CLOSE President Obama announced sanctions against several high-level Russian officials following Crimea's referendum to split from Ukraine. VPC 
 
 Pro-Russian Crimeans wave Russian flags as they gather to celebrate in Simferopol's Lenin Square on March 16, 2014 after exit polls showed that about 93 percent of voters in Ukraine's Crimea region supported union with Russia. Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to join former political master Russia as tensions soared in the east of the splintered ex-Soviet nation amid the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War. (Photo: DIMITAR DILKOFF AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 WASHINGTON — President Obama announced Monday that he is leveling new sanctions against seven Russian officials the White House says have contributed to the crisis in Ukraine. 
 
 Obama announced the sanctions one day after the Crimean region of Ukraine voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in a referendum that the U.S. and western allies vowed not to recognize. 
 
 In comments at the White House to formally announce the sanctions, Obama said he believes there is still a diplomatic solution to end the crisis. At the same time, he warned that if Russia continues to interfere with Ukraine's sovereignty he stands ready to push for even tougher sanctions. 
 
 "We are imposing sanctions on specific individuals for undermining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and government of Ukraine," Obama said."We are making it clear that there are consequences for their actions." 
 
 The high-level government officials named by the White House are: Vladislav Surkov, Sergey Glazyev, Leonid Slutsky, Andrei Klishas, Valentina Matviyenko, Dmitry Rogozin, and Yelena Mizulina. 
 
 Surkov and Glazyev are presidential advisers to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The five others hold various positions in the Russian parliament and Russian government. 
 
 The punitive measure -- which will almost certainly heighten tensions between U.S. and Russia -- does not target Putin directly. 
 
 The sanctions focus on the individual personal assets, but not companies that the officials may manage on behalf of the Russian state. Any assets that the individuals have in U.S. jurisdiction have been frozen and Americans are prohibited from doing business with them. 
 
 In addition, the Treasury Department announced it is imposing sanctions against former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych, former Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Viktor Medvedchuk as well as Crimea-based separatist leaders Sergey Aksyonov and Vladimir Konstantinov. Those officials were being targeted under an executive order that Obama signed earlier this month. 
 
 "The United States also will seek to hold accountable individuals who use their resources or influence to support or act on behalf of senior Russian government officials," the White House said in a statement. "We recognize that the Russian leadership derives significant support from, and takes action through, individuals who do not themselves serve in any official capacity. 
 
 Republican lawmakers offered a mix reaction to Obama's announcement. 
 
 "Putin has engineered this confrontation," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We should show him and his accomplices that they will pay a heavy price if they don't respect Ukraine's sovereignty. The stronger card that needs to be played is breaking Putin's energy grip on Ukraine and eastern Europe." 
 
 Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has criticized Obama's handling of the Ukraine crisis, took to Twitter to slam Obama again. 
 
 "Incredibly Pres Obama's stmt didn't mention military assistance to #Ukraine, a sovereign nation that's been invaded by #Russia," McCain wrote. 
 
 The White House announcement came after the European Union announced on Monday travel bans and asset freezes on 21 people for their involvement in the Ukraine crisis. The EU is not expected to announce the individuals who are being cited until Tuesday, but Obama administration officials believe there is some overlap in the U.S. and EU lists. 
 
 Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia during Sunday's hastily arranged referendum. 
 
 Putin is expected to speak on the Crimea situation in a special address to the Russian parliament on Tuesday. 
 
 Obama spoke by phone on Sunday with Putin and reiterated that the United States would not accept the results of the referendum. He again called on Putin to support a diplomatic solution to the crisis, while underscoring that one cannot be reached if Russian troops continue to be deployed in Crimea. 
 
 Vice President Biden will visit Poland and Lithuania next week, where he is to huddle with leaders in the region on the Ukraine crisis. Obama will travel to the Netherlands next week to take part in the biennial Nuclear Security Summit, but the situation in Ukraine will be the main focus on the sidelines of the summit. 
 
 "If Russia continues to interfere in Ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions," Obama said. 
 
