KHARKIV, Mar 15, (AFP): Ukraine braced on Saturday for a breakaway vote in Crimea as deadly violence flared again in the ex-Soviet country's tinderbox east amid the biggest East-West showdown since the Cold War.
The second successive day of deadly unrest that has now claimed three lives in the mainly Russian-speaking east came hours after Moscow-its forces already in control of Crimea and conducting snap drills at Ukraine's eastern border-warned that it reserved the right to "protect" compatriots throughout its neighbour.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had on Friday failed to either avert Sunday's ballot in Crimea or win Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's assurance that Moscow may delay annexing the Black Sea region that Ukraine only received as a "gift" from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954.
The rugged peninsula of two million mostly Russian speakers is widely expected to vote to split from Ukraine and join Russia after its lawmakers declared independence from Kiev earlier this month.
The referendum comes in direct response to three months of deadly protests that on February 22 toppled the pro-Kremlin president and brought to power a new nationalist European-leaning team in Kiev, infuriating Moscow that views Ukraine as its strategic sphere of influence and wants to retain influence over its former Soviet satelite.
Kiev has denounced the Crimean vote as illegal but is also warily watching as similar separatist sentiments are being fanned by Moscow supporters in other industrial regions in mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, which has deep cultural and trade ties to Russia.
Two Ukrainians killed on eve of Crimea breakaway vote
FE Team | Published: March 16, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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