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Vladimir Putin

President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Crimea have signed a bill to absorb the peninsula into Russia.BBC news online reports that Mr Putin told parliament that Crimea, which was taken over by pro-Russian forces in February, had “always been part of Russia”.

Kiev said it would never accept the treaty and the US has called a G7-EU crisis meeting next week in The Hague.

After the signing, Kiev said a Ukrainian serviceman had been killed in an attack on a base in Crimea.

The defence ministry said the attack took place in the capital, Simferopol.

US Vice-President Joe Biden, speaking earlier in Poland, said Russia’s involvement in Crimea was “a brazen military incursion” and its annexation of the territory was “nothing more than a land grab” by Moscow.

Certainly those present were jubilant. President Putin’s address was interrupted by standing ovations. He made much of Crimea’s special meaning for Russia, arguing not only that the Crimean people had the right to determine their own fate, but that he was correcting a “historical wrong”, because when Crimea ended up in independent Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, as he put it, “felt it had been robbed”.

Other parts of the address were troubling: Russia and Ukraine he said were not just neighbours but one nation, and Moscow would always protect the millions of Russian speakers there. And he still sees the new authorities in Kiev as an illegitimate puppet government under the control of radicals.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said: “We do not recognise and never will recognise the so-called independence or the so-called agreement on Crimea joining the Russian Federation.”

Ukraine’s interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the Crimea crisis had moved from the political to the military stage.

Germany and France quickly condemned the Russia-Crimea treaty.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: “It is completely unacceptable for Russia to use force to change borders on the basis of a sham referendum held at the barrel of a Russian gun.”

Mr Putin later appeared before crowds in Moscow’s Red Square, telling them: “Crimea and Sevastopol are returning to… their home shores, to their home port, to Russia!”

He shouted “Glory to Russia” as the crowds chanted “Putin!”

The Ukrainian crisis began in November last year after pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned an EU deal in favour of stronger ties with Russia. He fled Ukraine on 22 February after deadly protests.

‘Historical injustice’

Crimean officials say that, in a referendum held in the predominantly ethnic-Russian region on Sunday, 97% of voters backed splitting from Ukraine.

The EU and US have declared the vote illegal. Travel bans and asset freezes have been imposed on government officials and other figures in Russia, Crimea and Ukraine, but these have been largely dismissed as ineffectual in Russia.

Crimea’s head of government celebrated as the signing was completed.

Ukraine has begun training reservists, fearing an escalation of the crisis

Ukrainian navy ship Slavutych in Sevastopol. There are reports of deadly unrest at a military base

In a televised address in front of both houses of parliament and Crimea’s new leaders, Mr Putin said: “In the hearts and minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia.” – BBC