 White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to say what further steps would be taken if Russia refuses to change course, or whether Obama was considering targeting Putin directly. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1iUT3g1 ||||| Armed men, believed to be Russian servicemen, take cover behind an armored vehicle as they attempt to take over a military base in the Crimean town of Belbek, near Sevastopol. 
 
 March 22, 2014 Armed men, believed to be Russian servicemen, take cover behind an armored vehicle as they attempt to take over a military base in the Crimean town of Belbek, near Sevastopol. Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters 
 
 After an ultimatum to abandon the base and an hours-long standoff, Russian troops in at least four armored vehicles seized control of one of the last Ukrainian military outposts in Crimea. 
 
 A day after Russia effectively absorbed Crimea, Russian-backed forces on Wednesday broke into the Ukrainian naval headquarters in the key Crimean city of Sevastopol and raised the Russian flag. 
 
 A day after Russia effectively absorbed Crimea, Russian-backed forces on Wednesday broke into the Ukrainian naval headquarters in the key Crimean city of Sevastopol and raised the Russian flag. 
 
 Responding to Russia’s latest moves to formalize its annexation of Crimea, President Obama on Thursday announced new sanctions against Moscow and authorized possible future penalties against “key sectors of the Russian economy.” 
 
 Russia promptly retaliated by banning nine U.S. lawmakers and officials from entering the country. The list of banned Americans includes Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and three top Obama aides, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. McCain lamented sarcastically that his spring vacation in Siberia was now “off.” 
 
 The announcements came after the lower house of the Russian parliament voted Thursday to admit Crimea and the metropolitan region of Sevastopol into the Russian Federation, putting some of the final procedural touches on Moscow’s controversial takeover of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. 
 
 In Washington, Obama said he was ordering new sanctions against Russia in response to what he called Crimea’s “illegal” secession referendum and Russia’s “illegitimate move” to annex Crimea. 
 
 “The United States is today moving . . . to impose additional costs on Russia,” Obama said before embarking on a trip to Florida. He said more top Russian officials will be subject to sanctions, as well as other individuals and a bank known for providing “material support” to the Russian leadership. 
 
 President Obama said Thursday before leaving for Florida that the U.S. government would expand sanctions on Russian individuals and authorize future sanctions for sectors of the Russian economy. The president predicted these measures could have an effect on the global economy. (The Associated Press) 
 
 Obama added that he “signed a new executive order today that gives us the authority to impose sanctions not just on individuals but on key sectors of the Russian economy.” He did not immediately elaborate on which sectors might be targeted, but he noted: “This is not our preferred outcome. These sanctions would not only have a significant impact on the Russian economy, but could also be disruptive to the global economy.” 
 
 A fact sheet released by the Treasury Department listed 20 individuals and the Bank Rossiya as targets of the additional sanctions. Eleven people — including seven Russians — were named on a sanctions list issued earlier this week. 
 
 The individuals and the bank are being punished in connection with the annexation of Crimea. The new executive order that Obama signed separately authorizes the Treasury, if Obama so decides in the future, to impose sanctions against additional Russian entities — which he described as constituting key sectors of the economy — in the event that Russia takes further action such as invading the rest of Ukraine. 
 
 In Crimea, Ukrainian troops continued to face threats Thursday, as a group of armed men boarded a Ukrainian ship in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol. 
 
 Vladislav Seleznyov, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman, said about 20 gunmen boarded the anti-submarine corvette Ternopol shortly after sunset Thursday and seized it, using flash grenades. There were no reported injuries. 
 
 Among those on the new sanctions list are government and business leaders who have been close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, some for many years. They include some of the richest men in Russia, as well as one Russian who is in the oil-trade business in Switzerland. 
 
 Connections to St. Petersburg, Putin’s home town, abound. The list targets several of the business leaders who have profited the most during Putin’s years in power through their connections to him. 
 
