UKRAINE CRISIS - Street Battles in Kiev & Ukraine (Unseen Footage)

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law formalising Russia's takeover of Crimea from Ukraine, despite fresh sanctions from the EU and the US.

The European Union's latest measures target 12 people involved in Russia's annexation of the peninsula.

Earlier, Ukraine and the EU signed an accord forging closer political ties.

Moments ago the White House made a fine point of announcing that -- for the first time since the Ukraine crisis erupted and led to the unanswered annexation of Crimea by Russia -- Putin called the White House first to discuss what was vaguely enough described as "a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine."
As the Kremlin's own interpretation of the call between the two leaders discloses, "Vladimir Putin drew Barack Obama's attention to continued rampage of extremists who are committing acts of intimidation towards peaceful residents,

Here, Putin undoubtedly is focusing on last night's storming of the parliament by the "Right Sector" neonazis, which initially had been insturmental in the violent Ukraine coup and have now become a huge nuisance to the acting government. Which, as we noted yesterday, meant they suddenly had become Putin's best friend. Because in bringing attention to their actions, the Kremlin makes it quite clear that the Russian case of neofascists running rampant in Kiev, was in fact at least partially accurate.

Russian media reports today the American security firm Greystone has teamed up with Right Sector fascists in a bid to prevent eastern Ukraine from joining the Russian Federation.

Greystone is a former Xe (aka Blackwater) affiliate with offices in Virginia and the United Arab Emirates. Employing "personnel from the best militaries throughout the world," the company offers "large scale stability operations requiring large numbers of people to assist in securing a region."

"We are particularly concerned that the operation involves some 150 American mercenaries from a private company Greystone Ltd., dressed in the uniform of the [Ukrainian] special task police unit Sokol," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We urge [Kyiv] to immediately stop all military preparations which could lead to a civil war."

On March 10, Infowars.com reported the presence of corporate mercenaries in Donetsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius River. A video posted on Youtube showed men with weapons and body armor on a street where a pro-Russian demonstration was held. A Russian diplomat told Interfax 300 employees of Blackwater, now known as Academi, had arrived in the pro-Russian city.

The mercenaries in Donetsk "are soldiers of fortune proficient in combat operations," a diplomatic source told Interfax, according to the Daily Mail. "Most of them had operated under private contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan and other states. Most of them come from the United States."

On the weekend activists in eastern Ukraine occupied government buildings in the cities of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv. Members of the regional legislature in the industrial center of Donetsk proclaimed the city a People's Republic on Monday. Civilians rallied at the Donetsk Regional city administration building and hoisted a Russian flag.
The government blames "separatist groups coordinated by Russian special services" for the occupations. "Enemies of Ukraine are trying to play out the Crimean scenario, but we will not let this happen," said coup President Oleksandr Turchynov on Ukrainian television.

The satellite images released by NATO that allegedly show a current build-up of Russian troops near Ukrainian border were taken in August 2013 amid military drills, a source in the General Staff of the Russian Army has said.

NATO's top military commander in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, on Wednesday claimed that there is evidence of what he says are 40,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, tweeting a link to satellite images