Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk will address the United Nations Security Council about the situation in Crimea on Thursday, Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted him as saying on Monday.
Interfax also quoted him as telling reporters that he believed Russia, whose forces are in control of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, sought to "undermine the foundations of global security and revise the outcome of World War Two."
Crimea
Ukrainian troops are performing training exercises in base but there are no plans to send the country's armed forces to the Crimea region, Interfax news agency quoted Acting Defense Minister Ihor Tenyukh as saying.
Responding to media speculation about Ukrainian military movements after Russian forces took control of Crimea, Tenyukh said the only troop movements that might be seen would be from one base to another to take part in the training exercises.
"No movements, no departures for Crimea by the armed forces are foreseen. They are doing their routine work which the armed have always had," he said.
Referendum
Crimea's pro-Russian prime minister will give people living there the choice of taking Russian or Ukrainian passports if the Ukrainian territory becomes part of Russia in a March 16 referendum, RIA news agency reported on Monday.
Sergei Aksyonov, who declared himself provincial leader almost two weeks ago after Russians seized the parliament building, told the Russian news agency that Crimea would also encourage the use of two languages - Russian and Crimean Tatar.
Crimea's 2 million population, the focus of an increasingly bitter struggle for influence in Ukraine between East and West, has a narrow ethnic Russian majority but also includes more than 250,000 indigenous Tatars, who have returned since the 1980s after being deported by Stalin. They oppose Russian annexation.
Crimea, home to Russia's Black Sea fleet, was administered as part of Russia within the Soviet Union until 1954. Many residents have Russian passports and support the Russian takeover, but hundreds of thousands do not.
OSCE observers
Ukraine's Crimea region has invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send a mission to observe Sunday's referendum on joining Russia, Russia's RIA news agency said.
It said the invitation had been issued to the Vienna-based security and human rights organization by the region's pro-Russian parliament. OSCE military observers have been unable to enter Crimea, which is controlled by Russian forces.
US-China
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed on the importance of upholding Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The White House said the two leaders spoke Sunday evening. The White House said Obama and Xi have a shared interest in finding a peaceful resolution to the dispute between Ukraine and Russia and reducing tensions in the region.
Russia
Russia's Foreign Ministry denounced alleged lawlessness by far-right activists in eastern Ukraine, a statement likely to trigger alarms in Ukraine about possible Russian intervention there.
Ukraine's foreign minister said Monday his country already feels like it's almost in a state of war after Russian forces took effective control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. A referendum has been called there for Sunday on whether the region should split off and seek to become part of Russia.
Pro-Russia sentiment is also high in Ukraine's east and there are fears Russia could seek to incorporate that area as well.
The Kremlin statement also claimed Russian citizens trying to enter Ukraine have been turned back at the border by Ukrainian officials.
REUTERS