UKRAINE BASE UNDER SIEGE: Crimea Military Post Taken Over By Russians......Russian Soldiers Storm Military Unit... Journalists Targeted... Putin Rebuffs O's Warning... CLAIM: 30,000 Troops In Crimea... Russia 'Entrenched'...

MOSCOW/SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine, March 8 (Reuters) - Russia said any U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow over the crisis in Ukraine will boomerang back on the United States and that Crimea has the right to self-determination as armed men tried to seize another Ukrainian military base on the peninsula.

In a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against "hasty and reckless steps" that could harm Russian-American relations, the foreign ministry said on Friday. "Sanctions ... would inevitably hit the United States like a boomerang," it added. Kerry stressed the importance of resolving the situation through diplomacy and said he and Lavrov would continue to consult, the State Department said. It was the second tense, high-level exchange between the former Cold War foes in 24 hours over the pro-Russian takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said after an hour-long call with U.S. President Barack Obama that their positions on the former Soviet republic were still far apart. Obama announced the first sanctions against Russia on Thursday. more