The contrast could not have been clearer. 
 
 Just as Ukraine's Defence Minister Igor Tenyukh boldly declared that Crimea "was, is and will be our territory," Crimean officials were announcing plans to introduce the ruble, formally merge the territory with Russia and change the clocks to Moscow time. By late Monday afternoon, Crimea's leaders had stripped all references to Ukraine from the government's website and made it clear that Ukrainian institutions, assets and state agencies in the peninsula now belonged to the Republic of Crimea. 
 
 It highlighted the growing powerlessness of Kiev as Crimea moves ever closer to Russia, emboldened by the results of Sunday's referendum which Crimean election officials said showed nearly 97-per-cent support for joining Russia. Ukraine, the United States, Canada and the European Union have condemned the referendum as illegitimate and introduced limited sanctions. But Russia has accepted the results and, on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea as a sovereign state, considered a prelude to annexation. 
 
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 On Monday, Mr. Tenyukh and other Ukrainian cabinet ministers talked about mobilizing the army, calling up 40,000 reserves and suing Russia in international courts. The government ruled out using the one bit of leverage it has: cutting off food, water and gas supplies to the peninsula, arguing that would only hurt people it believes are still fellow countrymen. And it has no plans to evacuate Ukrainian soldiers trapped on bases in Crimea, who are surrounded by troops from Russia and Crimean self-defence forces, for fear of provoking a clash. 
 
 Analysts say there isn't much else Kiev can do. 
 
 "I would say we have lost Crimea, probably for 10 years. Probably, we have lost it forever," said Taras Berezovets, a political analyst who runs a Kiev-based think tank called Politech. 
 
 Mr. Berezovets said the Ukrainian government has to hope for some kind of diplomatic solution to the crisis at the international level. The sanctions introduced Monday by the U.S. and the EU will help, he said, noting that they are targeted at specific individuals who have a lot to lose. 
 
 "This is especially harmful for [Crimea's leaders] because they have businesses in Europe," he said. 
 
 He added that Ukraine also risks losing its hold on some Eastern regions unless it moves ahead with reforms including making Russian an official language and handing more power to regional governments. Otherwise, he warned, "these areas may follow the example of Crimea." 
 
 Mychailo Wynnyckyj, a business and sociology professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, said the conflict with Russia is only beginning. "This is just Stage 1 of a war that is going to last for another two to three weeks," he said. "And when the end game in fact does come, there is going to be negotiation between the Western powers and Russia and hopefully Ukraine will have a little bit of a voice in that." 
 
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 University of Toronto political science professor Lucan Way also believes Crimea has been lost to Ukraine, but he isn't convinced Russia will invade eastern Ukraine. That would be more difficult and costly because support for joining Russia is far lower there than in Crimea. However, he added: "In the 25 years that I have been studying Eastern Europe, I know it can always get worse." 
 
 Many people in Kiev are convinced things will get worse and that Russian troops will extend their reach beyond Crimea. "For me, it is a war," said Ivan Reshytniak as he sold coffee in Kiev from the back of a small truck. However, he believes Ukraine can prevail. "This is a really big strong state and a lot of people are supporting Ukraine. Russia can't go against everyone alone." 
 
 Follow me on Twitter: @pwaldieGlobe ||||| (CNN) -- Cheers in Moscow. Outrage in Kiev. Bloodshed in Simferopol. 
 
 Tuesday saw Russian President Vladimir Putin announce the annexation of Crimea, two days after voters in that semiautonomous territory approved a hastily called referendum on separating from Ukraine. 
 
 Putin told a joint session of Russia's Parliament that the nearly 97% of Crimean residents who voted to join Russia over the weekend was "an extremely convincing figure." 
 
 "In our hearts, we know Crimea has always been an inalienable part of Russia," he said. 
 
 Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called it "a robbery on an international scale," one that Kiev will never accept. 
 
 "One country has come and temporarily stolen part of of the territory of an independent country," he said. "It will be difficult to find a quick resolution to this problem, but Russia is now isolated by the whole international community." 
 
 And after a member of its military was killed, another wounded and more captured when masked gunmen seized their base near the Crimean regional capital, Simferopol, Ukraine's defense ministry authorized its forces to open fire. 
 
 Yatsenyuk warned that the crisis was shifting "from political to the military form, and the blame is on the Russian military." 
 
 Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority, has long been a semiautonomous region within Ukraine. It has had its own Parliament, but the Ukrainian government had veto power over its actions. 
 
 After the revolt that forced pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych from office in February, Russian troops poured into the Crimean Peninsula, effectively cutting it off in support of a pro-Russian government that took power in Simferopol. 
 
 Putin said Tuesday that Russia had to act as Ukraine's new government, backed by the United States and European powers, prepared "to seize the state through terror and murders." 
 
 "The main executors of this were nationalists, Russia-phobes and anti-Semites," he said. "Those people define what is happening today in Ukraine." 
 
 But international observers have said Moscow saw its chance to annex a strategic territory, one that was transferred to Ukraine in the Soviet era and which still hosts the home port of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. 
 
 Ukraine's interim President, Oleksandr Turchynov, told reporters that Putin is "mimicking the fascists of the last century" by annexing Crimea. 
 
 "The political leadership of Russia will have to answer before the whole world for crimes they are committing today in our country," Turchynov said. 
 
 Cameron: Annexation sends 'a chilling message' 
 
 Putin declared Tuesday that "We have not used our armed forces in Crimea," despite what has been stated by international observers and the government of Kiev. He said the 22,000 Russian troops in Crimea did not enter during the current crisis, but "were already there," in accordance with previous international negotiations. 
 
 Russian forces were allowed in Crimea under a treaty that allowed the Black Sea Fleet to be based there, but the movements of its forces within Crimea are supposed to be agreed upon with Kiev. 
 
 Putin praised those forces for avoiding bloodshed, but the tensions appear to have boiled over into violence Tuesday. 
 
 Masked gunmen killed a member of Ukraine's military, wounded another and arrested the remaining staff of Ukraine's military topographic and navigation directorate at Simferopol, Defense Ministry spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov told CNN. 
 
 After that, the Defense Ministry authorized its forces in Crimea to use weapons "to protect and preserve the life of Ukrainian soldiers," according to a statement posted on its website. 
 
 Petro Poroshenko, a Ukrainian member of Parliament and former foreign minister, said Tuesday that his country stands at "the beginning of a very dangerous conflict, and we should do our best to stop this process." 
 
 "Several weeks ago, we had a guarantee that nothing [would] happen with the Crimea. Several weeks ago we had [a situation] that there is not any military presence on Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea," he told CNN's "Amanpour " program. Now, he said, "I strongly believe that this is not only Ukrainian territory is now threatened." 
 
 "Now under attack can be any country in the European Union, including other parts of Ukraine," said Poroshenko, a billionaire and leading potential candidate for president. "That's why we should think that it can never happen again." 
 
 U.S. and EU officials imposed sanctions on more than two dozen Russian and Crimean officials Monday and have urged Russia to avoid escalating the crisis, but Moscow has ignored those calls. 
 
 Tuesday's annexation brought a new round of condemnation from the West, with British Prime Minister David Cameron saying it sends "a chilling message across the continent of Europe." 
 
 "It is completely unacceptable for Russia to use force to change borders, on the basis of a sham referendum held at the barrel of a Russian gun," Cameron said in a statement issued by Downing Street. "President Putin should be in no doubt that Russia will face more serious consequences, and I will push European leaders to agree further EU measures when we meet on Thursday." 
 
 Russia faces 'more than just sanctions,' Biden says 
 
 The G7 group of industrialized nations had already suspended preparations for a planned G8 summit in the Russian city of Sochi. Now, U.S. President Barack Obama has invited his counterparts from the other G7 countries and the European Union to a meeting of next week on the margins of a nuclear security summit in The Hague, U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. 
 
 The planned meeting comes amid speculation that Russia will get kicked out of the G8 -- which comprises the G7 countries plus Russia -- because of its actions in Crimea. 
 
 In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry criticized "this rise of a kind of nationalism that is exercised unilaterally, to the exclusion of the international legal process." 
 
 "That's what we have worked hard to avoid ever since World War II," Kerry said. He acknowledged that Russia has interests in Crimea and "an enormous historical connection to Ukraine," but said he was "really struck and somewhat surprised and even disappointed" by Putin's case for annexing the territory. 
 
