Google – AFP, Lilia Budhurova (AFP), 6 March 2014
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A member of
the Russian forces stands guard by a Ukrainian Navy emblem
painted on a wall
outside the Ukrainian base in Perevalnoye, near Simferopol,
blocked by Russian
troops on March 6, 2014 (AFP, Genya Savilov)
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Simferopol
— Crimea's pro-Russian parliament voted Thursday to have the tense Ukrainian
region secede and join Russia, triggering fury in Kiev while the EU warned of
harsh sanctions on Moscow if it kept refusing the path of dialogue.
A decision
by Crimea's local legislative assembly to call a March 16
"referendum" in the tense peninsula on joining the Russian Federation
was dismissed as illegitimate by Ukraine's interim government, the European
Union and the United States.
However,
with Russian forces in effective control of Crimea -- which is home to an
ethnic Russian majority -- the secession move ratcheted up the stakes in a
crisis that is already Europe's worst security emergency in the post-Cold War
era.
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A
Pro-Russian activist holds the Russian
flag during a rally in Simferopol on
March
6, 2014 (AFP, Genya Savilov)
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The
pro-West, interim administration in Kiev -- brought to power on the back of
three months of protests that claimed nearly 100 lives -- immediately took
steps to disband Crimea's parliament. Interim president Oleksandr Turchynov
said the Crimea legislators' decision was a "crime" inspired by the
Kremlin.
US
President Barack Obama warned the proposed referendum in Crimea would violate
Ukranian sovereignty and international law. He said the US and its allies were
united against Russia's incursion into Ukraine, but said a diplomatic solution
to the standoff remained possible.
US
Secretary of State John Kerry, after holding talks in Rome with his Russian
counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, laid the blame for the escalation of the crisis on
Russia.
The United
States slapped visa bans on Russians and Ukrainians it held responsible for
destabilising both Ukraine and security across Europe as a whole.
EU leaders
holding a summit in Brussels took political measures -- but not economic
sanctions -- against Russia over its use of force in its western neighbour
following the February 22 ouster of Kiev's pro-Moscow leadership.
Ukraine's
interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk made an impassioned appeal in Brussels
for EU states and the United States to rise to his nation's defence in the face
of what he called an unfolding Russian aggression.
"We
still believe we can solve in peaceful manner but in case of further escalation
and military intervention into Ukraine territory by foreign forces, Ukranian
government and military will act in accordance with the constitution and laws.
We are ready to protect our country," he said.
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Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L)
and US Secretary of State John Kerry meet
to discuss the Ukraine crisis on the sidelines
of an International conference on Libya in
Rome on March 6, 2014 (Pool/AFP,
Kevin Lamarque)
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Yatsenyuk
conceded that Ukraine's forces were dwarfed by the Russian army but stressed
that his country's troops had the "spirit" to defend themselves in
the face of a Russian threat.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin for his part on Thursday chaired an unscheduled
meeting of his national Security Council to discuss the latest developments but
issued no further comment.
- US, EU
sanction Russia -
The United
States ramped up the pressure on the Kremlin by slapping visa bans on Russians
and Ukrainians it blames for destabilising peace and stability both in Ukraine
and Europe as a whole.
It was the
latest in a series of moves by the US administration to punish Moscow for what
the White House denounced as "Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's
sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Obama also
authorised freezing the assets of officials and individuals involved in
ordering Russia's military manuevers in Crimea.
European
leaders -- split between hawkish Eastern European states and big Western
European powers that want to limit the damage to their economic relations with
Russia because of their reliance on its natural gas -- reiterated a commitment
to sign an association accord with Ukraine before it holds snap presidential
polls on May 25.
EU
president Herman Van Rompuy said the 28-nation bloc "decided that as a
matter of priority we will sign (the agreement) very shortly."
"This
means before the Ukrainian elections of 25 May."
Ousted
Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych's decision to ditch the pact in November
in favour of closer ties with Russia sparked the initial wave of protests in
Kiev that led to his regime's downfall and rise of new pro-EU rulers.
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Ukrainian riot police stand guard outside
the regional state administration building in
Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, after they
regained control of it on March 6, 2014
(AFP, Alexander Khudoteply)
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EU leaders
also adopted a statement demanding that Russia enter into negotiations in the
next few days. The talks need to "produce results within a limited
timeframe," said the statement.
"In
the absence of such results the European Union will decide on additional
measures, such as travel bans, asset freezes and the cancellation of the EU-Russia
summit" in June.
Rompuy
dubbed the Ukraine crisis as "perhaps the most serious challenge to
security on our continent since the Balkans wars" in the 1990s.
- Putin
'will scare tourists' -
The
epicentre of the crisis has been Crimea -- a rugged region seized by Russia in
the 18th century and annexed to Ukraine in Soviet times as a "gift"
in 1954.
It has been
the home of Russian navies since the 18th century and has in the past two
decades enjoy more autonomy from Kiev than any other part of Ukraine.
Russian
forces have surrounded Ukrainian military bases in Crimea since last weekend
and on Thursday even scuttled an old warship at the entrance of a lagoon,
trapping Ukrainian navy vessels.
Nervous
soldiers stood their ground inside besieged Ukrainian bases. Most to surrender
to or hand over their weapons.
But they
also seemed ill-prepared to hold off an all-out Russian assault if it came.
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Ukrainian
soldiers stand guard at their
air base in Belbek, not far from Sevastopol
on
March 6, 2014 (AFP, Viktor Drachev)
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"It's
extremely tense and I consider it a miracle that bloodshed has been avoided so
far," the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Crimean
envoy Tim Guldimann said in Kiev after returning from the peninsula.
Guldimann
said he cut short his visit after UN special envoy to Crimea Robert Serry was
forced to leave on Wednesday upon being confronted by gunmen who said they had
orders to take him to the airport.
Serry took
the first flight out of the region -- to Istanbul -- but returned to Kiev on
Thursday.
Violent
protests have also broken out in cities in mainly Russian-speaking eastern
Ukraine such as Donetsk -- the regional stronghold of the ousted Yanukovych --
where government offices
The Donetsk
regional administration building has been raided repeatedly since Wednesday by
pro-Moscow and pro-Kiev crowds. It flew the Ukrainian flag on Thursday evening
after the Russian-tri colour put up only hours earlier had been taken down.
Putin has
condemned the changeover of power in Kiev as "an unconstitutional
coup" but said a full-scale military intervention in Ukraine would be a
"last resort".
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Map showing
ethnic proportions of Crimean population (AFP)
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