea's regional boundary.
Ukraine's new rulers accused "Kremlin agents" of fomenting deadly violence in the Russian-speaking east and urged people not to respond to provocations Kiev fears Moscow may use to justify further incursions its takeover of Crimea. Russia issued a new statement saying it was ready to protect Ukrainians from nationalist militants it said were threatening eastern cities.
Sunday's vote in Crimea, dismissed by Kiev and Western governments as illegal, has triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War and marks a new peak in turmoil in Ukraine that goes back to November when now ousted President Viktor Yanukovich walked out on a trade deal with the European Union.
Though the situation was calm on the Black Sea peninsula itself on Saturday ahead of the vote, tensions remained high in eastern Ukraine where two people were killed in Kharkiv late on Friday.
Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, whose election in a closed session of the regional parliament is not recognized by Kiev, said there were enough security personnel to ensure the poll would be safe.
"I think we have enough people - more than 10,000 in the self-defense forces, more than 5,000 in different units of the Interior Ministry and the security services of the Crimean Republic," he told reporters.
In Kiev, the Ukrainian parliament voted to dissolve the Crimean regional assembly which has organized the referendum and backs union with Russia.
And on Kiev's Independence Square or Maidan - lodestar of the revolt against the Moscow-backed Yanukovich - hundreds of people chanted "Crimea is Ukraine! Crimeans, we support you!"
One Ukrainian nationalist leader in the Kiev legislature said the Crimean assembly must be sanctioned to discourage separatist movements in the mainly Russian-speaking east.
Aksyonov and Moscow do not officially recognize that Russian troops have taken control of Crimea, and say that thousands of unidentified armed men visible across the region belong to "self-defense" groups created to ensure stability.
But the Russian military has done little to hide the arrival of thousands of soldiers, along with trucks, armored vehicles and artillery. Masked gunmen surrounding Ukrainian military bases in Crimea have identified themselves as Russian troops.
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