U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, wearing a blue scarf, visits a shrine Tuesday, March 4, for the people who were killed during anti-government protests in Kiev, Ukraine, last month.
Yuli Mamchun, the commander of the Ukrainian military garrison at the Belbek air base near Sevastopol, Ukraine, salutes on March 4.
Ukrainian military members march at the Belbek air base on March 4.
Russian soldiers fire warning shots to keep back Ukrainian military members at the Belbek air base on March 4.
A Ukrainian airman puts the Ukrainian national flag over the gate of the Belbek air base as they guard what's left under their control on March 4.
Russian soldiers aim a grenade launcher and machine gun as they guard positions at the Belbek air base on March 4.
Ukrainian seamen stand guard on the Ukrainian navy ship Slavutich in the Sevastopol harbor on Monday, March 3.
Oleg, a Ukrainian soldier, kisses his girlfriend Svetlana through the gates of the Belbek base entrance on March 3. Tensions are high at the base, where Ukrainian soldiers were standing guard inside the building while alleged Russian gunmen were standing guard outside the gates.
Armed men in military uniform walk outside a Ukrainian military unit near Simferopol, Ukraine, on Sunday, March 2. Hundreds of armed men in trucks and armored vehicles surrounded the Ukrainian base Sunday in Crimea, blocking its soldiers from leaving.
Soldiers walk outside a Ukrainian military base in Perevalne, Ukraine, as a local resident waves a Russian flag March 2.
Demonstrators shout during a rally in Kiev's Independence Square on March 2.
Ukrainian soldiers, left, and unidentified gunmen, right, stand at the gate of an infantry base in Perevalnoye, Ukraine, on March 2. 
Ukrainian soldiers guard a gate of an infantry base in Perevalnoye on March 2.
A woman cries during a rally in Independence Square on March 2.
Protesters hold flags of the United States, Germany and Italy during a rally in Independence Square on March 2.
People attend a morning prayer service at Independence Square on March 2. 
Heavily armed troops, displaying no identifying insignia and who were mingling with local pro-Russian militants, stand guard outside a local government building in Simferopol, Ukraine, on March 2. 
A woman waits in front of unidentified men in military fatigues who were blocking a base of the Ukrainian frontier guard unit in Balaklava, Ukraine, on Saturday, March 1.
U.S. President Barack Obama, in the Oval Office of the White House, talks on the phone March 1 with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Troops stand guard in Balaklava on March 1. 
Heavily armed soldiers displaying no identifying insignia maintain watch in Simferopol, Ukraine, on March 1.
People gather around the coffin of a man who was killed during clashes with riot police in Independence Square.
Pro-Russian activists hold Russian flags during a rally in the center of Donetsk, Ukraine, on March 1.
Pro-Russian activists clash with Maidan supporters as they storm the regional government building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 1.
A protester stands at a memorial March 1 for the people killed in clashes at Independence Square.
Armed men patrol outside the Simferopol International Airport in Ukraine's Crimea region on Friday, February 28. Simferopol is the regional capital.
An image provided to CNN by a local resident shows Russian tanks on the move in Sevastopol, Ukraine. 
Russian troops block a road February 28 toward the military airport in Sevastopol, Ukraine. The Russian Black Sea Fleet is based at the port city of Sevastopol.
Armed men stand guard in front of a building near the Simferopol airport on February 28. 
An armed man wearing no identifying insignia patrols outside Simferopol International Airport on February 28. 
Police stand guard outside the Crimea regional parliament building Thursday, February 27, in Simferopol. Armed men seized the regional government administration building and parliament in Crimea. 
Police intervene as Russian supporters gather in front of the parliament building in Simferopol on February 27.
A man adds fuel to a fire at a barricade in Independence Square on February 27. Dozens of people were killed last week during clashes between security forces and protesters.
Pro-Russia demonstrators wave Russian and Crimean flags in front of a local government building in Simferopol on February 27. 
Barricades in front of a government building in Simferopol on February 27 hold a banner that reads: "Crimea Russia." There's a broad divide between those who support the pro-Western developments in Kiev and those who back Russia's continued influence in Crimea and across Ukraine.
