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Ukraine Authorities Dismiss Referendums as ‘Farce’ Russia Stops Short of Recognizing East Ukraine Secession Vote
(about 2 hours later)
DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, dismissed the weekend referendums held by separatists in the country’s restive east, saying on Monday that they were “a farce” with no legal basis, as the European Union prepared to announce a relatively modest tightening of sanctions against Moscow and its allies. MOSCOW — The Russian government stopped short on Monday of outright recognition of the contentious referendums carried out by separatists in two Russian-speaking provinces of southeastern Ukraine, instead using the results to intensify pressure for some kind of negotiated autonomy for those provinces.
The Kremlin said in a statement that Russia “respects the will of the population” in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces in eastern Ukraine that participated on Sunday in chaotic ballots offering them a question about self-rule. But the statement appeared to leave open the possibility of dialogue and mediation to resolve the crisis, stopping short of outright recognition of the contentious and disputed vote, which has seemed to further cement divisions between Ukrainians and their Russian-speaking compatriots. While the separatists declared that the voting on Sunday showed overwhelming support for autonomy, Russia avoided any suggestion that it would use the results in the same way it used the Crimean Peninsula referendum in March. Within 48 hours of the Crimea vote, President Vladimir V. Putin gave a speech from the Kremlin declaring that Russia would annex Crimea, which was once part of Russia.
The ballots left the destiny of the east — Ukraine’s industrial heartland — unclear, with armed forces loyal to the interim government in Kiev and pro-Russian militants locked in a tense standoff that has sometimes overflowed into gunfire. It also remained uncertain whether the two provinces would follow Crimea in seeking to be annexed by Russia. This time, the Kremlin issued a statement saying only that it “respects the will of the population of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” and that the outcome should be reached through dialogue between representatives of the easterners and of the national government in Kiev, according to a translation provided by the Interfax news agency.
In Donetsk, the chairman of the central election committee of the separatist government, Roman Lyagin, said the preliminary results showed that “about 90 percent” of voters supported regional autonomy, but he added that a final count would take about a week because of difficulties in collecting ballots. The preliminary count, he told journalists, showed 89.07 percent in favor of self-rule and 10.19 percent opposed, while just under 1 percent of the ballots were filled out incorrectly or damaged. The Russian government did not even say that it recognized the results of the voting, which the authorities in Kiev and their Western supporters all declared illegal from the start.
In Luhansk, a deputy director of the election committee told the Russian news agency Interfax that 95.98 percent of voters wanted self-rule for the region and that turnout was 81 percent. Russia stated its position as the European Union intensified efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine and to allow a presidential election scheduled for May 25 to proceed, with Russian agreement.
It was unclear how the turnout figures were calculated. In polling stations in the town of Slovyansk in the Donetsk region, officials worked off voting lists. At several sites in the city of Donetsk and in towns to the west, however, they did not use voting lists, instead allowing anybody with identity papers to cast a ballot, so it was unclear how many registered voters they had expected and how they could compare that with the actual turnout. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany said he would travel to Kiev and then to Paris on Tuesday.
Opponents of autonomy and separatism appeared to be staying away from the polls. A veteran German diplomat, Wolfgang Ischinger, will act for the international group that is trying to mediate in the crisis, the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
In Kiev, Mr. Turchynov issued a statement on Monday calling the ballots a “propaganda farce,” news reports said, “with no legal consequences except the criminal responsibility” of those who had organized the ballots. The current chairman of that group, Didier Burkhalter, the president of Switzerland, who met with Mr. Putin last week, told European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday about a “road map” meant to lead to a peaceful resolution.
But he repeated that he was ready to “continue dialogue with those in the east of Ukraine, who have no blood on their hands and who are ready to defend their goals in a legitimate way,” Agence France-Presse reported. “We have reached a pivotal moment in this crisis, both for Ukraine and for Europe,” Mr. Burkhalter said, according to a text provided by the group. “The window of opportunity is likely to be short.”
“We have publicly called for political dialogue,” Sergiy Pashinskiy, Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff, said in an interview on the Russian television station Rain. He added that the first event would be held on Wednesday, in Kiev, and would include university rectors, mayors and leading public intellectuals. Mr. Burkhalter has been circulating among European capitals, including Moscow, to discuss how mediation might work. The O.S.C.E. is the conduit because it includes both the European Union’s member states and those of the former Soviet Union, including Russia and Ukraine.
Mr. Pashinksiy said that the dialogue would not focus only on eastern Ukraine. “I stress that this is not for Donetsk and Luhansk,” he said, referring to two of the major cities under siege in recent weeks. “This is for the entire country.” According to early results from eastern Ukraine, 89 percent of voters in the Donetsk region and 97.5 percent in neighboring Luhansk voted for greater autonomy, but it remained uncertain whether the two provinces would follow the Crimean Peninsula in seeking to be annexed by Russia. Opponents of autonomy and separatism appeared to stay away from the polls.
