DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin tells a news conference Tuesday that no need to send in troops to Ukraine now, but the possibility of this remains.

Deployment of Russian armed forces is the last resort, he added.

The Russian president says the events in Ukraine which toppled president Viktor Yanukovych amounted to an ‘anti-constitutional coup and armed seizure of power’.

He said ‘militants’ had plunged the country into ‘chaos’.

Yanukovych had agreed to all that the opposition wanted, he said, reports the BBC.

Russian and Ukrainian troops in Crimea are involved in a tense stand-off, but fears of an imminent Russian assault have eased.

BDST: 1654 HRS, MAR 04, 2014r