Russia's president arrived in Crimea on Friday where he is due to attend a security meeting amid heightened tensions in the region.
Vladimir Putin's visit to the peninsula comes days after he accused Ukrainian military troops of attempting to infiltrate Crimean territory, leading to a confrontation that allegedly left two Russian servicemen dead.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko denied the allegations, saying they were "just a pretext for another portion of military threats against Ukraine."
Following the alleged incursion, Putin refused to participate in further bilateral diplomatic meetings.
In recent days, both countries have increased military presence on either side of the isthmus that demarcates the contested border between Crimea and mainland Ukraine.
Putin's visit also coincided with the 25th anniversary of the 1991 attempted coup d'état in the Soviet Union, which is widely considered to have marked the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The redrawing of the political borders after the collapse of the USSR saw some ethnically Russian territories_ including Crimea_ integrated into the newly independent former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine.
The Russian president described the break-up of the bloc as "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the last century."
The Crimean Peninsula was annexed by Russia in March 2014, following the ousting of former President of Ukraine pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych during a civilian uprising.
Amid ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian Armed Forces, Poroshenko said on Thursday that the chances of Russia initiating all-out war was considerable.
In this case, Ukraine would declare a state of war and fully mobilize the population against any offensive, Poroshenko said.
Several ceasefire agreements have been broken and fighting in the Donbass region of Ukraine is ongoing.
On Friday Poroshenko announced that two Ukrainian servicemen were killed in action and eight more were injured in skirmishes with separatist militias.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission estimated that nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict area in eastern Ukraine since 2014.
Source: EFE
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