Thousands of Crimeans celebrated on Sunday the outcome of a referendum that exit polls said overwhelmingly backed the Black Sea peninsula’s split from Ukraine and attachment to Russia, AFP reporters witnessed.
Several thousands gathered in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, waving Russian and Crimean flags, as well as in Sevastopol, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, where chants of “Russia!” accompanied an alcohol-fuelled celebration.
Crimea’s regional government will make a formal application Monday to join the Russian Federation, the local pro-Moscow leader said on Twitter after the disputed referendum.
“The Supreme Soviet of Crimea will make an official application for the republic to join the Russian Federation at a meeting on March 17,” Sergiy Aksyonov said in a tweet.
Ukraine’s new leaders and the West have branded as “illegal” the vote in the strategic Black Sea peninsula that has been under the de facto control of Russian forces for weeks.
US Secretary of State John Kerry demanded that Moscow pull back its forces to their bases in Crimea in return for constitutional reforms in Ukraine to protect minority rights.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would respect the outcome of the referendum, but the European Union condemned the vote and said it would be deciding on sanctions against Russia on Monday.
In Crimea itself, Russian flags were being flown everywhere from city buses to convoys of bikers roaming the streets as thousands of people went to the polls.
“This is a historic moment,” Sergiy Aksyonov, the local pro-Moscow prime minister, told reporters after casting his ballot in the regional capital Simferopol.
Cossacks and pro-Moscow militias were patrolling outside polling stations and Russian troops guarded the unofficial border between Crimea and the rest of Ukraine.
In the flashpoint eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, pro-Russian groups in favour of holding a similar referendum stormed the local security and legal headquarters demanding the release of their self-appointed “governor,” an AFP reporter said.
Ukraine’s new government and most of the international community except Russia have said they will not recognise a result expected to be overwhelmingly in favour of Crimea’s secession.
Kerry told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a phone call that the crisis in Ukraine “can only be resolved politically”, according to a State Department official.
“As Ukrainians take the necessary political measures going forward, Russia must reciprocate by pulling forces back to base, and addressing the tensions and concerns about military engagement,” the official said.
Putin meanwhile told German Chancellor Angela Merkel he would “respect the choice of Crimea’s residents” and accused Ukrainian authorities of fanning tensions in mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov, who last month replaced ousted pro-Kremlin leader Viktor Yanukovych after three months of protests, also accused Russia of fanning tensions in eastern Ukraine as a way of justifying an invasion.
“The result has been pre-planned by the Kremlin as a formal justification to send in its troops and start a war that will destroy people’s lives and the economic prospects for Crimea,” he said.
The European Union said the referendum was “illegal and illegitimate” and again condemned Moscow’s “unprovoked violation” of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Crimea is inhabited mostly by ethnic Russians and was seized by Russian forces after last month’s ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin leader, sparking a dangerous security crisis on Europe’s eastern border.
Some Crimeans said they would spoil their ballots in protest and there was a call on social media for people to cook vareniki — Ukrainian dumplings — instead of going out to vote.
Crimean authorities denied irregularities but accredited journalists including AFP were prevented from entering some polling stations in the port city of Sevastopol and in Simferopol, and several people were seen voting before polls opened.
AFP
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