VIDEO footage of Russian military firing at one of Ukraine’s border control planes has reportedly emerged, as the violent standoff between them and the West escalates.

The Ukrainian border patrol plane came under fire while flying at about 1,000 metres near the administrative border with Russian-occupied Crimea, border guards said as the crisis in the region deepened.

No one was hurt when gunmen opened fire on the unarmed aircraft, a spokesman said. The Diamond light aircraft was flying three crew on an observation mission.

Ukraine forces released the footage and claim it is of Russian troops.

It comes as warning shots were fired to prevent an unarmed international military observer mission from entering Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea.

Meanwhile, a company of heavily armed Russian forces back by local militia took control of another military airport in Crimea in southern Ukraine as the silent invasion continues.

A Ukrainian Defence Ministry official Vladislav Seleznyov said 80 soldiers supporting by 50 Pro-Russian locals armed with clubs and bars blocked off the entrance to the airport near the village of Saki and established machine-gun posts along the landing strip. Similar forces had already taken over the main civilian airport in Crimean capital Simferopol as well as Belbek airport.

At Saki, the strategic airport had been defended by just a few military personnel that had parked large trucks and vans across entrances with a few guards positioned around aging military helicopters. There was no armed resistance to the sacking.

At many they have been playing psychological games, issuing ultimatums to surrender before a specific time or by fired upon. The time usually passes with no incident. Russian forces also blare propaganda 24 hours a day outside some Ukrainian-held bases holding out against threats. Russian troops also now control 11 border-crossing posts.

GUNMEN FIRE SHOTS AS OFFICIALS BLOCKED OUT OF CRIMEA

Russian president Vladimir Putin today had a lengthy telephone conversation with British Prime Minister David Cameron with the British leader calling his counterpart to ask him to cease the incursion into the Ukraine. Mr Putin also spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A spokeswoman for Mr Cameron said: “President Putin agreed that it is in all our interests to have a stable Ukraine.”

News_Image_File: Ukrainian police ... detain a demonstrator during a pro Russia rally in Donetsk, Ukraine. Picture: Sergei Grits

In Ukrainian capital Kiev, the hard hats and bats are gone from the square but reservists are still being drilled by military personnel in preparation for what they expect will by a Russian push beyond Crimea and deeper into the country toward the capital from the east.

While most in the capital go about their business, shopping, reading the newspaper and enjoying spring sunshine about the Maidan Independence Square, to one side ranks of reservists line up. On an open stage, speakers also call for solidarity and get behind the interim government and unite against Russian aggression.

“We won’t budge a single centimetre from Ukrainian land, let Russia and its president know this,” Interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the crowd. Mr Yatsenyuk will travel to Washington on Wednesday to meet with US President Barack Obama about the Russian-led revolt in Crimea. The visit will come just days before a referendum in the region is expected to support their annexed independence.

“I am going to the United States to hold top-level meetings on resolving the situation unfolding in our bilateral and multilateral relations,” Mr Yatsenyuk said at the start of a government meeting in Kiev.

News_Image_File: Pro-Russia protestors ... work to remove a Ukrainian flag from a flagpole which they took from the regional governance Security Service of Ukraine building during a rally in Donetsk, Ukraine. Picture: Sergei Grits

RUSSIA SUPPORTERS RAISE PRESSURE, UKRAINE VOWS NOT TO GIVE UP

As separatists in Crimea kept up pressure for unification with Moscow, Ukraine solemnly commemorated the 200th anniversary of the birth of its greatest poet, with the prime minister vowing not to give up “a single centimetre’’ of Ukrainian territory.

“This is our land,’’ Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a crowd today gathered at the Kiev statue to writer and nationalist Taras Shevchenko. “Our fathers and grandfathers have spilt their blood for this land. And we won’t budge a single centimetre from Ukrainian land. Let Russia and its president know this.’’

“We’re one country, one family and we’re here together with our kobzar (bard) Taras,’’ said acting President Oleksandr Turchynov.

A choir sang, and people laid bouquets at the monument to the son of peasant serfs who is considered the father of modern Ukrainian literature and is a national hero.

Later Sunday, following an extraordinary meeting of the Ukrainian government, Yatsenyuk announced he would be flying this week to the United States for high-level talks on “resolution of the situation in Ukraine,’’ the Interfax news agency reported.

UKRAINIAN MILITARY ABANDONING CRIMEA BASES

Crimea, a strategic peninsula in southern Ukraine, has become the flashpoint in the battle for Ukraine, where three months of protests sparked by President Victor Yanukovych’s decision to ditch a significant treaty with the 28-nation European Union after strong pressure from Russia led to his downfall. A majority of people in Crimea identify with Russia, and Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastopol, as is Ukraine’s.

This weekend, Russia reinforced its armed presence on the peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign minister ruled out any dialogue with Ukraine’s new authorities, whom he dismissed as the puppets of extremists.

The regional parliament in Crimea has set a March 16 referendum on leaving Ukraine to join Russia. Senior lawmakers in Moscow have said they would support the move, ignoring sanctions threats and warnings from President Barack Obama that the vote would violate international law.

News_Image_File: Pro-Russian... Demonstrators take part in a rally in the centre of Donetsk in support of joining Russia. Picture: Alexander Khudoteply/AFP

In Simferopol, the Crimean capital, a crowd of more than 4,000 people turned out Sunday to endorse unification with Russia. On Lenin Square, a naval band played World War II songs as old women sang along, and dozens of tricolour Russian flags fluttered in the cold wind.

“Russians are our brothers,’’ Crimean Parliament speaker Vladimir Konstantinov said. He asked the crowd how it would vote in the referendum a week hence.

“Russia! Russia!’’ came the loud answer.

“We are going back home to the Motherland,’’ said Konstantinov.

Across town, at a park where a large bust of Shevchenko stands, around 500 people, some wearing yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags on their shoulders like capes, came out to oppose unification with Russia. They chanted “No to the referendum!’’ and “Ukraine!’’ People handed out flyers, one of which laid out the economic troubles that joining Russia would supposedly cause.

“We will not allow a foreign boot that wants to stand on the heads of our children,’’ one of the speakers, Alla Petrova, said. “The people are not scared. We are not scared to come out here and speak.’’

Some pro-Russians drove by, shouting “Moscow, Moscow!’’ from their cars, but there was no trouble.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who appeared on the BBC Sunday morning, described Russia’s entering Crimea as a “big miscalculation.’’

He also said the March 16 referendum was happening “ridiculously quickly.’’ Hague added, “The world will not be able to regard that as free or fair.

News_Module: NND Ukraine On The Brink Multipromo