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ne moment Monday morning, a Ukrainian flag still was flying over a military base in Ukraine's
Crimea region -- the base's commander reportedly kidnapped by pro-Russian troops the day before.
Later Monday, masked troops were at the base, and the Ukrainian flag was gone.
The bloodless incursion by apparently pro-Russian forces onto the Ukrainian base in the city
of Bakhchisaray -- amid disputed accounts over whether the base commander had switched
sides -- was one of the latest encounters between pro-Moscow troops who are consolidating
their hold on the Black Sea peninsula and Ukrainian forces who still are there.
The incident at the base came a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel bluntly told
Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone the Moscow-backed referendum on whether Crimea
should join Russia is illegal and would violate Ukraine's constitution if it goes ahead on
March 16. Putin has defended breakaway moves by pro-Russian
leaders in Crimea, where Russian forces have been tightening their grip on a region that
has been the epicenter of a battle for influence among Moscow, Kiev and the West since Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster last month.
Pro-Russian forces last week pushed into the autonomous region in a bloodless siege, prompting
criticism from Western nations and Ukraine's interim government.
Moscow has denounced the events that led to Yanukovych's ouster as an illegitimate coup
and has refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, putting the two countries on
a collision course over control of Crimea, which has longstanding ties to Russia and
has thousands of Russian troops stationed there.
Putin has said Russia has the right to protect Russians living in the former Soviet republic.
As tensions mount, Ukraine's armed forces carried out training exercises to test their
readiness, the country's Defense Ministry said. Citing televised comments made by Defense
Minister Ihor Tenyukh on Sunday, it said the army was not calling for full mobilization,
as diplomacy was still the preferred method to resolve the crisis.
The Prime Minister of the autonomous region, Sergey Aksenev, was recently appointed commander-in-chief
by the region's parliament, giving him the power to form an army, government spokeswoman
Ekaterina Polonchuk told CNN. Aksenev told the Interfax news agency that
the decision to form a military stems from "the presence of illegal armed groups in the
territory of Crimea," comments confirmed to CNN by Polonchuk. So far, it appears a small
number of men have joined the new army.