Putin Gets Green Light to Send Troops into Ukraine and Interim Leader Says Army 'On Alert'

President Vladimir Putin on Saturday won approval from Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, to send Russian troops into Ukrainian territory.

Putin's request was approved unanimously. Speaker Valentina Matviyenko also ordered the Council's foreign affairs committee to ask Putin to recall the Russian ambassador from the United States.

The envoy Putin sent to the debate made clear afterwards that it was up to the president to decide when to use the right granted to him.

"The approval that the president was given in the literal sense does not mean that this right will be realized quickly," said Grigory Karasin, a deputy foreign minister.

He also expressed hope that Western states who had acted before as intermediaries in the Ukraine crisis would be able to "effect action on the authorities in Kiev to return the situation to a normal and constitutional framework."

The Kremlin later said Putin has not yet taken a decision on sending troops to Ukraine.

"This is the point of view of the Federation Council (upper house). It is the president who takes the decision. For the moment, this decision has not been taken," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Peskov added in later comments to Russian state television that the Kremlin was still hoping there would be no further escalation in the crisis.

"The president now has the full arsenal of mechanisms necessary for the regulation of the situation," Peskov said.

"Of course he will take the decisions taking into account how the situation develops. It is to be hoped that the situation will not develop according to the scenario that is developing at the moment towards a threat for Russians in Crimea."

As a response to the Russian parliament's decision, Ukraine's army has been put on alert, the country's interim president Oleksanr Turchynov said Saturday, after Russia's parliament approved the deployment of troops into the ex-Soviet state.

The interim leader made the announcement in a somber televised address to the nation, flanked by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Turchynov also said that authorities had boosted security around nuclear facilities, airports and other "strategic facilities."

He added that an "action plan" had been put in place "in case of aggression".

But Yatsenyuk said Saturday he was "convinced" that Moscow would not launch a military offensive.

"I am convinced that Russia will not launch an intervention as this would mean war and the end of all relations between the two countries," he said in a televised address to the nation.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's boxer turned politician Vitali Klitschko urged parliament to mobilize the army.

"Parliament must ask the army's commander-in-chief to declare national mobilization after the start of Russian aggression against Ukraine," Klitschko said in a statement. He also asked for the U.N. Security Council to gather urgently for talks on the crisis.

Putin had asked the upper house to approve the use of Russian troops in Ukraine, the Kremlin said, despite warnings from the U.S. not to intervene.

"In connection with the extraordinary situation in Ukraine and the threat to the lives of Russian citizens... I submit to the Federation Council a request to use the armed forces of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory until the normalization of the political situation in that country," the Kremlin quoted Putin as saying in the document.

Putin said that Russia also had to protect servicemen from its Black Sea Fleet which is based on the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea "fully in line with an international accord".

The request was made on the basis of point "G" of the first part of section 102 of the Russian constitution on allowing the use of Russian troops beyond the borders of the country.

There were no further details on the document and Putin has yet to speak publicly about the situation in Ukraine since the overthrow of president Viktor Yanukovych last week.

Putin's move came after the heads of both the lower and upper houses of parliament on Saturday urged him to take measures over the situation in Ukraine and in particular the overwhelmingly pro-Russian peninsula of Crimea.

Matviyenko said earlier that it is possible "to send a limited contingent of troops to ensure the security of the Black Sea Fleet and Russian citizens."

Meanwhile, the speaker of the State Duma lower house Sergei Naryshkin read out a request in the name of all MPs for Putin to use "all possibilities" to restore stability in Crimea.

Ukraine's new Defense Minister Igor Tenyukh said Saturday the Russian forces are already in the country, accusing Russia of sending 30 armored personnel carriers and 6,000 additional troops into Crimea.

Unlike most legislation in Russia, the use of armed forces abroad only requires the approval of the rubber-stamp Federation Council without any need for a preliminary okay from the State Duma lower house.

The Kremlin has been rattled by the sudden overthrow of Yanukovych and the installation of pro-EU and sometimes staunchly anti-Russian new authorities in his place, fearing a permanent loss of influence in Russia's ex-Soviet neighbor.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday warned that "there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine".

Meanwhile, Ukraine's new leader said he did not recognize the authority of the pro-Russian prime minister of Crimea, who claimed power after the region's parliament was seized by pro-Kremlin gunmen.

Interim president Oleksandr Turchynov issued a statement instructing "the cabinet of ministers of Ukraine and other government agencies not to view (Sergiy) Aksyonov as a representative of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea."

Following these political developments, Ukraine's nationalist Svoboda party and the far-right Pravy Sektor group, which both played a prominent role in protests that rocked the country, called Saturday for a "general mobilization" after Moscow moved closer to sending troops into the ex-Soviet state.

"It's war! Ukrainian society must mobilize as much as possible," Svoboda said in a statement, calling on Turchynov to consider the country as being in a "state of war" and to "declare general mobilization".

Pravy Sektor (Right Sector), a far-right paramilitary group that arose from the three months of anti-government protests that precipitated the ouster of Kremlin-backed president Yanukovych and whose members were at the frontlines of clashes with riot police, called on militants to "mobilize and arm themselves urgently".

