Brawls erupted between rival factions on Ukraine's volatile Crimean peninsula today as the former Soviet nation's new leaders prepared to unveil a unity cabinet and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered snap military drills near the border.
The untested pro-Western interim team in Kiev is grappling with the dual threats of separatism and default as it tries to recover from three months of protests that triggered pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych's ouster following a week of carnage in which nearly 100 people died.
The wave of secessionist sentiment that gripped the Russified southeastern parts of Ukraine following the fall of the pro-Kremlin regime boiled over in Crimea as an angry crowd of a few thousand led by pro-Russian Cossacks squared off against a force of a similar size spearheaded by Muslim Tatars.
Local health authorities said one man died of a heart attack during the mayhem in the port town of Simferopol. Ambulances were also called in to treat several people who suffered head contusions during scuffles that involved pepper spray and saw several bottles being hurled.
Tensions were ratched up still further when Putin ordered the military to undergo snap readiness drills -- one of several announced in recent months -- across a western swathe of Russia that borders the northeast corner of Ukraine.
"The commander-in-chief has set the task of checking the capability of the armed forces to deal with crisis situations posing a threat to the military security of the country," Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
He also announced Russia was taking measures to ensure the security of its Black Sea naval fleet based in Crimea -- a Black Sea peninsula that had answered to Moscow for centuries until being handed to the Ukrainian Soviet republic as a gift in 1954.
Russia has been venting daily outrage at the meteoric turn of events in a neighbour that Putin views as vital to his dream of building a post-Soviet alliance that could rival the EU and NATO blocs.
Both US Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague gave the new leaders crucial backing on Tuesday and rejected Moscow's claim that Ukraine was being forced to make a choice between East and West.
The interim team's headaches have been compounded by Moscow's decision to freeze a massive bailout package that Putin promised to Yanukovych as his reward for rejecting closer EU ties in a surprise November decision that sparked the mass protests.
