Ukraine rejects quick-fire ‘Russification’ of Crimea

Crimea is moving quickly to deepen its split with Ukraine, by taking control of state businesses, making the Russian rouble official currency, announcing plans to switch to Moscow’s time-zone, and telling servicemen in the region to back its pro-Kremlin authorities or leave.

Ukraine and its western allies denounced the moves as illegal, and Kiev’s government insisted its armed forces would remain in Crimea, and stepped up preparations to defend other parts of the country from possible Russian attack.

Independence
After a referendum in which they said 97 per cent of voters supported joining Russia, Crimean deputies declared independence yesterday and requested rule from Moscow, where politicians are preparing legislation to annexe Crimea and give Russian passports to its people.

“All necessary legislative decisions following the results of the referendum will be taken as soon as possible,” said Sergei Neverov, deputy speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament. He said Crimeans want to live in a country “where laws are observed, where rights and freedoms are guaranteed, where the leader is strong, and whose principled position made it possible to restore historic justice”.

Mr Putin has claimed the right to protect Russian-speakers in Ukraine from what he calls “fascists” linked to its new western-backed government, which took power after his ally, president Viktor Yanukovich, fled deadly protests in Kiev last month.

Most of Crimea’s 60 per cent ethnic-Russian majority support a return to Russia, from which the region was transferred to Ukraine – within the Soviet Union – in 1954. But many of Crimea’s ethnic-Ukrainians and Tatars, who together comprise almost 40 per cent of its residents, opposed the referendum, making a turnout figure of 83 per cent very surprising. Crimean Tatar leader Refat Chubarov has accused the region’s authorities of fraud, saying less than 1 per cent of his community actually voted. Ukraine denies its Russian speakers are under threat and accuses Mr Putin of a land grab. Moscow yesterday rejected senior United Nations rights official Ivan Simonovic’s report that there is no evidence of widespread violations against Russians in Ukraine.

As Kiev and the West condemned Crimea’s breakaway as a breach of international law, its leaders yesterday said the Russian rouble would be official currency alongside Ukraine’s hryvnia, and that the region would on March 30th shift to Moscow time – two hours ahead of Kiev.

Allegiance
Crimea's de facto premier, Sergei Aksyonov, said Russia had already offered the equivalent of almost €295 million in aid. Crimea's parliament also backed a decree to seize control of all Ukrainian state institutions and businesses in the province, and told Ukrainian military personnel – who have been trapped in their bases by Russian troops – to swear allegiance to Crimea or leave the peninsula. Kiev flatly rejected such a move, however, and its parliament backed a decree to call up 40,000 army reservists to serve in the military and a new national guard.

Ukrainian defence minister Ihor Tenyukh said: “Our servicemen remain in Crimea and are not going anywhere. Crimea is and will be Ukrainian.” Acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said Ukraine was ready to hold talks with Russia over Crimea’s future, but would “never resign ourselves to the annexation of our land”.

“We will do everything to avoid war and the loss of human lives. We will do everything to solve the conflict through diplomatic means. But the military threat to our state is real,” he said in a sombre television address to the nation.

Kiev says Russian provocateurs are destabilising eastern cities such as Kharkiv and Donetsk, where large Russophone populations are wary of a new government made up of people from western and central Ukraine.