Crimea secession vote underway

People in Crimea are voting in a referendum today to decide whether the region leaves Ukraine to join Russia.

It's expected the region will vote by a wide margin to become part of Russia.

Sunday's vote is taking place several weeks after Russian-led forces took control of Crimea, a predominantly ethnic Russian region. Its residents say they fear the Ukrainian government that took over when pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted last month will oppress them.

On Saturday, Ukrainian officials said Russian forces backed by helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles had advanced about 10 kilometres over the Crimean border into another Ukrainian region, where they took control of a village that holds a natural gas distribution facility.

If the referendum passes, Russia faces the prospect of sanctions from Western nations, but Moscow has vigorously resisted calls to pull back in Crimea.

Since Yanukovych fled to Russia, Crimea has come under control of local militia forces, as well as heavily armed troops under apparent command from Moscow.

Crimea's pro-Russia authorities say that if Ukrainian soldiers resolutely occupying their garrisons don't surrender after Sunday's vote, they will be considered "illegal."

Ukrainian forces 'not going anywhere'

But Ukraine's acting defence minister, Igor Tenyuk, said in an interview published Sunday by the Interfax news agency that "this is our land and we're not going anywhere from this land."

A woman holds a Russian flag as she casts her ballot during the referendum in Bakhchisaray. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

In Sevastopol, the Crimean capital where the Russian Black Sea Fleet is based under a lease agreement with Ukraine, enthusiasm for the referendum was high, with voters lining up outside polling stations before they opened.

"Today is an important day for all Crimea, Ukraine and Russia," said voter Manita Meshchina. "I think that people are expecting the majority of people will vote `yes.' What it means is that people believe and think they need to be with Russia."

The vote has been denounced by Kyiv's Western allies, including Canada, as illegitimate.

"We're watching the situation closely and will respond in close co-ordination with our allies," Jason MacDonald, a spokesman in the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa said in a statement.

There are two questions on the referendum:

• "Do you support reunifying Crimea with Russia as a subject of the Russian Federation?"
• "Do you support the restoration of the 1992 Crimean constitution and the status of Crimea as a part of Ukraine?"

"The ballot actually doesn't give an option to stay in Ukraine," said CBC's Susan Ormiston, reporting from Simferopol in central Crima. "The second option is to vote for an autonomous Crimea ... so the result is almost decidedly clear that this part of Ukraine will vote to go for Russia today."

'I want to go home to Russia.'- 66-year-old voter Vera Sverkunova

This second question refers to a constitution that asserts Crimea is an independent state and not part of Ukraine. Reference to autonomy within Ukraine was inserted at a later date.

In Sevastopol, more than 70 people surged into a polling station within the first 15 minutes of voting.

Speakers blared the city anthem up and down the streets, giving Sevastopol a feeling of a block party.

A Russian naval warship stood blocking the outlet leading from the port to the open Black Sea."Today is a holiday," said one of them, 66-year-old Vera Sverkunova. Asked how she voted, she broke into a patriotic war song: "I want to go home to Russia. It's been so long since I've seen my mama."

Cossacks guard the regional parliament building during the Crimean referendum in Simferopol, Ukraine, Sunday. (Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press)

At a polling station 850097 set up inside a historic school building in downtown Sevastopol, Vladimir Lozovoy, a 75-year-old retired Soviet naval officer, began tearing up as he talked about his vote today. Other voters cried out "Well Done! Hurrah"

"I want to cry. I have finally returned to my motherland. It is an incredible feeling. This is the thing I have been waiting for for 23 years and finally it has happened," he said.

Crimea's large Tatar Muslim minority opposes annexation to Russia.

Referendum a 'tragedy,' says Tatar minority

The referendum "is a clown show, a circus," a leader of the Crimean community, Refat Chubarov, said on Crimea's Tatar television station Sunday. "This is a tragedy, an illegitimate government, with armed forces from another country."

Ayla Bakkalli, a representative for the Indigenous Crimean Tatars World Association In New York City, on Sunday called the referendum a "sham" and "absolutely unacceptable."

About 300,000 Tatars live in Crimea and make up a Turkic ethnic minority of 12 per cent in a region where 58 per cent of the population is ethnic Russian.

Bakkalli told CBC News the Tatars fear a return to the kind of oppression they experienced in the Soviet era.

With the recent shift in political leadership in Kyiv, away from Moscow's influence, Russian soldiers have been marking an X on the doors of Crimean Tatars to identity their homes, she claimed.

Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags were nowhere to seen around the streets of Simferopol; red, white and blue Russian and Crimean flags fluttered around the sidewalks, city buildings and on many cars.

Pro-Russian people fly Crimean flags at a rally in Lenin Square, in Simferopol. (Vadim Ghirda/ Associated Press)

Ethnic Ukrainians interviewed outside the Ukrainian Orthodox cathedral of Vladimir and Olga said they refused to take part in the referendum, calling it an illegal charade that they said was stage managed by Moscow. Some said they were scared of the potential for ethnic cleansing in the coming weeks, like what happened in parts of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

"We're just not going to play these separatist games," said Yevgen Sukhodolsky, a 41-year-old prosecutor from Saki, a town outside of Simferopol. "Putin is the fascist. The Russian government is fascist."

Vasyl Ovcharuk, a retired gas pipe layer who also worked on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, predicted dark days ahead for Crimea.

"This will end up in military action, in which peaceful people will suffer. And that means everybody. Shells and bullets are blind," he said.

At the United Nations, Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution declaring the referendum illegal, and China, its ally, abstained in a sign of Moscow's isolation on the issue.

Supporters of the U.S.-sponsored resolution knew ahead of time that Russia would use its veto on Saturday.

But they put the resolution to a vote to show the strength of opposition in the 15-member U.N. Security Council to Moscow's takeover of Crimea. The final vote was 13 members in favour, China's abstention, and Russia as a permanent council member casting a veto.

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