 The list includes key officials such as Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, and Sergei Ivanov, head of the presidential administration, as well as influential Russians in the banking and business communities. Among them is Yuri Kovalchuk, an old Putin friend from St. Petersburg who is known as “Putin’s banker.” 
 
 Kovalchuk and another person on the list, Putin aide Andrei Fursenko, are owners of Bank Rossiya, the sanctioned bank. 
 
 Bank Rossiya was described as having $10 billion in assets and as handling financial transactions for many senior Russian officials. 
 
 Long-time Putin associates Arkady and Boris Rotenberg also were named. A senior U.S. official pointed out that the St. Petersburg-based brothers were close to the center of power, receiving $7 billion in contracts connected to the Sochi Olympics. 
 
 The senior Obama administration official described the targets as “senior government officials, cronies and a crony bank.” 
 
 Briefing reporters Thursday after Obama’s speech, the official took a stern tone. “We saw some bluster earlier in the week that sanctions would have no impact. I would suggest if they have any interest in doing business outside the U.S., they will have difficulty doing so.” 
 
 The bank will be frozen out of the dollar, and correspondent accounts with U.S. banks will be terminated, the official said, adding that sanctioned individuals “will be prevented from operating around the world to the greatest extent possible.” 
 
 The other Americans banned from entering Russia are Caroline Atkinson, deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs; presidential aides Daniel Pfeiffer and Benjamin Rhodes; Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Sen. Daniel Coats (R-Ind.). 
 
 “We have warned repeatedly that using sanctions is a double-edged sword and will hit the United States back,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site. 
 
 “Washington has been repeatedly assured that it is unacceptable and counterproductive to talk with our country in such a way,” it said. “However, the U.S. seems to continue believing blindly in the efficiency of such methods, taken from the arsenal of the past, and does not want to admit the obvious — in complete accordance with international laws and the U.N. charter, Crimean residents voted democratically for rejoining Russia. This decision can be liked or not, but it concerns reality, which has to be taken into account.” 
 
 The statement added: “There should be no doubts — we will respond adequately to every hostile attack.” 
 
 Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John F. Kerry spoke again by phone Thursday about Ukraine, and Lavrov said the United States must stop “condoning” the activities of the right-wing Ukrainian group Right Sector and the Svoboda party, the ministry said in a separate statement. 
 
 “Lavrov stressed that the decision on Crimea’s reunification with Russia reflected the expression of the will of the absolute majority of its people, that it may not be reviewed and must be respected,” the statement said. Lavrov, it said, complained about “ongoing violence” by “ultranationalist and extremist forces,” who he claimed were targeting businessmen, journalists, dissenters, Russian speakers and “our compatriots.” 
 
 Responding to his inclusion in the ban, McCain said in a statement: “I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off, my Gazprom stock is lost, and my secret bank account in Moscow is frozen. Nonetheless, I will never cease my efforts on behalf of the freedom, independence, and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea.” 
 
 Menendez said in a statement: “President Putin’s military invasion and annexation of Crimea is brutal, totally unacceptable, and sadly returns us to a period of Cold War aggression and hostility. It doesn’t have to be this way, but if standing up for the Ukrainian people, their freedom, their hard earned democracy, and sovereignty means I’m sanctioned by Putin, so be it.” 
 
 The vote in Russia’s lower house, the State Duma, to annex Crimea was 443 to 1. The measure needed 300 votes to pass. 
 
 The lone Duma dissenter, Ilya Ponomaryov, later tweeted, “The best intentions have led us to a big political mistake: I vote against the war.” 
 
 [Meet the one Russian lawmaker who voted against annexing Crimea.] 
 
 The bill is scheduled to be taken up Friday by the upper house, the Federation Council, where expected approval will make Crimea officially part of the country under Russian law — despite the insistence of the United States, Europe and others that it remain part of Ukraine. 
 
 In Crimea on Thursday, Ukraine’s influence over the disputed region seemed visibly on the wane, with military bases now under the Russian flag and Ukrainian banks closed for the time being. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said it was preparing a plan to withdraw its remaining troops and officials. 
 
