As Russian flags fluttered in the breeze and retirees grew weepy at the thought of reuniting with Russia, residents of Ukraine’s Crimea region held a secession vote Sunday. The United States and Europe condemned the referendum as illegal, while Ukraine’s new government called it a “circus” directed at gunpoint by Moscow.
The Crimea referendum offered voters on the strategic Black Sea Peninsula the choice of seeking annexation by Russia or remaining in Ukraine with greater autonomy.
Opponents of secession appeared to largely stay away Sunday, denouncing the vote as a cynical power play/land grab by Russia. But turnout was reported to be well above the 50% that would make the referendum binding – and secession was expected to be approved overwhelmingly.
“Today is an important day for all of Crimea, Ukraine and Russia,” voter Manita Meshchina said in Sevastopol, the Crimean port where Russia now leases a major naval base from Ukraine for $98 million a year.
More than 70 people surged into a polling station in the city within the first 15 minutes of voting Sunday.
“Today is a holiday!” said 66-year-old Vera Sverkunova, breaking into a patriotic war song: “I want to go home to Russia. It’s been so long since I’ve seen my mama.”
Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesVotes are cast inside a polling station in Simferopol on March 16, 2014 in Simferopol, Ukraine.
Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesA girl stands outside a polling booth with a Russian flag inside a polling station on March 16, 2014 in Bachchisaray, Ukraine.
A vote backing secession would not only leave Russia facing strong sanctions by the West but could encourage the pro-Russian sentiment that is rising in Ukraine’s east and lead to further divisions in this nation of 46 million. Western Ukraine and the capital of Kyiv are strongly pro-West and Ukrainian nationalist.
The referendum comes two weeks after Russian-led forces seized control of Crimea. Locals say they fear the new Ukrainian government that took over when President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia last month will oppress them.
“It’s like they’re crazy Texans in western Ukraine. Imagine if the Texans suddenly took over power [in Washington] and told everyone they should speak Texan,” said Ilya Khlebanov, a voter in the Crimean capital of Simferopol.
Ukraine’s new prime minister insisted again Sunday that neither Ukraine nor the West will recognize the referendum, which he said was conducted at gunpoint.
“Now, on the territory of the autonomous republic of Crimea under the stage direction of the Russian Federation, a circus performance is underway: the so-called referendum,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a government meeting. “Also taking part in the performance are 21,000 Russian troops, who with their guns are trying to prove the legality of the referendum.”
Russia raised the stakes Saturday when its forces, backed by helicopter gunships and armored vehicles, took control of the Ukrainian village of Strilkove and a key natural gas distribution plant nearby- the first Russian military move into Ukraine beyond the Crimean peninsula of 2 million people. The Russian forces later returned the village but kept control of the gas plant.
On Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers were digging trenches and erecting barricades between the village and the gas plant.
“We will not let them advance further into Ukrainian territory,” said Serhiy Kuz, commander of a Ukrainian paratrooper battalion.
Despite the sanctions threat, Russian President Vladimir Putin has vigorously resisted calls to pull back in Crimea. At the United Nations on Saturday, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution declaring the referendum illegal. China, its ally, abstained and 13 of the 15 other nations on the council voted in favor – a signal of Moscow’s isolation.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Putin by phone Sunday, proposing that an international observer mission in Ukraine be expanded quickly as tensions rise in the east. Her spokesman said she also condemned the Russian seizure of the gas plant.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke and agreed to support constitutional reforms in Ukraine that could ease the tensions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
AP Photo/Andrey BasevichPro-Russia demonstrators storm the Security Service building during a rally in Donetsk, Ukraine, Sunday, March 16, 2014. Pro-Russia demonstrators in the eastern city of Donetsk called Sunday for a referendum similar to the one in Crimea as some of them stormed the prosecutor-general's office.
Ukraine’s Regional Policy Minister Volodymyr Groisman told The Associated Press that the new government was already working on giving towns and regions more autonomy but said there were no plans to turn Ukraine into a federation.
In Donetsk, one of the main cities in eastern Ukraine, pro-Russia demonstrators called Sunday for a referendum similar to the one in Crimea and some of them stormed the prosecutor-general’s office.
In Sevastopol, speakers blared the city anthem up and down the streets, giving off a block-party feeling. But the military threat was not far away – a Russian naval warship still blocked the port’s outlet to the Black Sea, trapping Ukrainian boats.
Alexander KHUDOTEPLY/AFP/Getty ImagesPro-Russian supporters dance as they celebrate in Sevastopol on March 16, 2014. Crimeans voted Sunday in a referendum to join Russia as tensions escalated in eastern Ukraine in the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.
