Ukraine crisis: Russia isolated in UN Crimea vote

BBC News online -- 15 March 2014

Many people in Crimea have been holding pro-Russia rallies, before Sunday's referendum

Russia has vetoed a draft UN resolution criticising Sunday's secession referendum in Ukraine's Crimea region - the only Security Council member to vote against the measure.

China, regarded as a Russian ally on the issue, abstained from the vote.

Western powers criticised Russia's veto over the referendum, which will ask Crimeans if they want to rejoin Russia.

Meanwhile, Kiev has accused Russian forces of seizing a village just north of Crimea and demands they withdraw.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said 80 military personnel had taken the village Strilkove with the support of four helicopter gunships and three armoured combat machines.

An unnamed Russian official quoted by Pravda-Ukraine said they had taken action to protect a gas distribution station from "terrorist attacks".

Russia's envoy told the Security Council he would vote against the resolution

Russia intervened in the Crimean peninsula after the fall of Ukraine's pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych on 22 February.

Mr Yanukovych had sparked months of unrest across Ukraine by pulling out of a deal on closer ties with the European Union, and later opting for closer ties with Russia.

Crisis timeline

• 21 Nov 2013: President Viktor Yanukovych abandons deal on closer ties with EU in favour of closer co-operation with Russia
• Dec: Pro-EU protesters occupy Kiev city hall and Independence Square
• 20 Feb 2014: At least 88 people killed in 48 hours of bloodshed in Kiev
• 21 Feb: President Yanukovych signs compromise deal with opposition leaders
• 22 Feb: President Yanukovych flees Kiev. Parliament votes to remove him and sets elections for 25 May
• 27-28 Feb: Pro-Russian gunmen seize key buildings in Crimean capital Simferopol
• 1 Mar: Russian parliament approves President Vladimir Putin's request to use Russian forces in Ukraine
• 6 Mar: Crimea's parliament asks to join Russia and sets referendum for 16 March

The Crimean region was part of Russia until 1954 and most of its residents are ethnic Russians, many of whom would prefer to be governed by Moscow rather than Kiev.

Russia's Black Sea fleet is also still housed in Crimea.

But Russia has signed agreements promising to uphold Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Crimea's regional parliament instigated the secession referendum after MPs voted overwhelmingly to support rejoining Russia.

But the national parliament in Kiev ruled the referendum unconstitutional, and earlier on Saturday voted to disband the regional assembly.

At the United Nations, 13 members of the Security Council backed a resolution that called for all nations to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity and condemned the referendum as illegal.

Western diplomats had expected Russia to veto the document.
But they were hoping that China would abstain to isolate Russia.

The BBC's Nick Bryant in New York says China and Russia usually work in tandem at the Security Council.

But Beijing is sensitive about issues of territorial integrity, because of fears it could send a message to its own restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

Earlier in Moscow, tens of thousands rallied against Russia's actions in Ukraine, the biggest such protest in two years.