Crimea votes to secede from Ukraine…. is it an 'illegal' poll?

Referendum shows 93% in favour of joining Russia, as US condemns Kremlin’s ‘dangerous’ escalation

Igor Tenyukh announcing the truce: ‘No measures will be taken against our military facilities in Crimea during that time.’ Photograph: Yury Kirnichny/AFP/Getty Images

Crimea voted to secede from Ukraine on Sunday in a referendum that most of the world has condemned as illegal. Early results – when 50% of the votes were counted – showed that 95.5% of ballots were in favour of joining Russia.

As the results rolled in, they were met with neither surprise nor welcome by the west. Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, underlined the White House’s opposition to the referendum in a statement on Sunday afternoon: “We reject the ‘referendum’ that took place today in the Crimean region of Ukraine. This referendum is contrary to Ukraine’s constitution, and the international community will not recognise the results of a poll administered under threats of violence and intimidation from a Russian military intervention that violates international law.”

Describing Russia’s actions as “dangerous and destabilising”, Carney condemned the Kremlin for escalating the crisis by carrying out “threatening military exercises on Ukraine’s eastern border”, and said its actions would result in “increasing costs”.

Earlier on Sunday, Russia and Ukraine agreed a truce in the region until Friday, Ukraine’s acting defence minister announced, in a move that may ease tension between Moscow and the western-backed government in Kiev. Speaking on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting, Ukraine’s acting defence minister, Ihor Tenyukh, said the deal has been struck with Russia’s Black Sea fleet and the Russian defence ministry. “No measures will be taken against our military facilities in Crimea during that time,” he said. “Our military sites are therefore proceeding with a replenishment of reserves.”

The agreement provides some respite for Ukraine’s beleaguered troops, who have been trapped on their military bases and naval ships since Russian forces began occupying the peninsula on 27 February. They have been encircled ever since, in some cases without electricity. Local residents have smuggled in food to them amid a nervous standoff with the Russian military.

But there seems little doubt that Ukrainian forces will be evicted from Kremlin-controlled Crimea once the truce expires. Crimea’s deputy prime minister, Rustam Temirgaliyev, said on Sunday troops would be given safe passage and predicted that eastern Ukraine would be next to join Russia. “Donetsk, Lugansk, Kharkiv have the same situation, as in Crimea. Seventy-five per cent of people want to join Russia in eastern Ukraine,” he told journalists near the parliament building in Simferopol.There was further turmoil in Donetsk when pro-Russian protesters stormed the prosecutor’s office and removed the Ukrainian flag from the roof raising a Russian flag in its place. Riot police deployed to protect the building made little effort to stop the crowd, which later dispersed.

The government in Kiev has accused Moscow of deliberately stirring up tensions in the east by bringing in professional activists and provocateurs from across the border. In a series of ominous statements, Russia’s foreign ministry has said it may be forced to act to “protect” ethnic Russians – an expression that appears to provide a rationale for future military incursions.

President Vladimir Putin spent Sunday evening at the closing ceremony of the Paralympics in Sochi but was keeping an eye on the Crimea results, his spokesman said. Earlier he had expressed concern about the escalation of tensions in the south and south-eastern regions of Ukraine, Reuters reported.

He blamed the febrile mood on “radical forces” acting with the “connivance of the current Kiev authorities”. The Kremlin refuses to recognise Kiev’s temporary government that it says came to power on the back of a “fascist” coup.

Credit to The Guardian