 "With all due respect, it just didn't (jibe) with reality or what's happening on the ground," Kerry said. "The President may have his version of history, but I believe that he and Russia, for what they have done, are on the wrong side of history." 
 
 German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the "so-called referendum" and the acceptance of Crimea to the Russian Federation "goes against international law," while French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and a French delegation have postponed a planned visit to Moscow because of the Ukrainian situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. 
 
 And U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, dispatched to reassure NATO allies in Eastern Europe, said Russia faces "more than just sanctions" unless it abandons its "land grab" in Crimea. 
 
 "We're talking about Russia putting itself on a path that undermines long-term confidence and creates obstacles for its full participation in the global economy," Biden said after talks in Poland's capital, Warsaw. "That path that they've placed themselves on does nothing to help the next generation of Russians compete and succeed in a world that will be led by the most dynamic and open economies." 
 
 Condemnation abroad, cheers at home 
 
 But lawmakers in Moscow met Putin's address with regular and enthusiastic applause. The Russian leader accused the West of "double standards" and cynicism in its response to the Crimean crisis, citing Kosovo -- which split from Russia's historical ally Serbia over fierce objections from Belgrade -- as a precedent. 
 
 "It's absolutely in favor of their own interests -- black today, white tomorrow," he said. 
 
 Russia's Parliament is expected to vote on ratifying Crimea's accession to the Russian Federation by the end of the week. The speaker of Russia's upper house of Parliament, Valentina Matvineko, told state-run Russia-24 TV that the process of adding a new member to the Russian Federation "can be done rather promptly." 
 
 And hours after the annexation announcement, Putin appeared at a huge celebration on Red Square organized by his supporters -- a sign of his widespread popularity at home. An opinion poll by the Moscow-based Levada Center puts his approval rating at 72% -- the highest in more than three years, and the second-highest point of his presidency. The highest point came in 2008, during Russia's conflict with Georgia, another former Soviet republic. 
 
 "Putin in many senses, on many levels, crystallizes the Russian national consciousness," biographer Alexander Korobko told CNN. "For the past 100 years perhaps, we have never had a leader who would appeal to the Russian soul ... as much as Putin." 
 
 Most Russians and Crimeans feel Crimea "is coming back home," and a country that can produce "pretty much anything" has little fear of sanctions, he said. 
 
 "It is absolutely not in the U.S. interest to impose sanctions on Russia, because who will take American astronauts to space if not us Russians?" Korobko asked. 
 
 Crimea's vote: Was it legal? 
 
 Opinion: Obama can't have it both ways on Crimea 
 
 West's sanctions on Russia: Are they just for show? 
 
 Opinion: Putin won't stop at Crimea 
 
 CNN's Alla Eshchenko reported from Moscow and Matt Smith wrote in Atlanta. CNN's Laura Smith-Spark, Frederik Pleitgen, Nick Paton Walsh, Elena Sandreyev and Mick Krever contributed to this report. ||||| WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Denouncing Russia's actions in Crimea as "nothing more than a land grab," Vice President Joe Biden warned Russia on Tuesday that the U.S. and Europe will impose further sanctions as Moscow moved to annex part of Ukraine. 
 
 RECROPED VERSION OF XAK154 - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, sitting at right, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, left and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, third left begin talks in Warsaw, Poland,... (Associated Press) 
 
 U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, speaks to the media after talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, right, in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, March 18, 2014. Biden arrived in Warsaw for consultations... (Associated Press) 
 
 U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk look at each others during a press conference after talks in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, March 18, 2014. Biden arrived in Warsaw... (Associated Press) 
 
 With few good options, the United States was scrambling for ways to show it won't stand idly by as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty for the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea to join Russia. So far, Putin has been undeterred by sanctions and visa bans levied by the U.S. and the European Union, and there's no U.S. appetite for military intervention. 
 
 "Russia has offered a variety of arguments to justify what is nothing more than a land grab, including what he said today," Biden said in Poland, which shares a border with both Russia and Ukraine. "But the world has seen through Russia's actions and has rejected the flawed logic behind those actions." 
 
 Biden arrived early Tuesday in a region on edge over Russia's nascent aggression in Crimea. Amid eerie echoes of the Cold War, U.S. allies including Poland have raised concerns that they could be next should the global community be unable to persuade Putin to back down. 
 
