MPs in the embattled Crimean region of Ukraine have decided to hold a referendum on March 16 on whether Crimea should become part of Russia.

President Vladimir Putin has pulled his forces back from the Ukrainian border yet said Moscow reserves the right to use all means to protect Russians in Ukraine.

President Barack Obama has accused Russia of being “on the wrong side of history” with its military intervention in Ukraine and said he’s examining diplomatic and economic steps to isolate Moscow.

Russian forces controlling the strategic region of Crimea have demanded that the crew of two Ukrainian warships must surrender, according to Ukrainian sources.

Ukraine, warning it is “on the brink of disaster”, has put its military on high alert and appealed for international help to avoid what it fears is a possible wider invasion by Russia.

A tense standoff was in place in the Crimea crisis tonight as Russian forces continued to surround a Ukrainian army base.

IN HIS 1979 novel The Island of Crimea, Vasily Aksyonov imagined the region’s flourishing independence from the Soviet Union.

Russia’s order for 150,000 troops to test their combat readiness near Ukraine’s border has prompted a blunt warning from the United States that any military intervention in the crisis-torn nation would be a “grave mistake”.

Ukraine's acting interior minister has said a warrant is out for the arrest of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ukrainian law enforcement agencies say they have no information about the whereabouts of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who has reportedly been seen in Sevastopol, a port on Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula which is the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.