Conflict with Russia Entering 'Military Stage', Says Ukraine PM after Soldier Killed

Ukraine's Western-backed prime minister said on Tuesday that his country's conflict with Russia was entering a "military stage" following claims by Kiev that one of its officers was shot and killed in Crimea.

"The conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage," Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told an emergency government meeting. "Russian soldiers have started shooting at Ukrainian military servicemen, and that is a war crime."

One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another wounded on Tuesday during a raid on a Ukrainian military base in the rebel Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman told AFP.

The incident occurred in Crimea's main city of Simferopol, regional defense ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said, without specifying whether the base was stormed by Russian soldiers or pro-Kremlin militia who also patrol the peninsula.

"Armed attempts to take over (Ukrainian) military units have multiplied in recent days," Ukraine Navy chief Sergiy Gayduk said at the meeting in Kiev with interim President Oleksandr Turchynov and Yatsenyuk.

He did not specify where the incident happened or whether it was on Tuesday.

According to Gayduk, 38 Ukrainian bases are still being blocked by Russian forces in Crimea, which de facto became part of Russia on Tuesday after President Vladimir Putin inked the move in Moscow.

Earlier, Ukraine's interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said Kiev will never recognize the "annexation" of Crimea by Russia after Moscow integrated the separatist peninsula into its territory.

"Ukraine and the entire world will never recognize the annexation of Ukrainian land," Turchynov said after Crimea voted to join Russia and Moscow inked the move on Tuesday.

Ukraine's justice minister later added that Kiev reserved the right to nationalize Russian property in response to breakaway Crimea's claims to Ukrainian assets.

"If the Russian Federation officially recognizes (Crimea's) actions, then Ukraine reserves the right to take adequate steps to compensate these losses at the expense of property belonging to the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine and in other states," Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said in a statement.