Russian armour smashed into a base of Ukrainian troops yesterday in the first serious military action in the confrontation over Crimea.

New Zealand's modest travel sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine are largely symbolic, says Foreign Minister Murray McCully.

Ukraine warned its conflict with Russia had entered a "military stage" and authorised its troops to open fire in self-defence after suffering the first casuality since Crimea was seized.

Crimea has voted to embrace Kremlin rule, escalating an already grave international crisis to an incendiary level.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's Crimean gamble will face its biggest test tonight, when the EU and US ready sanctions to punish him for a land-grab.

A Ukrainian border patrol plane came under fire near the regional boundary with Crimea as tensions increased further in the contested peninsula yesterday.

With a handful of houses, a couple of shops and some crumbling Kruschev-era flats, the village of Lyubovnets, near the northern side of Sevastopol's bay, is not much to look at.

Unable to intervene militarily and with no direct economic levers to pull, the West believes it is successfully pressing Russia in the Ukraine crisis.

There is a huge amount riding on just how the West deals with Putin's incursion, with the Ukraine merely a pawn in the Russian president's geopolitical chess game, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

Prime Minister John Key says New Zealand athletes should complete in the Sochi Winter Paralympics despite Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

They stood together with their arms linked: a priest, a former soldier, two housewives and a teacher.

The trouble in Ukraine has left NZ in a critical position as it vies for selection to the United Nations Security Council, an expert in international relations says.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has added his voice to international calls for restraint any further escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

In Sochi, there is plenty on the Russian President's to-do list as he bustles about town, preparing for the opening of his Olympic Games.

Rod Emmerson's take on Vladimir Putin's law change.

An Islamic militant group says it was behind the Volgograd bombings that killed 34 people - and they'll give tourists at Sochi for the Olympics 'a present, too'.

Official says there's no need to rethink safety measures for Sochi Winter Olympics despite bombings in Russia.

Two New Zealanders who spent two months in a Russian prison following a protest at an Arctic oil platform have returned home.

Two Kiwis who were among a group of Greenpeace protesters arrested for hooliganism by Russian authorities, are expected home in the next few days.