And he expressed confidence that the crisis would not boil over into war, because, as he put it, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are “brothers in arms.”

“I am convinced that Ukrainian personnel and Russian personnel will not be on different sides of the barricades, they will be on the same side of the barricades,” he said. “There has not been a shot fired in Crimea. The tense situation in Crimea, related to the possibility of the use of force, has been exhausted. There was no necessity of that.”

Both President Obama in Washington and Mr. Kerry in Kiev dismissed Mr. Putin’s justifications for the intervention, asserting Russia had violated international law and Ukrainian sovereignty.

“I know President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers making a different set of interpretations but I don’t think that’s fooling anybody,” Mr. Obama said. He added that Ukrainians should have the right to determine their own fate in elections now slated for May. “Mr. Putin can throw a lot of words out there, but the facts on the ground indicate that right now he’s not abiding by that principle,” Mr. Obama said. “There is still the opportunity for Russia to do so, working with the international community to help stabilize the situation.”

The Kremlin leader took issue with Western threats of reprisals, including sanctions and a boycott of the meeting of the Group of 8 industrial nations that is scheduled to be held in Russia. “All threats against Russia are counterproductive and harmful,” he said, according to Reuters, adding that Russia was ready to host the G-8 but Western leaders who did not want to attend “don’t need to.”

Mr. Putin acknowledged that had met two days ago with Mr. Yanukovych, saying he was “safe and sound” and dismissing rumors that the ousted Ukrainian president had died of a heart attack.