Kiev braced for a unity rally on Sunday after elite Russian forces entered one of Ukraine’s last Crimean bases in a march that has defied both sanctions and global isolation

Kiev braced for a unity rally on Sunday after elite Russian forces stormed one of Ukraine's last Crimean bases in a march that has defied both sanctions and global isolation.
  
Saturday's takeover involving machinegun fire into the air and stun grenades provided the most spectacular show of force since the Kremlin sent troops into the heavily Russified peninsula three weeks ago before sealing its absorbtion on Friday.
  
It came as the chill in East-West relations intensified with a charge by Germany -- a nation whose friendship Russian President Vladimir Putin had nurtured -- of a Kremlin attempt to "splinter" Europe along Cold War-era lines.
  
Europe's most explosive security crisis in decades will now dominate a nuclear security summit that kicks off in The Hague on Monday and will include what may prove the most difficult meeting to date between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
  
The diplomats' encounter will come with Russia facing the loss of its coveted seat among the G8 group of leading nations and Putin's inner circle reeling from biting sanctions Washington unleashed for their use of force in response to last month's fall of a pro-Kremlin regime in Kiev.