President Vladimir Putin is making his first visit to
Crimea since Russia annexed it from Ukraine in March.
He told crowds marking the 1945 Soviet victory over the Nazis that Crimea
had shown loyalty to a "historical truth" in choosing to be part of
Russia. The Kiev government protested at the visit, calling it a "gross violation of Ukraine's sovereignty".
Kiev also reported that more than 20 people had died in a security operation against separatists in Mariupol.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that about 20
pro-Russian protesters and one Ukrainian security officer had been killed in
the southern port.
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian
separatists had clashed at the police HQ, which was set on fire.
Soviet 'iron will'
In the Crimean port of Sevastopol,
Mr Putin thanked the armed forces for their role in World War Two and hailed
the incorporation of the peninsula into the Russian Federation.
He watched a fly-by of Russian
aircraft and addressed seamen on naval vessels, as crowds gathered on cliffs
overlooking the harbour.
He said: "I am sure that 2014
will go into the annals of our whole country as the year when the nations
living here firmly decided to be together with Russia, affirming fidelity to
the historical truth and the memory of our ancestors."
The BBC's Daniel Sandford in
Sevastopol says Mr Putin was treated as a conquering hero as he walked through
the main square and shook hands with Crimeans.
Mr Putin earlier addressed thousands
during a huge, hour-long military parade in Moscow's Red Square, vowing to
defend the "motherland".
He told the crowd that 9 May, known
as Victory Day in Russia, was a "day of grief and eternal memory" and
stressed how the "iron will of the Soviet people" had saved Europe
from slavery.
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