The political tension drove thousands of Ukrainians to flee across the border into Russia as pro-Russian forces defy the new interim government and the conflict threatens to escalate, Russian officials said Saturday.

"According to the border services, since the beginning of the events in Ukraine, 143,000 people have already left Ukraine for Russia," the Senate's deputy speaker Yevgeny Bushmin said in a televised speech Saturday as the upper house voted to approve military intervention.

The head of the citizenship department of the Federal Migration Service, Valentina Kazakova, confirmed the number to journalists.

"The tragic events in Ukraine have sharply increased the number of applications to regional migration authorities," she said, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

"In the last two weeks of February around 143,000 people have applied. That puts great pressure on the regions bordering Ukraine. People are bewildered, frightened and despondent," she said.

She said that Ukrainians who already live in Russia were also applying for citizenship in greater numbers than usual.

The governors of three of the five Russian regions bordering Ukraine told ITAR-TASS news agency that thousands were arriving across the frontier.

The governor of Bryansk region, Nikolai Denin, told ITAR-TASS he observed "an influx of Ukrainian citizens who want to stay in Russia until the situation normalizes in their country."

The governor of the Rostov region Vasily Golubev said he also saw a "significant inflow of Ukrainian citizens."

The governor of the Belgorod region, Yevgeny Savchenko, said that "thousands of good people are coming to the Belgorod region, not only from southeastern Ukraine but also from its central region, escaping from the lawlessness of rebels who seized power in Kiev."

Ukraine has a population of around 46 million, while Crimea, where pro-Kremlin militia have taken control, has around 2 million residents.

On grounds, dozens were hurt earlier on Saturday when a pro-Russia protest in Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv turned violent, with demonstrators trying to storm the local government building, an Agence France Presse reporter said.

Some 20,000 joined the protest against Kiev's new pro-West government after the ouster of Yanukovych, and later around 300 launched the assault on the government building. Stones and stun grenades were thrown though it was unclear by whom.

The discord between Russia and Ukraine sharpened has Saturday when the pro-Russian leader of Ukraine's Crimea region claimed control of the military and police and appealed to Russia's president for help in keeping peace there.

It was the latest escalation of tension between the two countries following the ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russian president last week by a protest movement aimed at turning Ukraine toward the European Union and away from Russia.

Armed men described as Russian troops took control of key airports and a communications center in Crimea on Friday. Ukraine has accused Russia of a "military invasion and occupation" — a claim that brought an alarming new dimension to the crisis, and raised fears that Moscow is moving to annex a strategic peninsula where Russia's Black Sea fleet is based.

Ukraine's population is divided in loyalties between Russia and Europe, with much of western Ukraine advocating closer ties with the European Union while eastern and southern regions look to Russia for support. Crimea is mainly Russian-speaking.

Crimean's prime minister, Sergei Aksenov, declared that the armed forces, the police, the national security service and border guards will answer only to his orders.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk opened a cabinet meeting in the capital, Kiev, by calling on Russia not to provoke discord in Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea.

"We call on the government and authorities of Russia to recall their forces, and to return them to their stations," Yatsenyuk was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. "Russian partners, stop provoking civil and military resistance in Ukraine."

Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred jurisdiction from Russia, a move that was a mere formality when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the Soviet Union. The Soviet breakup in 1991 meant Crimea landed in an independent Ukraine.

President Barack Obama warned Moscow on Friday "there will be costs" if it intervenes militarily.

Russia has taken a confrontational stance toward its southern neighbor after pro-Russian Yanukovych fled the country. Yanukovych was voted out of office by parliament after weeks of protests ended in violence that left over 80 people dead.

Demonstrators sought his resignation after he backed out of signing an agreement to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union instead of Russia. Yanukovych took refuge in Russia and still says he's president.

Aksenov, the head of the main pro-Russia party on the peninsula, appealed to Putin "for assistance in guaranteeing peace and calmness on the territory of the autonomous republic of Crimea."

Aksenov was appointed by the Crimean parliament on Thursday after pro-Russia gunmen seized the building and as tensions soared over Crimea's resistance to the new authorities in Kiev, who took power last week.

Obama called on Russia to respect the independence and territory of Ukraine and not try to take advantage of its neighbor, which is undergoing political upheaval.

"Any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing," Obama said.

Such action by Russia would not serve the interests of the Ukrainian people, Russia or Europe, Obama said, and would represent a "profound interference" in matters he said must be decided by the Ukrainian people.

"The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine," he said.

He did not say what those costs might be.

At the United Nations, the Ukrainian ambassador, Yuriy Sergeyev, said Friday that Russian transport aircraft and 11 attack helicopters had arrived in Crimea illegally, and that Russian troops had taken control of two airports in Crimea.

He described the gunmen posted outside the two airports as Russian armed forces as well as "unspecified" units.

Russia kept silent on claims of military intervention, even as it maintained its hard-line stance on protecting ethnic Russians in Crimea.

Meanwhile, flights remained halted from Simferopol's airport. Dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings patrolled the area. They didn't stop or search people leaving or entering the airport, and refused to talk to journalists.

One man who identified himself only as Vladimir said the men were part of the Crimean People's Brigade, which he described as a self-defense unit ensuring that no "radicals and fascists" arrive from other parts of Ukraine. There was no way to independently verify his account.