Protesters stand in front of a government building in Simferopol on February 27. Tensions have simmered in the Crimea region since the Ukrainian president's ouster.
Protesters in support of the president's ouster rally in Independence Square, which has been the center of opposition, on Wednesday, February 26.
Security forces stand guard during clashes between opposing sides in front of Crimea's parliament building in Simferopol on February 26.
Pro-Russian demonstrators, right, clash with anti-Russian protesters in front of a government building in Simferopol on February 26. 
A police officer gets pulled into a crowd of Crimean Tatars in Simferopol on February 26. The Tatars, an ethnic minority group deported during the Stalin era, is rallying in support of Ukraine's interim government.
A man places flowers at a barricade near Independence Square on February 26.
On February 26 in Kiev, A woman holds a photograph of a protester killed during the height of tensions.
Police guard a government building in Donetsk on February 26.
Protesters remove a fence that surrounds Ukraine's parliament in Kiev on February 26.
People sing the Ukrainian national anthem at Independence Square on Monday, February 24.
Gas masks used by protesters sit next to a barricade in Independence Square on February 24.
A woman cries February 24 near a memorial for the people killed in Kiev.
People wave a large Ukrainian flag in Independence Square on Sunday, February 23.
Two pro-government supporters are made to pray February 23 in front of a shrine to dead anti-government protesters.
A man and his daughter lay flowers at a memorial for protesters killed in Independence Square. 
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko speaks at Independence Square on Saturday, February 22, hours after being released from prison. Tymoshenko, considered a hero of a 2004 revolution against Yanukovych, was released after 2½ years behind bars.
Tymoshenko is greeted by supporters shortly after being freed from prison in Kharkiv on February 22.
A protester guards the entrance to Yanukovych's abandoned residence outside Kiev on February 22. 
Anti-government protesters guard the streets next to the presidential offices in Kiev on February 22. 
Anti-government protesters drive a military vehicle in Independence Square on February 22. Many protesters said they wouldn't leave the square until Yanukovych resigned.
Ukrainian lawmakers argue during a session of Parliament on Friday, February 21.
Men in Kiev carry a casket containing the body of a protester killed in clashes with police.
Protesters cheer after news of an agreement between the opposing sides in Kiev on February 21.
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Russia made up reasons to intervene
- Russia declines invitation for diplomatic talks with Ukraine, U.S. official says
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits shrine to protesters killed in Kiev
- President Vladimir Putin says Russia has the right to "take all measures" in Ukraine
Simferopol, Ukraine (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russia of making up reasons for intervention in Ukraine, saying Tuesday that "not a single piece of credible evidence supports any one of these claims."
"Russia has talked about Russian-speaking citizens being under siege. They're not," he said while on a visit to Kiev.
He condemned what he called Russia's aggression in Crimea and urged the country to withdraw its troops.
"We would like to see this de-escalated. We're not looking for some major confrontation," he said, while still promising sanctions on Russia if it refuses to step back.
Kerry's comments came a few hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin defiantly defended his country's right to intervene in Ukraine.
Squeezing Russia economically
24 hours of tension in Ukraine
Russians are "very much in control"Putin said what had happened in Ukraine was an "anti-constitutional coup and armed seizure of power," and insisted that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is the legitimate leader of the nation.
He also insisted that if Russian-speaking citizens in the east of Ukraine ask for Russia's help, Russia has the right "to take all measures to protect the rights of those people."
The parliament in Ukraine is "partly legitimate," he said, but the country's acting President is not.
Appearing at ease as he addressed a handful of reporters in Moscow, Putin said only the people of Crimea, a Russian-dominated autonomous region, could determine their future.
He also continued to deny that Russian forces were in the country, saying that the troops currently blockading Ukrainian forces in their bases and controlling key institutions were local "self-defense teams."
The troops in question -- who appeared in Crimea late last week -- are wearing uniforms without identifying insignia. But some have told CNN teams on the ground that they are indeed from Russia, and they are making use of military vehicles with Russian registration plates.
Putin said that there had been no need for the use of Russia's military so far, with not a shot fired, and that any use of military force would be the last resort. He repeatedly cast any such intervention as a humanitarian mission.
