Russian Lower House Ratifies Treaty on Taking Crimea as Ukraine PM Vows Army Response if Moscow Annexes East

Russia's lower house of parliament on Thursday ratified the treaty incorporating Crimea into Russian territory, in defiance of the international community's insistence that the peninsula is part of Ukraine, with just one deputy voting against.

The vote in the State Duma lower house was the penultimate legislative hurdle for the treaty, which was signed on Tuesday by President Vladimir Putin and Crimea's leaders. The Duma also approved a new law on the absorption of Crimea into Russia.

The treaty and law still need to be rubber-stamped by the upper house Federation Council on Friday. However the Kremlin has said that it considers Crimea part of Russia since the signing of the treaty on Tuesday.

Out of 446 deputies voting, 445 voted to approve Russia's taking of Crimea and just one against, Ilya Ponomarev of the A Just Russia Party. Four deputies were absent from the 450-seat Duma.

After making his highly symbolic vote against, Ponomarev published a detailed and impassioned explanation of his move on his Live Journal blog.

"Today Russia has made a huge mistake which could prove tragic for the brotherly Russian and Ukrainian peoples, for all of Slavic unity and for the whole system of international relations," he said.

"Future generations will pay for mistakes that are made now," he said.

Ponomarev explained that he was not opposed to the idea of Russia taking the mainly Russian-speaking peninsula but that the process had happened too fast.

He said it would have been right to have first recognized Crimea's independence "and then wait a bit for things to calm down and convince everyone that this is not a Russia aggression... and then take the next step."

He said huge numbers of people in the Russian authorities, foreign ministry and security services understood the danger of the hurried move "but are scared of expressing their opinion".

A Just Russia is one of three so-called opposition parties in the State Duma but is usually staunchly pro-Kremlin. However it is the only party with a handful of MPs like Ponomarev who are broadly sympathetic to the protest movement against Putin.

Also on Thursday, Ukraine's interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Kiev will respond with military action if Russia attempts to annex the country's mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions.

"I want to officially warn Russia: we will respond firmly, including through military means, against any attempt to seize Ukraine, to cross borders, or annex eastern or other regions by Russian troops," Yatsenyuk was quoted as saying in Brussels on the government website.

But Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu promised his U.S. counterpart Chuck Hagel in a telephone call Thursday that Moscow would not assault eastern Ukraine.

Hagel voiced concern about Russian military movements but Shoigu assured him that "the troops he has arrayed along the border are there to conduct exercises only and they have no intention of crossing the border into Ukraine and that they would take no aggressive action," Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

Hagel also asked how long the military "exercise" would last but Shoigu "didn't have a firm time frame for that," Kirby said.

Washington has watched a Russian buildup on Ukraine's eastern border with growing concern after Moscow's intervention in Crimea.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday the alliance was concerned Russia might push beyond Crimea into eastern Ukraine.

In the phone call, Hagel "pressed" the Russian defense chief to explain "Russian intentions with respect to forces they have aligned near Ukraine's eastern and southern borders," Kirby said.

Hagel also renewed U.S. calls for Russia to de-escalate tensions and restore Ukraine's territorial integrity.

"It was a lengthy call, lasting about an hour, and I think it's fair to say that at times it was direct," according to Kirby.

The two leaders agreed to keep up a dialogue despite the tensions.

President Barack Obama announced fresh punitive sanctions earlier over Moscow's annexation of Crimea, while Russia responded by issuing its own list of sanctions against nine U.S. officials.

Amid the worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War, Obama has ruled out the use of military force in Ukraine while vowing to isolate Moscow through diplomacy and sanctions.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine's parliament said in a resolution adopted on Thursday that Kiev will never recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea and will fight for the "liberation" of the strategic Black Sea peninsula.

"Ukraine will never cease to fight for the liberation of Crimea as long and painful as this can be," said the resolution, an initiative of acting president Olexandr Turchynov.