Ukrainians fear of Russia's advance

Photographer and videographer David Rose asks citizens in Kiev's Independence Square, the Maidan, for their reaction to Vladimir Putin's move to send armed forces to Ukrainian territory Russian President Vladimir Putin wrested control of the Ukrainian Black Sea region of Crimea from Kiev on Saturday citing a threat to Russian citizens and servicemen of the Russian Black Sea fleet based there. Putin asked the upper house of parliament to approve sending armed forces to the Ukrainian territory, which has a majority ethnic Russian population. But Crimea had already begun to slip from Kiev's control with closure of the main airport and deployment of pro-Russian guards at key buildings. Putin's statement, and remarks from a pro-Russian leader installed in Crimea this week, effectively confirmed what most people in the region had assumed: that military units who had seized control in the past two days were indeed Moscow's. Ukraine accused Russia of sending thousands of extra troops to Crimea, largely hostile to the Kiev government which emerged from the overthrow of president Viktor Yanukovich last weekend. It placed its military in the area on high alert. Ukraine teeters on the brink of economic disaster, mired in debt. Any further spread of separatist sentiment to industrial, Russian-speaking eastern territories could raise the risk of disintegration with serious implications for surrounding states including Russia, Poland and Belarus. Get the latest headlines http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Subscribe to The Telegraph http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=telegraphtv Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/telegraph.co.uk Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/telegraph Follow us on Google+ https://plus.google.com/102891355072777008500/ Telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com/TelegraphTV are websites of The Daily Telegraph, the UK's best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK and world events, business, sport, lifestyle and culture.