Ukraine's acting president confirmed on Tuesday that a decision had been made to withdraw Ukrainian forces and their families from Crimea. Oleksandr Turchynov said the lives of the servicemen and their families were "under threat" and said that most of them had "fulfilled their military duty".
Ukrainian soldiers have been piled onto buses in Crimea and began their westward journey on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said a prominent member of the neo-fascist Right Sector movement in Ukraine was shot dead after opening fire on the police.
The clash took place when police tried to detain Oleksandr Muzychko for organised crime links, hooliganism and threatening public officials. Right Sector members played a key role in the violence that ousted President Yanukovych.