 Former Soviet states are among the most alarmed by the prospect that Moscow could be resuming its traditional imperial ambitions. But Ukraine is at greater risk militarily because it lacks membership in NATO and the promise of collective defensive measures that NATO membership provides. 
 
 The first round of sanctions having failed, Biden promised more would be coming, as he declared that Russia's actions constituted a blatant violation of international law. 
 
 Meanwhile, major Western powers sought fresh ways to show that Russia would incur real costs unless it changes course. 
 
 The White House announced that President Barack Obama was inviting the leaders of the G-7 group of nations to a meeting in Europe next week to discuss further action. The group normally meets under the banner of the G-8, including Russia, but has suspended preparations for upcoming G-8 talks. 
 
 And in London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague says the U.K. was suspending military cooperation with Russia in light of the crisis. 
 
 "It's a simple fact that Russia's political and economic isolation will only increase if it continues down this dark path," Biden said, adding that virtually the entire world rejects the referendum in Crimea on Sunday that cleared the way for Russia to absorb it. 
 
 For his part, Putin seemed to shrug off the tough talk from the West, describing Russia's move to add Crimea to its map as correcting past injustices. In an emotional, live speech from the Kremlin, he said that "in people's hearts and minds, Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia." 
 
 Russia's move in clear defiance of its neighbors and the U.S. ups the pressure on Biden to convince its NATO allies that the U.S. won't roll over. After meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Biden headed to the Poland's presidential palace to consult with President Bronislaw Komorowski. 
 
 In sessions Tuesday in the Polish capital and later in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, Biden was to discuss the crisis with the leaders of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia — three Baltic nations that are deeply concerned about what Russia's military intervention in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula might portend for the region. 
 
 All four countries share borders with Russia, while Poland also borders Ukraine. Poland broke away from Moscow's domination in 1989 and was a vocal advocate for Ukraine forging closer ties with the E.U. — a dispute at the heart of Ukraine's political crisis. 
 
 "This trial, this challenge that we are facing will not be for a month or a year," Tusk said after meeting with Biden. "We are facing a strategic perspective for many years to come." 
 
 Biden said the goal is for NATO to emerge from this crisis stronger and more unified than ever. While in Europe, Biden planned to discuss what additional steps the U.S. can take to shore up security for Poland and the Baltics, such as increased training, said a senior administration official, who wasn't authorized to comment by name and demanded anonymity. 
 
 At Warsaw's request, the U.S. last week sent some 300 air troops and a dozen F-16 fighters to Poland for joint training in a show of military support for a key ally. 
 
 Also on the agenda: long-term energy security in Europe, a key factor that has confounded the West's attempts to display a united front in punishing Russia. Much of Europe is heavily dependent on Russian natural gas, and European countries have major economic interests in Russia that could be in jeopardy if Moscow retaliates with sanctions of its own. 
 
 Republican lawmakers and a handful of European countries, including Poland, have urged the White House to accelerate approval of U.S. natural gas exports, but the White House has insisted that would take too long and says Russia is too dependent on gas revenues to cut off Europe. 
 
 One option that doesn't appear to be on the table: rethinking the U.S. posture on missile defense in the region. Poland is still bruised from Obama's 2009 decision to cancel the final phase of a defense system sorely Poland wanted as a hedge against Russian missiles. Biden said the smaller, phased-in system Obama chose instead is on schedule for completion. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Monika Scislowska in Warsaw and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
– Moscow has officially signed a treaty making Crimea part of Russia, and the West is not happy. President Obama today called for an emergency meeting of the G7 to decide whether to kick Russia out of the G8, the AP reports. The G7, which consists of the US, Britain, Japan, France, Italy, and Canada, became the G8 when Russia joined in the 1990s. The original members will meet on the sidelines of next week's 53-nation nuclear meeting at the Hague—which Russia will also be attending. "Russia has offered a variety of arguments to justify what is nothing more than a land grab," Joe Biden said today during a visit to Poland, which as a neighbor of both Russia and Ukraine, is a bit on edge. Ukraine's interim president offered an even stronger condemnation, saying Russia was "mimicking the fascists of the last century," while the interim prime minister called it "robbery on an international scale," CNN reports. But Crimea and Russia are working fast to cement the annexation, as Crimean officials announced plans today to switch to the ruble, and change their clocks to match Moscow's, the Globe and Mail reports.