Ukraine PM: Conflict entering ‘military stage’

Ukraine’s prime minister on Tuesday said that the conflict with Russia was entering a “military stage” as a Ukrainian soldier was reportedly killed in Crimea.

“The conflict is shifting from a political to a military stage,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at an emergency government meeting, according to Agence France-Presse.

{mosads}”Russian soldiers have started shooting at Ukrainian military servicemen, and that is a war crime,” he said.

Vladislav Seleznyov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, said that a Ukrainian soldier was killed and an officer wounded when a base near Simferopol was stormed, according to The Washington Post.

The details of the incident remained murky, however. Seleznyov said that unidentified assailants attacked the base, and guns were fired into the air. It was unclear whether the two victims were struck by stray bullets or shot internationally, he said.

The apparent attack occurred after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty Tuesday that would annex Crimea from Ukraine.