MOSCOW, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Moscow has begun to issue Russian passports to residents in Crimea as the peninsula has signed an accession treaty with Russia, head of Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) said Wednesday.
"The treaty was signed yesterday. Its temporary application started yesterday and, of course, all Crimean residents who applied to the Federal Migration Service will get passports. This work has started. Some of the passports were issued today," Konstantin Romodanovsky was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
He did not elaborate how many people have applied for Russian passports, but voiced belief that the intensity of issuing documents would grow each day.
Romodanovsky also said Russia was concerned by symptoms of a growing "humanitarian catastrophe" in Ukraine.
"As a sign, the number of elderly people and children entering Russia has grown twofold," he said, adding that the number of Ukrainians crossing the Russian border without any clear purpose was also increasing.
He did not give exact figures or periods of which he was comparing.
"This only strengthens our fears," Romodanovsky said, noting that the FMS has shared those concerns with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees about the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed the treaty with leaders of Crimea to accept the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as part of Russian territory. Crimea, a Ukrainian autonomous republic, held a referendum on Sunday, with some 96.6 percent of voters opting for joining Russia.
The referendum capped months of political unrest triggered by the Ukrainian government's decision in November not to sign an agreement on broader European integration.
WASHINGTON, March 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that the United States would not take military action in Ukraine against Russia.
"We are not going to be getting into a military excursion in Ukraine," Obama said in an interview in Washington with KNSD, a California-based broadcaster. Full story
BERLIN, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Germany has halted a Russian military contract for a German defense technology company, the German government said on Wednesday.
The Germany's economy ministry said in a statement that it would suspend a planned defense contract with Russia for the German firm Rheinmetall. Full story
BERLIN, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) will meet on the Ukrainian crisis at a nuclear summit in The Hague next week, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Wednesday.
Seibert confirmed in a statement that a meeting of the G7 leaders on the sidelines of the nuclear summit is being prepared. Full story
KIEV, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema and Defense Minister Igor Tenyukh have been barred from entering Crimea, the Minister of Social Policy Lyudmila Denisova said on Wednesday.
"We will call a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council over this issue," Denisova said without giving further details. Full story
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