The self-proclaimed leaders of
the self-declared People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk have
announced themselves victorious in referendums to secede from
Ukraine. The United States, the Ukrainian central government, among
many others say the vote has the legal weight and legitimacy of a
Burger King paper crown.
Separatists last night
tallied that Donetsk had 89 percent voting in favor of
secession. This morning, Luhansk insurgents claimed 96 percent in
favor. Both regions reported that voter turnout was about 75
percent.
This contrasts with the most recent nationwide Pew poll, which
showed that a
70 percent majority of easterners want Ukraine to remain
united. The Wall Street Journal
reported that “one Donetsk electoral official, Mikhail
Samolenko, said Sunday there were no real safeguards to keep people
from voting several times. But that didn’t matter, he said,
‘because everyone is voting yes’ for independence.” A Daily
Beast reporter on the ground
described bumps in the road like “thuggish intimidation, the
abductions and murder of opponents, multiple voting, pre-filled
ballot papers, adding names to an incomplete electoral roll and
allowing anyone who turned up at a polling station with a Ukrainian
passport in hand to cast a ballot.” CNN noted
similar issues.
The State Department anticipated that the separatists’ vote
would “violate international law and the territorial integrity of
Ukraine” and said that “the United States will not recognize the
results of these illegal referenda.”
Ukraine’s interim president called the vote a “farce” that had
far lower turnout than reported and “will not have any legal
consequences except for the prosecution of its
organizers.”
Andrey Zubov, a prominent Russian historian and political
scientist,
stated that “from the legal point of view, these referendums
mean absolutely nothing. There is no doubt that they were
falsified.” France, Great Britain, and Poland have
also condemned the
vote as fraudulent.
The persistent question with the violence-plagued Ukraine is,
what happens next?
Despite its tough rhetoric, the Ukrainian government will
participate in a “round table” discussion with “civil groups” this
Wendesday,
according to Reuters.
Although local militant leader Denis Pushilin has previously
disavowed any connection to or interest in Moscow, he did a 180
today. “We ask the Russian Federation to consider the absorption of
the Donetsk People’s Republic into the Russian Federation,”
Pushilin
said. He added that “it is necessary to form state bodies and
military authorities as soon as possible” and that voting in
Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election will be
prohibited in the breakaway regions.
The Russian government
said it “respects the expression of will of the population of
Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” but has yet to act on that.
The European Union will “impose sanctions impose sanctions
against 13 additional individuals and two companies,”
according to Radio Free Europe, “the first time the
E.U. has targeted companies.” So far, the success of E.U. sanctions
against Russia has been
questionable.
The State Department, which has criticized Russian President
Vladimir Putin for not removing troops from the Ukrainian border as
he claimed to last week, is sending
Under Secretary Richard Stengel today to help prepare for the
upcoming presidential election.
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