Ukraine's armed forces in Crimea on alert after two shot dead

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine

A Ukranian soldier and a member of the Crimean forces were shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in Russian military uniforms Tuesday night in an attack on a military topography and navigation center in capital Simferopol, said Crimea's Interior Ministry.

One Ukrainian soldier and a "self-defense" member died as armed gunmen in unmarked vehicles, described in reports as being "snipers", opened fire on the Ukrainian military's photogrammetric information center in Simferopol, according to a statement from the press office of the Crimean Interior Ministry.

The attack came on the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of the Crimean parliament signed a formal agreement on the region's official annexation to Russia after the strategic peninsula unilaterally declared independence from Ukraine and opted to join the Russian Federation in a controversial referendum on Sunday.

The local Interior Ministry said the shooting came from a house under construction opposite the center and targeted Crimean self-defense units as well the military center itself.

“Earlier today self-defense units were informed that a group of armed men had been discovered in a partially inhabited building,” said the press release. 

“As the self-defense were taking measures to check, they came under fire, presumably from a sniper rifle,” police said, adding that the shooting came “in two directions from one spot.”

Police added that another self-defense unit member was wounded and hospitalized along with one Ukrainian soldier from the military research center.

Crimea's newly assigned Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov compared the attack with the Maidan sniper shootings during the protests in Ukrainie's capital Kiev against then President Viktor Yanukovych.

“At the moment two people are dead as a result of a provocation, a sabotage,” he said.

Crimea's Interior Ministry also warned the people of the peninsula to stay calm and not to get provoked by such incidents.

Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said in an emergency cabinet meeting late on Tuesday that the incident had moved the crisis into a 'military phase.'

In response to the incident, Ukrainian armed forces units in Crimea have been authorized to fire in self-defense.

englishnews@aa.com.tr