 Still, there were hints of a potentially durable conflict, as both Europe and the United States pledged further financial sanctions against Russia, and officials in Kiev and Moscow talked of trade, visa and other penalties they might impose against each other. 
 
 Lavrov, testifying Thursday in favor of the bill in the Duma, warned Ukraine not to seize property located within its borders of the Russian state-owned energy giant, Gazprom. He said such a move would have negative consequences for Ukraine. 
 
 “I think that it is in no one’s interests to begin this battle,” he said. “This could lead to a quite complex chain reaction, from which I suppose Ukraine will not benefit.” 
 
 Lavrov said that he thought Ukraine’s threat to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States, a post-Soviet grouping, is essentially a “propaganda” ploy, but he added that Russia will do nothing to stop it if that’s what Ukraine wishes. 
 
 However, Russia’s sanitary service almost simultaneously announced that Ukrainian livestock will be barred from Russia if the country leaves the CIS. 
 
 The Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site that it regrets Ukraine’s intention to require Russian visitors to obtain visas. 
 
 United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Putin in the Kremlin on Thursday and said he was deeply concerned about the Crimean crisis. 
 
 “We highly appreciate your efforts,” Putin said, before they began private talks. 
 
 European leaders on Thursday weighed additional sanctions against Russia, a day after Ukrainian troops were forced to abandon their bases in Crimea and prepared to evacuate the peninsula. 
 
 German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her parliament that Europe would expand the number of individuals punished with travel bans and asset freezes for their role in the Russian takeover of Crimea. But as European Union leaders prepared to meet in Brussels, there was little sign they would impose the sort of broader financial penalties that many analysts see as necessary to change Russian behavior. 
 
 U.S. officials have repeatedly emphasized their close consultation with Europe, and the announcement of initial sanctions early this week was coordinated with the allies. 
 
 The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on 21 Russian and Ukrainian officials, and the United States announced sanctions the same day against 11 people — seven top Russian government officials and politicians and four Ukrainians, including ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and two Crimean separatist leaders. 
 
 Speaking from Brussels, interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Thursday that he did not believe Russia would stop at Crimea. “It’s crystal clear for us that Russian authorities will try to move further and escalate the situation in southern and eastern Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk told Bloomberg News. 
 
 In Crimea, meanwhile, the Ukrainian presence continued to ebb. Ukrainian banks were closed Thursday, with signs taped to the doors saying they no longer have authority to operate in Crimea because they are on foreign territory. They said they are making arrangements to reopen and that depositors will not lose their savings. 
 
 Leonid Polyakov, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, said a plan has been prepared to evacuate military families from Crimea, but the troops themselves have not yet been given orders. 
 
 Ukraine said Wednesday it would seek U.N. support in declaring Crimea a demilitarized zone so that its troops could be relocated to Ukraine proper, effectively acknowledging that it had lost the region despite vows it would never cede to Russia. 
 
 In the announcement, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Parubiy, said his country would hold joint military exercises with the United States and Britain. He did not provide details, but a Pentagon spokesman in Washington said the annual multinational exercises were previously planned and will be held in the summer. 
 
 Parubiy also said Ukraine would leave the Commonwealth of Independent States, an alliance of 11 nations that were part of the Soviet Union before it broke up 
 
 in 1991. It is led by Russia, and Ukraine’s departure echoes steps taken by Georgia after two of its territories broke away in 2008 with the support of Moscow. 
 
 Russia’s storming of the Ukrainian military facilities in Crimea, and the positioning of forces outside another base, served as a tense reminder of how unresolved the situation remains in Crimea even as Russia declares its absorption of the region an established fact. Ukrainian troops largely gave way without resistance Wednesday, though tension may be building as they face an apparent choice of becoming Russian soldiers and sailors, or moving from Crimea and maintaining their allegiance to Kiev. 
 
 Russia is also unlikely to agree to the terms of a demilitarized zone, which would require it to withdraw troops from the region while Ukraine pulls its forces out. 
 
