Russian troops in Ukraine

Ukraine accuses Russia of deploying troops in Crimea

Ukraine's acting President Oleksander Turchynov has accused Russia of deploying troops to Crimea and trying to provoke Kiev into "armed conflict". 

Russia's UN ambassador said any troop movements in Crimea were within an existing arrangement with Ukraine.

President Turchynov appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to "stop provocations and start negotiations".

He said Russia was behaving as it did before sending troops into Georgia in 2008 over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have large ethnic Russian populations.

"They are implementing the scenario like the one carried out in Abkhazia, when after provoking a conflict, they started an annexation of the territory," President Turchynov said.

...flights from and to the Crimean capital, Simferopol, were cancelled with airlines saying airspace over the peninsula had been closed.

Senior Ukrainian official Sergiy Kunitsyn told local media 13 Russian aircraft carrying nearly 2,000 suspected troops had landed at a military air base near Simferopol. This remains unconfirmed.