Military action, he said, would be "completely legitimate" because it was at the request of Yanukovych and in line with Russia's duty to protect people with historic ties to Russia, both cultural and economic.
"Firstly, we have a request of the legitimate President Yanukovych to protect the welfare of the local population. We have neo-Nazis and Nazis and anti-Semites in parts of Ukraine, including Kiev," Putin said.
At the same time as he appeared to use that request to justify a Russian intervention, Putin said he saw no political future for Yanukovych, who resurfaced in Russia last week after fleeing Kiev 10 days ago.
The Russian President also pointed out what he sees as a double standard by leaders in the United States and other Western countries, saying that the U.S. acted in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya without a U.N. resolution authorizing that action or by "twisting" U.N. resolutions.
Fareed Zakaria Explains Putin's Problem
'Ethnic cleansing' possible in Ukraine
How far will Putin go in Ukraine?And he warned that any damage from sanctions imposed by the West against Russia over its actions in Ukraine would be multilateral.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday pushed back against what he said were suggestions that Russia has been strategically clever in Ukraine.
"I actually think this has not been a sign of strength, but rather is a reflection that countries near Russia have deep concerns and suspicions about this kind of meddling," he said.
A divided Ukraine? Think again
Diplomatic moves, promises of aid
Shortly after Putin's remarks, Kerry arrived in Kiev, bearing offers of much needed financial help and showing his support for the fledgling Ukrainian government.
His first stop was a somber one: Paying respects to the dozens killed in bloody clashes between security forces and protesters in Kiev at a makeshift shrine in the capital, piled high with flowers.
Next will come meetings with Ukraine's acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, President Oleksandr Turchynov and members of parliament.
A team from the International Monetary Fund is also expected in Kiev on Tuesday to begin a fact-finding mission that will look at possible financial help and necessary reforms.
The White House said the United States would give Ukraine a $1 billion loan guarantee to help insulate the Ukrainian economy from the effects of reduced energy subsidies from Russia. The loan guarantee will help Ukraine move forward with an IMF assistance package, which calls for it to raise energy prices.
The Ukrainian parliament ratified an agreement Tuesday to receive loans from the European Union worth 610 million euros, the equivalent of nearly $839 million. The parliament is based in Kiev, where many emphasize ties to the West, as opposed to people in eastern Ukraine, where loyalty to Russia runs deep.
Meanwhile, Turkey's military scrambled eight F-16 fighter jets for "control and prevention measures" after a Russian surveillance plane "flew parallel along our Black Sea coast in international airspace," according to a Turkish military website. There has been no immediate comment on this from Russia.
In Brussels, Belgium, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters Tuesday that despite repeated calls by the international community, "Russia continues to violate Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and continues to violate its international commitments."
The developments represent serious implications for the security and stability for the Euro-Atlantic area, he said.
NATO did say its representatives would meet with Russian officials Wednesday. That announcement came as NATO allies huddled in emergency talks requested by Poland, which considers itself to be under threat by the drama in neighboring Ukraine.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the allies were united in solidarity with Poland. "Obviously, this is a crisis which is very serious. It has an impact, not just on Ukraine, and Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also on instability in the whole region," she said.
Russia declined an invitation to hold diplomatic talks with Ukraine's government, a senior U.S. administration official told CNN on Tuesday. Russia had been invited to a Wednesday meeting in Paris of signatory countries to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, a pact of security assurances signed by the United States, United Kingdom, Ukraine and Russia.
However, Cabinet ministers from Ukraine and Russia have started inter-government consultations, Yatsenyuk said live on Ukraine's Parliament TV on Tuesday. The talks are going "rather slowly," he said. It's not immediately clear where the talks are happening.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told CNN's "New Day" that she did not believe Putin's claims that he was protecting endangered Russian citizens.
"There is not this kind of a crisis in terms of the way that the Russian-speaking people are in some way being harmed. So this is all made up," she said.
"I think it's part of a much longer-term plan that Putin has had, which is to try to re-create some form of relationship between Ukraine and Moscow. I think that is the tragedy that's going on. Putin is in many ways, I think, delusional about it."
U.S. to offer $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine, officials say
Ordered back
Earlier Tuesday, about 150,000 Russian troops taking part in military exercises near the Ukrainian border were ordered back to their bases, but thousands of others remain in control of much of Crimea.
