Ukraine is pulling its forces out of Crimea in the face of threats and pressure from the Russian military, acting president Oleksander Turchinov said on Monday.
Turchinov, speaking in parliament after Russian troops entered a key Ukrainian marine base near Feodosia crowning a gradual take-over of Ukrainian military facilities on the peninsula, said the decision had been taken in the face of "threats to the lives and health of our service personnel" and their families.
This comes after Russian troops were trying to seize a Ukrainian naval base in Feodosia on Monday, one of the few military facilities still flying a Ukrainian flag in Crimea after Russia's annexation, a Ukrainian military spokesman said.
Vladislav Seleznyov said Russian forces were trying to force their way in with the help of helicopters. A soldier inside the base confirmed they were under attack.
OSCE
Russia's stance on an OSCE mission in Ukraine was the only encouraging signal to come out of a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday, a German government spokesman said.
Russia agreed on Friday with the 56 other members of the OSCE rights and security group to send a monitoring mission to Ukraine, but said the group had no mandate in Crimea, which Moscow annexed after voters on the Black Sea peninsula chose to join Russia in a referendum dismissed by Western states as a sham.
"There is an agreement between the chancellor and Putin that the OSCE mission is a welcome step ... and from our point of view, this is positive," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday. "The discussion did not yield any progress on other issues."
Medvedev
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday international negotiations would be needed to secure supplies of energy and water to the region of Crimea.
"This issue needs to be decided through international negotiations," Medvedev told a ministerial meeting, suggesting Russia may engage with Ukraine over the issue. "We need to choose the best way to supply the peninsula."
Crimea receives around 80 percent of its electricity supplies, 85 percent of its water and a large part of gas from Ukraine, Medvedev said.
NATO
Romania's President Traian Basescu on Monday said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) must reposition its resources in the wake of Moscow's military operations in recent months, without offering specifics.
Romania, a former Communist state which joined the European Union in 2007, has been among the staunchest advocates of Western sanctions against Moscow, after Russia annexed the Ukrainian province of Crimea.
Romania is especially wary that its neighbour Moldova, a tiny state with a Russian-speaking minority, could be next in Moscow's sights.
"I will ... take advantage of the opportunity that many heads of states are gathered here and also outside the summit and inform them about the situation in the region, the need to reposition NATO's military resources as a result of military activities of the Russian Federation over the past months and so on," Basescu told reporters on Monday, on his departure to a nuclear security summit in The Hague.
U.S. President Barack Obama takes his hard line on Russia to Europe this week and will see how far European allies are willing to go to stop Moscow from moving deeper into Ukraine after annexing Crimea.
Canada
Russia announced that it was barring 13 Canadian officials, lawmakers and public figures from the country in retaliation for sanctions imposed by Canada over Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The Canadians prohibited from entering Russia include aides to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of parliament and the head of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Paul Grod, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Kerry
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday he hoped the Crimea situation would not impact cooperation with Russia on international efforts to destroy Syria's chemical weapons.
"I hope not. All I can say is I hope the same motivations that drove Russia to be a partner in this effort will still exist," Kerry told reporters in the Hague, where he is planning to attend a G7 summit.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government agreed to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal after a chemical attack killed hundreds of people around Damascus last year.
Bank Rossiya
St Petersburg-based Bank Rossiya, included in a wave of punitive measures by Washington over Crimea, said it has asked its clients to refrain from making foreign currency payments to accounts at the bank due to the U.S. sanctions.
Payments in roubles are unaffected, the bank said in a statement on its website.
Bank Rossiya, which has $10 billion in assets and is used by many senior Russian government officials, was hit by U.S. sanctions imposed in response to the annexation of Crimea.