 Russia moved swiftly to step up its occupation of Crimea after Putin on Tuesday signed a treaty annexing the peninsula. Its most significant action was the takeover of the Ukrainian navy headquarters in Sevastopol, where pro-Russia militias and Russian regular troops stormed the base and checked Ukrainians at the gate as they left toting bags of personal belongings. 
 
 The Ukrainian rear admiral in command, Serhiy Haiduk, was taken out of the compound in a car, and Ukrainian officials charged that the Russians had taken him hostage. 
 
 Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov on Wednesday gave Crimean authorities three hours to release Haiduk and stop harassing the Ukrainian military or face “appropriate measures.” The deadline passed without apparent action. 
 
 However, Haiduk was released Thursday morning, according to Turchynov’s office. Several pro-Ukrainian activists also were set free. 
 
 Branigin reported from Washington. Karen DeYoung in Washington and Carol Morello in Crimea contributed to this report. ||||| SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine/BRUSSELS Crimea's parliament voted to join Russia on Thursday and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum in 10 days' time in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian region that drew a sharp riposte from U.S. President Barack Obama. 
 
 Obama ordered sanctions on those responsible for Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine, including bans on travel to the United States and freezing of their U.S. assets. 
 
 He echoed European Union leaders and the pro-Western government in Ukraine in declaring that the proposed referendum would violate international law. 
 
 The sudden acceleration of moves to bring Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and has effectively been seized by Russian forces, formally under Moscow's rule came as EU leaders held an emergency summit groping for ways to pressure Russia to back down and accept mediation. 
 
 The EU condemned Russian actions in Crimea as illegal, voiced support for Ukraine's territorial integrity but took only minor steps suspending talks with Moscow on visas and a new investment pact while warning of tougher steps if there is no negotiated solution within a short period. 
 
 In a signal to Moscow, Obama announced plans to punish Russians and Ukrainians involved in what he called "threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine". A U.S. official said Russian President Vladimir Putin was not on the list of those to be sanctioned. 
 
 "The proposed referendum on the future of Crimea would violate the Ukrainian constitution and violate international law," Obama told reporters at the White House. "Any discussion about the future of Ukraine must include the legitimate government of Ukraine." 
 
 After talks in Rome, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was personally delivering proposals to Putin to end the crisis in Ukraine. 
 
 "We have agreed to stay in close touch in order to see if there is a way forward to try to get to a negotiating table to get the parties necessary to be able to stabilize this," Kerry said. 
 
 Kerry said the executive order on sanctions signed by Obama on Thursday provided a legal framework for imposing sanctions but also left open the door for dialogue over Ukraine. 
 
 The Pentagon meanwhile announced a large-scale air force exercise in Poland which Washington's ambassador to Warsaw said had been augmented to reassure U.S. allies in the region in the light of the Ukraine crisis. 
 
 The crisis began in November when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, under Russian pressure, turned his back on a trade deal with the EU and accepted a $15 billion bailout from Moscow. That prompted three months of street protests leading to the overthrow of Yanukovich on February 22. 
 
 Moscow denounced the events as an illegitimate coup and refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities. 
 
 STAKES RAISED 
 
 The Crimean parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday "to enter into the Russian Federation with the rights of a subject of the Russian Federation". 
 
 The decision, which diplomats said could not have been made without Putin's approval, raised the stakes in the most serious east-west confrontation since the end of the Cold War. 
 
 The vice premier of Crimea, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, said a referendum on the status would take place on March 16. All state property would be "nationalized", the Russian ruble adopted and Ukrainian troops treated as occupiers and forced to surrender or leave, he said. 
 
 Russian stocks fell and the ruble weakened further after the referendum news. Moody's ratings agency said the stand-off was negative for Russia's sovereign creditworthiness. 
 
 On the ground, a mission of 35 unarmed military observers from the pan-European Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe was stopped from entering Crimea by unidentified men in military fatigues when they travelled from the port of Odessa, Poland's defense minister said. 
 
