After effectively taking control over the contested Crimean peninsula off the coast of the Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin formally submitted a request to send Russian troops to the mainland. His request has swiftly been approved by the Federation Council.

A "Kiev official" told the AFP that more than 2,000 troops have landed in Crimea as part of an "armed invasion." Earlier today, armed gunmen took control of two major airports in Crimea.

Friday morning, dozens of armed men in military uniforms without insignias surrounded two Crimean airports in what Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has declared an "invasion and occupation" by Russian forces. The incident comes one day after masked gunmen, believed to be pro-Russia militants, seized two government buildings in the region.

On Thursday, dozens of masked gunmen believed to militant Russian nationalists seized several government buildings, including the regional parliament building, in Simferopol, the capital of Ukraine's Crimea region, and raised the Russian flag. Meanwhile, across the border, more than 150,000 Russian troops performed readiness tests as Russian fighter jets patrolled the Ukrainian border for the second straight day.