In his speech, Putin hailed the incorporation of Crimea's 2 million people into Russia as “return to the Motherland” and a tribute to the “historical justice and the memory of our ancestors.”
The peninsula had been transferred to Ukraine in 1954 during Soviet times and remained under Ukrainian control until the March annexation, which has not been acknowledged by the West or Kiev.
Fighting exploded today in Mariupol, a city of 500,000 on the Sea of Azov that is on the main road between Russia proper and Crimea.
An AP journalist saw three dead bodies near the police station, including one policeman. The Donetsk regional administration said in a statement that 3 people were killed and 25 wounded during the fighting.
