Pro-Russian Protestors Seize Buildings After Ukrainian Officer Killed by Russian Soldier

Tensions rise between Kiev and Moscow as Russian media claims a Ukrainian servicemen got into a drunken argument with Russian soldiers in eastern Crimea, recently annexed by Russia, and ended up being shot twice in the head

Hundreds of pro-Russian demonstrators called on Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday to send troops to the region after taking over government buildings in eastern Ukraine, the New York Times reports. Police in the city of Donetsk are negotiating with the protestors, who demanded a secession referendum similar to the one carried out in Crimea before that region was annexed by Russia.

The unrest in Donetsk is adding to tensions stirred by the shooting death of a Ukrainian naval officer at the hands of a Russian solider.

Russian media reported that Ukrainian soldiers on their way home from a night out got into a dispute with Russian soldiers guarding a military base. Dmytro Tymchuk, an analyst at Kiev's Center for Military and Political Studies, claimed in a Facebook post that Russian servicemen shot a Ukrainian naval officer twice in the head in the heat of the argument, the Guardian reported.

Tensions between Kiev and Moscow have been high since Russia's March annexation of Crimea, which is populated predominantly by ethnic Russians.

The news of the Ukrainian officer's death came just after interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk lashed out at Russia for allegedly stoking unrest in Ukraine's eastern provinces.

Yatsenyuk also blamed Russia for the seizure of some government buildings in the country's eastern areas and provoking further secessionist tendencies.

"[Russia's] plan is to cross the border and seize the country's territory, and we will not allow it," Yatsenyuk said.