At a polling station inside a historic school, tears came to Vladimir Lozovoy, a 75-year-old retired Soviet naval officer, as he talked about his vote.
“I want to cry. I have finally returned to my motherland. It is an incredible feeling. This is the thing I have been waiting for for 23 years,” he said.
But Crimea’s large Muslim Tatar minority – whose families had been forcibly removed from their homeland and sent to Central Asia during Soviet times – remained defiant.
Vasiliy BATANOV/AFP/Getty ImagesA woman holds a Russian flag as she casts her ballot in one of the polling stations in Sevastopol on March 16, 2014.
The Crimea referendum “is a clown show, a circus,” Tatar activist Refat Chubarov said on Crimea’s Tatar television station. “This is a tragedy, an illegitimate government with armed forces from another country.”
The fate of Ukrainian soldiers trapped in their Crimean bases by pro-Russian forces was still uncertain. Crimea’s pro-Russian authorities have said if those soldiers don’t surrender after Sunday’s vote, they will be considered “illegal.”
“This is our land and we’re not going anywhere from this land,” Ukraine’s acting defense minister, Igor Tenyuk, was quoted as saying Sunday by the Interfax news agency.
But Tenyuk later said an agreement had been reached with Russia that its forces would not block Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea through Friday. It was not clear exactly what that meant.
On the streets of Simferopol, blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags were nowhere to seen but red, white and blue Russian and Crimean flags fluttered in abundance.
Ethnic Ukrainians interviewed outside the Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral of Vladimir and Olga said they refused to take part in the referendum, calling it an illegal charade stage-managed by Moscow. Some said they were scared of the potential for widespread discrimination and harassment in the coming weeks, similar to what happened in parts of nearby Georgia, another former Soviet republic, after its 2008 war with Russia.
“We’re just not going to play these separatist games,” said Yevgen Sukhodolsky, a 41-year-old prosecutor from Saki, a town outside Simferopol. “Putin is the fascist. The Russian government is fascist.”
Vasyl Ovcharuk, a retired gas pipe layer who worked at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, predicted dark days ahead for Crimea.
“This will end up in military action, in which peaceful people will suffer. And that means everybody. Shells and bullets are blind,” he said.
AP Photo/Ivan SekretarevAn unidentified man waves a Ukrainian national flag as he is blocked by a bodyguard of the head of Crimea's unrecognised Russian-backed government Sergei Aksyonov, left, at a polling station in Simferopol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 16, 2014.
AP Photo/Vadim GhirdaAn Ukrainian policeman exits a voting booth after casting his vote in Perevalne, Ukraine, Sunday, March 16, 2014.
ALEXEY KRAVTSOV/AFP/Getty ImagesA Russian troops stands guard in front of an APC at a check-point in Crimea, near the town of Armyansk on March 16, 2014 as Crimeans took to the polls for a referendum on breaking away from Ukraine to join Russia that has precipitated a Cold War-style security crisis on Europe's eastern frontier.
Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesArmed soldiers without identifying insignia keep guard outside of a Ukrainian military base in the town of Perevevalne near the Crimean city of Simferopol on March 16, 2014 in Perevevalne, Ukraine.
DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty ImagesA woman casts her vote at a polling station in Bakhchysarai on March 16, 2014.
FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty ImagesMotorcyclists bearing the Russian and Crimean flags pass by Simferopol's Lenin Square on March 16, 2014.
PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP/Getty ImagesA demonstrator holds a placard reading "World- your support is our lives" during a protest against Russia's intervention in Ukraine and the referendum in Crimea in front of the Russian embassy in Vilnius, on March 16, 2014.
Alexander KHUDOTEPLY/AFP/Getty ImagesPro-Russian activists hold giant Russian flags during their rally in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on March 16, 2014.
Alexander KHUDOTEPLY/AFP/Getty ImagesPro-Russian activists shout slogans during their rally in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on March 16, 2014.
YURY KIRNICHNY/AFP/Getty ImagesForeigners living in Ukraine hold flags of their countries during a rally on Independence Square in Kiev on March 16, 2014, to support Crimea's status as part of Ukraine.
ALEXEY KRAVTSOV/AFP/Getty ImagesCars are stopped at a Russian check-point in the town of Armyansk, in Crimea on March 16, 2014 as Crimeans took to the polls for a referendum on breaking away from Ukraine to join Russia that has precipitated a Cold War-style security crisis on Europe's eastern frontier.