Pro-Moscow forces have stormed the Ukrainian navy's headquarters in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol and raised the Russian flag in an apparently peaceful takeover.
Witnesses said several hundred members of Crimea's self-defence militia and armed men, thought to be Russian troops, forced their way on to the base and raised three Russian flags over the building.
Despite initial conflicting reports, the takeover appeared to be tense but peaceful.
"This morning they stormed the compound. They cut the gates open, but I heard no shooting," said Oleksander Balanyuk, a captain in the navy.
Tensions in the region remained high, days after Crimea voted in a referendum to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.
President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty to annex the peninsula to Russia, and other states in the region looked warily at the escalating crisis.
Armed troops - believed to be Russian servicemen - guard the naval base Issuing an outright warning to Moscow, US Vice President Joe Biden said during a trip to Lithuania that the US will respond to any aggression against its NATO allies.
"Russia cannot escape the fact that the world is changing and rejecting outright their behaviour," Mr Biden said, after meeting in Vilnius with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Latvian President Andris Berzins.
The Baltic states, unlike Ukraine, are NATO members.
"We're in this with you, together," Mr Biden said.
Joe Biden's mission to Eastern Europe aimed to reassure US allies In Sevastopol, a Reuters witness saw around a dozen Ukrainian servicemen, unarmed and in civilian clothes, walk out of the base unarmed some 90 minutes after the pro-Russia forces entered.
Interfax Ukraine said the commander of the Ukrainian navy, Admiral Sergei Haiduk, was among those who left and was driven away by officers from Russia's FSB intelligence service.
Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported that Alexander Vitko, commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet which is also based in Sevastopol, had been involved in talks at the headquarters.
Ukraine's interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has ordered the first deputy prime minister and acting defence minister to fly to Crimea "resolve the situation" a day after Vladimir Putin signed a treaty making it part of Russia.
Vitaly Yarema and Ihor Tenyukh - who has already vowed that Ukrainian troops will not withdraw from the peninsula - are to be tasked with "ensuring the conflict does not become military in nature".
Ukrainians leaving the base were cheered by people waving Russian flags But Crimea's prime minister Sergei Aksyonov said Ukrainian ministers would not be allowed to enter his territory.
Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said: "This is an example of the sort of incident that could trigger something much more dangerous."
Meanwhile, a US guided-missile destroyer the USS Truxtun started a one-day military exercise in the Black Sea with the Bulgarian and Romanian navy and the Russian military launched large-scale aviation exercises in western regions.
And Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he had urged his Russian counterpart in a phone call that an OSCE mission to Ukraine - which has previously been barred from entering Crimea - must be mandated within 24 hours.
Russia has hit back at Western criticism over its actions in Crimea.
A Ukrainian naval officer leaves his base in Sevastopol The Foreign Ministry accused Western states of violating a 1994 agreement to respect Ukraine's sovereignty by "indulging a coup d'etat" that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.
Sergei Lavrov has said sanctions - including asset freezes and travel bans - imposed by the EU and the US on key officials over its intervention are "unacceptable and will not remain without consequences".
Mr Putin said he did not want to "carve up" Ukraine but warned the West had "crossed a line" over the former Soviet country.
There was a peaceful night in Crimea after troops stormed an army base in Simferopol, killing one soldier.
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