The Kremlin statement went on to repeat the position that Mr. Putin outlined in a speech last Wednesday, which basically called for a negotiated settlement. “In the interests of establishing such a dialogue, all mediation efforts will be welcome, including by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” the Kremlin statement read.
In Kiev, Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, dismissed the voting in the east as an illegal sham. He issued a statement calling the ballots a “propaganda farce,” news reports said, “with no legal consequences except the criminal responsibility” of the organizers.
But Mr. Turchynov repeated that he was ready to “continue dialogue with those in the east of Ukraine, who have no blood on their hands and who are ready to defend their goals in a legitimate way,” Agence France-Press reported.
At a Moscow news conference, Sergey V. Lavrov, the foreign minister, said the time was over for additional talks between Russia, the United States, the European Union and Kiev about how to emerge from the crisis. That had to be negotiated now by the Ukrainians themselves, Mr. Lavrov said.
With the overthrow of President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine in February, Russia lost its main ally in Kiev, and it has not warmed to any of the presidential candidates running in elections scheduled for May 25. Instead, it has pushed for “federalization,” which many interpret as keeping the southeastern portions of the country within Moscow’s orbit.
This would prevent Ukraine from getting too close to Europe — the rejection of an association agreement with the European Union set off the uprising in Kiev last fall — and certainly from joining NATO.
“The referendum is seen in Moscow not as a quasi-legitimate basis or reason to raise questions about secession from Ukraine,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a foreign policy review. “Rather it is seen as an instrument to force other parties of the conflict to accept the People’s Republic as part of the negotiations.”
The separatists in eastern Ukraine, who have seized government buildings in about a dozen cities and towns, styled themselves the People’s Republic of Donetsk. The heavily industrialized southeast has long been a bastion of support for Russia.
While Russia seems to have thrown its weight behind negotiations rather than intervention, given the growing level of violence in the region, it remained possible that bloodshed would derail a negotiated compromise.
Kiev has said it will not negotiate with the “terrorists” who seized buildings using arms and organized the referendum, and that it will start such discussions only after the forces relinquish the buildings. The separatists in turn said they would not talk to members of the government in Kiev, whom they describe as “fascists” and “neo-Nazis,” until all the armed forces dispatched to the east were withdrawn.
Kiev accuses Russia of organizing the secessionist movement in the east, which it denies. Russia accuses the entire Kiev government of supporting Right Sector, a fervently anti-Russian group whose ideology is drawn partly from a nationalist party that at one time collaborated briefly with the Nazis against the Soviet Army during World War II.
With the referendum out of the way, attention is now focused on the May 25 presidential elections. Although Russia was initially adamantly opposed, Mr. Putin softened his stance last Wednesday.
Many now see the elections as a chance for Ukraine to start over with a new political leadership that could use its mandate to forge a compromise between the demands of the various regions.
“The optimal scenario is that step by step, despite current very different positions, they will move to real nationwide reconciliation talks,” Mr. Lukyanov said.
But Russian intervention is still possible, he noted, if the authorities in Ukraine try to crush the separatist movement by force.
Western countries have backed the Kiev authorities in rejecting the outcome of the ballots, which could offer Moscow a pretext to fulfill its pledge to protect Ukraine’s Russian speakers.Western countries have backed the Kiev authorities in rejecting the outcome of the ballots, which could offer Moscow a pretext to fulfill its pledge to protect Ukraine’s Russian speakers.
In Brussels, where the 28-nation European Union has previously announced asset freezes intended to show its disapproval of Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis, foreign ministers planned to announce a modest tightening of the sanctions, slightly widening the scope of asset freezes to include some companies as well as individuals.In Brussels, where the 28-nation European Union has previously announced asset freezes intended to show its disapproval of Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis, foreign ministers planned to announce a modest tightening of the sanctions, slightly widening the scope of asset freezes to include some companies as well as individuals.
But analysts said there would most likely be no move toward more serious sanctions against whole sectors of the Russian economy.But analysts said there would most likely be no move toward more serious sanctions against whole sectors of the Russian economy.
According to Interfax, the statement from the Kremlin said, “Moscow respects the will of the population of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and hopes that the practical implementation of the outcome of the referendums will proceed along civilized lines, without repeat outbreaks of violence and through dialogue between representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Luhansk.”
“In the interests of establishing such a dialogue, all mediation efforts will be welcome, including by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” the statement from the Kremlin added.
Speaking in Brussels, William Hague, the British foreign secretary, said of the votes in eastern Ukraine: “These attempts at referendums have zero credibility in the eyes of the world. They are illegal by anybody’s standards.”
He declined to be drawn on the specific measures that he and other European Union foreign ministers planned to take on Monday.