Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has submitted a proposal to the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, to use the country’s armed forces in Ukraine, Kremlin has reported.
"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 normalisation of the political situation in that country," the Kremlin quoted Putin as saying on Saturday.
The move comes after Sergiy Aksyonov, the pro-Russian prime minister of the Crimea region, appealed to Putin for help to ensure peace in the semi-autonomous region where unidentified gunmen believed to be Russian are guarding the state buildings in the region, including the local parliament.
The Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, asked Putin to take measures to stabilise the situation in Crimea and use all available means to protect the people there from tyranny and violence, Interfax cited the speaker of the Duma as saying earlier on Saturday.
Crimea has a majority of ethnic Russians and the region's administration is defying the removal of Moscow-backed Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich.
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