Parliament in Crimea has declared its independence formally from Ukraine and has asked to become a part of the Russian Federation.
This follows the controversial referendum from Sunday in which officials said overwhelmingly backed the succession from Ukraine.
The central government in Kiev said it would not recognize Sunday’s results. The EU and U.S. said the vote was not legal and vowed to impose numerous sanctions on Moscow.
The Crimean peninsula since the latter part of February has been under control of forces that are pro-Russia.
The EU will, going forward, have a review of whether it is dependent too much on energy from Russia.
This week the EU challenge is to show unity and resolve. Any obvious divisions would be exploited by Russia. The EU resolve would be delivering on the sanctions that have been warned about.
This crisis has come on the heels of the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych who was pro-Moscow.
His decision rejecting the trade deal that had been long-awaited with the EU in favor of better and closer relations with Moscow, sparked street protests for months, which culminated in clashes that were deadly.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk the interim Prime Minister of Ukraine called the vote on Sunday a circus performance supported by Russian troops that reached 21,000, who with guns are attempting to prove the referendum’s legality.
The vote had been boycotted by many amongst the minority in Crimea, the Tatars and Ukrainians who are only about one third of the peninsula’s population.
At the same time, the government in Kiev formally approved the mobilization of 40,000 reservists.
The National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy said that the incidents in Crimea were blatant aggression and that mobilization would prevent action of a similar kind in the southeastern part of Ukraine, which has had rallies that were pro-Moscow lately.
On Monday, according to the Crimea parliament vote, the laws of Ukraine no longer are applicable in the region and that all state property of Ukraine is now part of the independent Crimea.
Roxanne Briean
Latest posts by Roxanne Briean (see all)
- Former Virginia Tech Freshman Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison for Stabbing a Girl to Death - June 28, 2018
- San Francisco Woman Threatened to Call Police on Girl Who Sold Ice Water for Disneyland Trip - June 25, 2018
- Epping Woman Sentence to 20 Years of Prison for Mutilating Homeless Woman’s Children - June 12, 2018