 In Brussels, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy outlined a three stage plan to try to resolve the crisis, while announcing that the EU would sign the political parts of a far reaching agreement with Ukraine before May 25 elections there, and offer the country extensive aid and trade benefits. 
 
 Unless Moscow opens negotiations with Ukraine and an international "contact group" soon, the EU would move to travel bans and asset freezes on Russian officials, and boycott a planned June Group of Eight summit in Olympic venue Sochi. 
 
 If Russia took action that destabilizes Ukraine further, there would be "grave consequences" for bilateral economic ties, he said, without giving any deadlines. Poland's prime minister said the EU talks on sanctions had been "stormy", hinting at frustration at his inability to achieve stronger measures, which require a unanimous decision of all 28 member states. 
 
 MILITARY ACTION 
 
 Putin has cited threats to Russian citizens to justify military action in Ukraine, as he did in Georgia in 2008. Far from seeking a diplomatic way out of the present crisis, Putin appears to have chosen to create facts on the ground before the West can agree on more than token action against him. 
 
 Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said after meeting EU leaders that Ukraine's armed forces would act if Russian military intervention escalated any further into Ukrainian territory. "We are ready to protect our country," he said. 
 
 Military experts say Kiev's small and underequipped forces are no match for Moscow's superpower might. 
 
 The U.S. Navy announced a guided-missile destroyer, the USS Truxton, was heading to the Black Sea in what it said was a long-planned training exercise and not a show of force 
 
 The EU said it had frozen the assets of ousted Ukrainian president Yanukovich and 17 other officials suspected of human rights violations and misuse of state funds. 
 
 International police agency Interpol said it was reviewing a request by Ukrainian authorities for it to issue a "red notice" for the arrest of Yanukovich on charges including abuse of power and murder. 
 
 As expected, the EU summit was unwilling to adopt more than symbolic measures against Russia, Europe's biggest gas supplier, because neither industrial powerhouse Germany nor financial center Britain is keen to trigger a trade war. 
 
 France has a deal to sell warships to Russia that it is so far not prepared to cancel, London's banks have profited from facilitating Russian investment, and German companies have $22 billion invested in Russia. 
 
 The European Commission has announced aid of up to 11 billion euros ($15 billion) for Ukraine over the next couple of years provided it reaches a deal with the International Monetary Fund, entailing painful reforms like ending gas subsidies. 
 
 European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said the crisis had already had a major impact on the Russian and Ukrainian economies, but little effect so far on the euro zone. 
 
 Russia kept the door ajar for more diplomacy on its own terms, announcing on Thursday a meeting of former Soviet states, including Ukraine, for April 4. 
 
 Lavrov said attempts by Western countries to take action over the Ukraine crisis via democracy watchdog OSCE and the NATO military alliance were not helpful. 
 
 He stuck to Putin's line - ridiculed by the West - that Moscow does not command the troops without national insignia which have taken control of Crimea, besieging Ukrainian forces, and hence cannot order them back to barracks. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Brussels, Elizabeth Piper, Lidia Kelly and Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow, Tim Heritage in Kiev, and Lesley Wroughton in Rome; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Anna Willard and Giles Elgood)
– The White House has responded to Crimea's secession vote by expanding its sanctions to target several Russian officials, people providing "material support" to them, and players in the arms industry, President Obama announced today. In brief remarks, Obama characterized yesterday's referendum as illegal, and said the sanctions would show "that there are consequences for their actions," according to the AP. "I believe there's still a path to resolve this situation diplomatically," Obama said. But "we're going to stand firm in our unwavering support for Ukraine." The White House named seven specific Russian officials that administration sources described as "key ideologists" and "architects" of Russia's invasion, USA Today reports, along with several other individuals, including the prime minister of Crimea and speaker of the Crimean parliament. Moscow, meanwhile, indicated that it would annex Crimea in short order, the Wall Street Journal reports. "We will take care of our part quickly, quickly and responsibly," the speaker of the Duma said. Vladimir Putin will address Russia's parliament on the matter tomorrow.