Crimea Votes to Join Russia

Crimean voters overwhelmingly voted to secede from Ukraine Sunday. Russian news agencies first broke the news citing exit polls. There was a high voter turnout for the secession vote as the great majority voted to break away from Ukraine and join Russia. Crimea's leader says he will apply with Russia to join the nation. Russian president Vladimir Putin says he will "obey the people's wishes."

Ukraine and the United States declared the referendum unconstitutional, and the Ukrainian parliament symbolically stripped the Crimean parliament of its powers just a day before the referendum. Putin, who has been authorized by the Russian parliament to use force in Ukraine, cited a referendum in Kosovo as precedent for this Crimean referendum.

Russian troops have occupied Crimea, home to a Russian naval fleet at Sevastopol, since the Ukrainian parliament impeached Viktor Yanukovych from the Ukrainian presidency. Yanukovych has declared the impeachment illegal and claims to still be the leader. Yanukovych is not currently in Ukraine, but in Russia. He says he will return when conditions allow.