Crimean Leader Appeals to Putin for Help

The new Crimean prime minister made a personal appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin for assistance Saturday amid widespread reports of Russian troop movements in the southern Ukrainian peninsula.

The Kremlin said in a subsequent statement that it would not ignore the request for help.

The Crimean parliament was seized Thursday by armed men who raised the Russian flag, and international media have reported a large Russian military maneuvers in the region, including armored personnel carriers, tanks and attack helicopters.

Russia has insisted that such troop movements in the Crimea are allowed under a 1997 agreement with Ukraine about the use of naval bases on the peninsula.

“I am turning to Russian President Vladimir Putin to request assistance to preserve peace and calm,” said Sergei Aksyonov, who was appointed as Prime Minister of Crimea after a parliamentary vote Thursday.

Aksyonov, who is also the leader of the Russian Unity Party, announced that a referendum on the status of Crimea within Ukraine will be brought forward by almost two months, to March 30. Local security forces including the police and the army - which are usually commanded from Kiev - will be temporarily transferred to under his control, Aksyonov said.

The announcements by Aksyonov appear to bring closer a possible partition of the former Soviet nation where a new government is struggling to control the country after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych last week. Putin has made no public comment on the current Ukrainian crisis since the opposition swept to power after months of street protests ended in a violent crackdwon in which 82 people died.

Armed men in balaclavas have occupied key public buildings in Crimea in recent days and appeared to have taken control of the region’s two main airports.

One of Ukraine’s largest telecommunications companies said in a statement Friday that telephone and internet links between Crimea and the rest of the country had been severed.

The incoming authorities in Kiev have described developments as an invasion, and interim president Oleksandr Turchynov told reporters late Friday that Russia was seeking to provoke conflict. Russia has recently moved about 6,000 additional troops into Crimea, Ukraine's defense minister said Saturday, according to report by Reuters news agency.

Crimea was transferred to Ukrainian Republic by the Soviet leadership in 1954. Since the fall of Communism it has enjoyed a large degree of political autonomy within Ukraine, including its own prime minister. About 60 percent of the population in Crimea identifies itself as ethnic Russian, with the remainder being Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar.

Pro-Russian groups and Tatars, who mostly support the new regime in Kiev, clashed outside the Crimean parliament Thursday during a confrontation in which at least two people died.