Ukraine faces few options after Crimea breakaway vote

FE Team | Published: March 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Pro-Russian Crimeans celebrate in Sevastopol. —AFP

KIEV, Mar 17 (AFP): Crimeans' decisive choice in favour of Kremlin rule leaves Ukraine's new leaders with few viable ways to reclaim the peninsula but is likely to deepen their budding ties to the West.
The Black Sea region that Moscow gifted to Kiev during the Soviet era but seized back in the days after the February 22 fall of Ukraine's pro-Kremlin regime is now at the heart of the most dramatic East-West showdown since the height of the Cold War.
Sunday's referendum effectively confirms what has already happened in the diamond-shaped cape of two million people-Russian separatists run everything from government buildings and television centres to the mail delivery service.
One option would be piling pressure on Russia in the hope that it could reverse course.
Initial confusion in the West about how best to stand up to the Kremlin's overt show of power has been replaced by a more focused drive that should see Washington and EU leaders unveil painful measures against Putin's closest allies on Monday.
Russia also faces token punishments aimed at blighting its international prestige: its coveted seat among the Group of Eight (G8) powers is in peril and its right to host the 2018 football World Cup is facing a fight from some feisty US senators.
But perhaps the most painful and lasting blow came on Saturday when Russia was abandoned by top ally China during a crunch UN Security Council vote on the Crimean referendum's legitimacy.
But the Western pressure has so far done little to sway Putin and has only seen his ratings hit a two-year high amid a burst in Russia of patriotic pride.
On Sunday the Russian leader told US President Barack Obama that he intended to respect the referendum that in his eyes was fully legal and "in line with the norms of international law and the UN charter."
Its conventional army of 130,000 soldiers-half of them conscripts with ageing equipment-is dwarfed by a 845,000-strong Russian force that has the backup of nuclear arms.