By Andrew Osborn
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine Sun Mar 9, 2014 7:09pm EDT
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/09/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSBREA1Q1E820140309
SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine Sun Mar 9, 2014 7:09pm EDT
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/09/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSBREA1Q1E820140309
(Reuters) – Germany’s Angela Merkel delivered a rebuke to President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, telling him that a planned Moscow-backed referendum on whether Crimea should join Russia was illegal and violated Ukraine’s constitution.
Putin defended breakaway moves by pro-Russian leaders in Crimea, where Russian forces tightened their grip on the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula by seizing another border post and a military airfield.
As thousands staged rival rallies in Crimea, street violence flared in Sevastopol, when pro-Russian activists and Cossacks attacked a group of Ukrainians.
Russian forces’ seizure of the region has been bloodless but tensions are mounting following the decision by pro-Russian groups there to make Crimea part of Russia.