Putin ordered the troops' return after six days of snap exercises at Ukraine's doorstep. He said the exercises, which began Wednesday, were long planned and had nothing to do with events in Ukraine.
But Ukraine's new interim authorities are far from reassured.
Andriy Parubiy, head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told parliament that Ukraine has doubled its security presence at checkpoints on the northeastern and eastern borders of the country to prevent any incursions by Russian "extremists."
At this stage, Ukraine border security officials are not seeing any cross-border activity, he said.
Sergey Astahov, assistant to the head of the Ukraine Security Border Service, earlier told CNN that Russian troops and vehicles remained near the country's eastern border with Russia.
Meanwhile, an eerie standoff continued in Crimea, with no shots fired in anger on either side but tensions high.
The crisis has divided many in the majority ethnic Russian region, which hosts a major Russian naval base in the port of Sevastopol.
At least 700 Ukrainian soldiers and officers defected Tuesday, announcing their readiness to defend the population of Crimea, RIA Novosti said, citing a spokesman for the newly installed Crimean authority.
But Ukraine's Defense Ministry dismissed the claim as "untruthful information."
Parubiy said personnel at all of Ukraine's border security points in Crimea are being subjected to "psychological attacks" by 100 armed men. He did not identify who these armed men are.
The government is sending food, water and other essentials to the military bases currently blockaded by Russian forces, he added.
Ukraine: Warning shots fired by Russians
Anxieties have been heightened by a confrontation between Ukrainian soldiers and Russian forces at Belbek Air Base, near Sevastopol.
Russian forces are seen firing shots into the air, warning unarmed Ukrainian soldiers from approaching them.
The commander of the Belbek base, Yuli Mamchur, told CNN his forces had received a demand to put down their weapons by noon local time. They refused to comply, he said, adding that it was the latest in long line of demands.
A wider ultimatum for Ukrainian forces to surrender to the Russian forces early Tuesday also passed without incident.
Earlier, Vladislav Seleznyov, head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry press office in Crimea, told CNN it had been largely quiet in Crimea overnight.
A group of pro-Russian Cossacks in civilian dress attempted to attack the Ukrainian naval headquarters in Sevastopol, Seleznyov said, but Ukrainian forces repelled the attack and no shots were fired.
On Monday evening, Russian troops also moved into the Russian side of a narrow sea channel dividing Russia and Crimea, opposite the Ukrainian city of Kerch, he added.
The military maneuvers are not just on land.
The flagship of the Ukrainian navy's Black Sea Fleet, the frigate Hetman Saraidachny, is headed back to the Black Sea via the Bosporus, the Ukrainian Consulate in Istanbul said.
Earlier Tuesday, two Russian warships steamed up the Bosporus toward the Black Sea.
'Chaos and anarchy'
At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Monday to discuss the unfolding crisis, Ukraine's envoy asked for help, saying that Russia had used planes, boats and helicopters to flood the Crimean Peninsula with 16,000 troops in the past week.
"So far, Ukrainian armed forces have exercised restraint and refrained from active resistance to the aggression, but they are in full operational readiness," Ukrainian Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev said.
However, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin insisted his country's aims were preserving democracy, protecting millions of Russians in Ukraine and stopping radical extremists. He read a letter from Yanukovych at the U.N. meeting, describing Ukraine as a country "on the brink of civil war," plagued by "chaos and anarchy."
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said Russia's claims about the situation in Ukraine are untrue and warned that sending military forces "could be devastating."
U.S. President Barack Obama said the United States is examining a series of economic and diplomatic steps to "isolate Russia," and he called on Congress to work with his administration on an economic assistance package for Ukraine.
READ: Up to Speed: What you need to know about the Russia-Ukraine standoff
READ: On the ground in Crimea: Relaxed but eerie
READ: Opinion: Putin planning 'Soviet Union lite'
CNN's Diana Magnay reported from Simferopol and Phil Black from Moscow, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported in London. CNN's Matthew Chance, Elise Labott and journalist Azad Safarov in Kiev contributed to this report. CNN's Ivan Watson, Gul Tuysuz and Susannah Palk also contributed.
