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Endgame: Russian officers enter the Ukrainian marine battalion headquarters to discuss its surrender in the Crimean city of Feodosia. Photo: AFP

Simferopol: Ukraine announced the evacuation of its troops and their families from Crimea on Monday, effectively acknowledging defeat in the face of Russian forces, who stormed one of the last remaining Ukrainian bases on the peninsula.

Grip on Crimea: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Bloomberg

Thousands of Ukrainian troops have been besieged on bases in Crimea, offering no armed resistance but refusing to surrender, since President Vladimir Putin declared Moscow's right to intervene at the start of the month.

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Moscow formally annexed the region last week and its forces have been seizing the last Ukrainian bases in recent days.

"The National Defence and Security Council has instructed the Defence Ministry to carry out a re-deployment of military units in Crimea and evacuate their families," acting president Oleksander Turchinov told parliament in Kiev.

The move, he said, had been made following threats by Russian forces on the lives and health of Ukrainian service staff and their families.

Russian forces, using stun grenades and machine guns and backed by two helicopters, swept into a marine base in the port of Feodosia early on Monday, overrunning one of Ukraine's last symbols of resistance. Ukrainian officers were taken away for questioning, Ukrainian officials said.

An official withdrawal from the base was due to start at 3pm local time, Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said.

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Ukraine withdraws troops from Crimea, effectively acknowledging defeat to Russia

KIEV: Ukraine agreed on Wednesday to quickly hike domestic gas prices by as much as 50 percent to meet a key loan condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the crisis-hit ex-Soviet state.

The new Western-backed government in Kiev is seeking $15-20 billion (11-14.5 billion euros) in IMF assistance in order to balance its books and meet a series of foreign loan repayments.

An IMF team met with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kiev on Wednesday for what Ukrainian officials hoped would be a final round of talks before the package is approved in Washington next month.

The Fund has made an immediate end to Ukraine's costly gas subsidies one of its prime conditions for the programme's approval.

It also wants the central bank to stop propping up the Ukrainian currency and for the government to cut down on corruption and red tape.

A top official at Ukraine's Naftogaz state energy company said Kiev was willing to raise the price households pay for natural gas by 50 per cent as of May 1.

Naftogaz budget and planning director Yury Kolbushkin added that rates for district heating companies would go up by 40 per cent on July 1.

Kolbushkin indicated that these prices would increase still further in the coming years.

"We will publish a document that sets a schedule for rate increases through 2018," Ukrainian media quoted Kolbushkin as saying.

Ukraine's central bank has already limited its currency interventions -- a decision that has seen the hryvnia lose 26.4 per cent of its value against the dollar since the start of the year.

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Ukraine to hike gas rates by 50% for IMF loan

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