Crimea Asks to Join Russia, Kiev Moves to Dissolve Region Assembly as EU Readies Moscow Sanctions

Pro-Moscow authorities in Crimea on Thursday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to examine a request for their region to join the Russian Federation, which will be put to a referendum on March 16.

"The parliament of Crimea has adopted a motion for Crimea to join Russia. It has asked the Russian president and parliament to consider this request," Grigoriy Ioffe, a senior lawmaker, told AFP.

A closed-door session of parliament also set a referendum for March 16 that will ask residents whether they want their region to "become part of Russia as a subject of the federation", Ioffe said.

Crimea is an autonomous republic of Ukraine that has fallen under the control of Russian forces in recent days following the ouster in Kiev of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych, who has fled to Russia.

Ioffe said the second question on the referendum would be whether Crimea should return to the wide autonomy it enjoyed under a previous 1992 constitution, which gave it de facto independence.

Seventy-eight out of 86 lawmakers in the local parliament voted in favor of the motions.

Crimea is home to Russia's Black Sea fleet and had been part of Russia since the late 18th century, before Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred it to Ukraine as a "gift" in 1954.

The move was largely meaningless during Soviet times, as both Ukraine and Russia were republics in the Soviet Union.

Any referendum in Crimea to join Russia without the involvement of the Ukrainian government in Kiev would violate international law, U.S. officials said Thursday.

"It is the belief of the United States that decisions about Crimea or any part of Ukraine needs to be made with the government in Kiev," a U.S. official told reporters.

"This is a country with clearly defined borders and ultimately only the people of Ukraine can make determinations about their political future," the senior U.S. administration official said.

"You can't have a situation in which the legitimate government of the country is excluded from decision-making about different parts of that country. That is clearly a violation of international law."

Ukraine's interim leaders had "to be at the table" on any discussions going forward, the official added.

Washington would continue to "insist on the integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine" as a whole, the U.S. official continued.

Ukraine's Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk later dubbed as "illegitimate" the local parliament's request for Crimea to become part of Russia.

"This is an illegitimate decision," Yatsenyuk told reporters after talks with European Union heads of state and government.

"We urge the Russian government not to support those who advocate separatism," he added.

The referendum, brought forward from a planned March 30 date, will also ask if residents want to a return to a previous 1992 constitution that gave the region sweeping autonomy.

"Crimea is and will be an integral part of Ukraine," Yatsenyuk said. "This so-called referendum has no grounds at all."

Later on Thursday, Europe's leaders sharply condemned Russia's stand on Ukraine and warned it was readying targeted sanctions within days if Moscow failed to back off and join peace efforts.

Winding up six hours of tough talks to decide a joint response, the European Union's 28 leaders agreed a three-step series of sanctions beginning with the immediate halt of talks on easing visas for Russians as well as discussions over a new economic accord.

A statement demanded that Russia begin negotiations with Ukraine in the next few days, which must "produce results within a limited timeframe," it said.

"In the absence of such results the European Union will decide on additional measures, such as travel bans, asset freezes and the cancellation of the EU-Russia summit" in June.

In a third stage, any steps by Russia "to destabilize the situation in Ukraine would lead to severe and far-reaching consequences for relations... which will include a broad range of economic areas."

"We have got to make sure we get Russia and Ukraine talking to each other," said British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"The Russians will be able to see very clearly the consequences," said Cameron, adding that Britain for its part would look at reviewing its arms sales to Russia.

"I would urge others to do the same," he added. "No area should be off the table."

Ukraine's interim premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk was present at the talks to discuss what EU president Herman Van Rompuy dubbed "perhaps the most serious challenge to security on our continent since the Balkans wars" in the 1990s.

Europe's leaders praised Yatsenyuk and his government for their "measured response" to Moscow's military threat and pledged to unlock a huge aid package of 11 billion euros as rapidly as possible

They also pledged to sign an association accord with Ukraine before the ex-Soviet state holds early elections at the end of May, despite earlier reservations on striking any deals with the interim authorities.

It was the sudden rejection of this pact, years in the making, by ousted president Viktor Yanukovych that triggered pro-EU protests that eventually swept him from power last month.

EU nations have been divided on how to respond to Russia's stand on Ukraine, with members from eastern Europe once in the Soviet sphere far tougher than France and Germany, mindful of economic ties with Russia.

When Europe's G8 members, Britain, France, Germany and Italy agreed to suspend preparations for a June summit to be hosted by Putin in Sochi, Berlin and Rome had to be prodded to go along.

"We can't do business as usual," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on arrival.

"There has to be a return to international law, and that means securing the territorial integrity of every country."

Agreeing with Ukraine's interim Prime Minister, the leaders also dubbed as "illegitimate" a request Thursday by the local parliament in Crimea to become part of Russia.

French President Francois Hollande said the developments in Crimea had created "a climate that justified us beefing up our level of response."

Leaders of the EU's four G8 nations first met alone with Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, who has been a strong proponent of a harsher response.

Alongside Poland is Lithuania, whose head of state Dalia Grybauskaite warned that a "dangerous" Russia is trying to redraw Europe's borders.

"Russia today is dangerous. Russia today is unpredictable."

Warning of a domino effect, Grybauskaite said Russia's muscular approach in Ukraine now posed a direct threat to former Soviet states and others.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's parliament began a procedure to dissolve the regional assembly in Crimea after it asked to join Russia, Ukraine's interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said Thursday.

"The Rada (parliament in Kiev) will begin the procedure for dissolution," Turchynov said.

Turchynov, speaking in a televised address, also slammed the Crimea legislators' decision as a "crime" backed by the Russian military.

New PM Yatsenyuk and former Ukrainian boxer turned politician Vitali Klitschko had variously described the referendum move on Thursday as "an illegitimate decision" and a "huge provocation against Ukraine."

For its part, Canada said it will not recognize Crimea's referendum to join Russia as long as Moscow maintains a military stranglehold on the Ukrainian region.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is an act of aggression, a clear violation of Ukraine's sovereignty, and of international law," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement.

"Canada will not recognize a referendum held in a region currently under illegal military occupation."

Earlier, Ukrainian police seized control of regional government offices in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, a day after they were taken over by pro-Russian militants who planted a Russian flag on the roof following clashes in the city.

A local police source told AFP that 75 people were arrested in the assault but denied reports that one of the detainees was the self-declared "people's governor" of the region Pavel Gubarev, who is being investigated for separatism.

Later on Thursday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe confirmed Thursday that its military observers have been preventing from entering Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula Crimea.

"We can now confirm that the military verification/observers were indeed prevented from entering Crimean territory," spokeswoman Natacha Rajakovic said.

Earlier a Western diplomatic source told AFP that gunmen were preventing the team of 40 military observers from 21 of the organization's 57 members from entering Crimea.

"They are stuck but they are not turning back. They are not being allowed in by two groups of armed people -- very professional, very well-trained," the source said.

The source added that the standoff began at around 1100 GMT and quoted the gunmen as saying "they were told not to let in a group but they were not sure if this was the one".

The unarmed observer mission is aimed at defusing tensions in Crimea, which was taken over by Russian forces over the weekend.