Russian marine kills Ukrainian officer: Kiev

KYIV - Agence France-Presse

AFP Photo

A Russian marine has shot dead a Ukrainian naval officer in Crimea, the Ukrainian defence ministry said Monday, the second reported death since Moscow claimed the Black Sea peninsula last month.
      
The defence ministry said the incident occurred late Sunday in a military residence hall in the eastern Crimean village of Novofyodorovka, where Ukraine has an air base.
      
The Ukrainian officer was killed "at point-blank range by two shots fired from an AK-74 machine gun," the ministry said in a statement.
      
It added that another officer in the residence hall "was brutally beaten and arrested by Russian soldiers."       

Russian officials did not immediately comment on the Ukrainian defence ministry's report.
      
The death is the second reported since Russia seized the region last month in a lightning swoop that led to its annexation by the Kremlin.
      
One Ukrainian soldier and a member of the pro-Kremlin militia in Crimea were killed last month during an exchange of gunfire in the region's main city of Simferopol.        

Both Russian and Ukrainian defence officials denied opening fire in that altercation, and the incident remains unresolved.
      
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously taken credit for absorbing Crimea without any loss of life in a military operation he said was meant to protect the safety of ethnic Russians who comprise the majority in the region of two million people.