The vote will have a strong
determination on its future and a strong influence on the future of
international relations in the region and beyond.
Results are expected on
Monday.
Kicking off the polling in a
pre-recorded statement, Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov called on the
residents of Crimea to cast their vote "independent of nationalism and
disintegration."
Aksyonov acknowledged that the
"eyes of the entire world are on us today." He asked Crimeans to show their
aspiration to "live free in the world with friendly relations with all."
In the city of Simferopol, voters
filed into a polling place, picked up white and yellow ballots and headed to
private booths to fill them out before dropping them through the slits of clear
ballot boxes.
In another polling station, the
vast majority of ballots appearing in the boxes were marked in favor of joining
Russia.
A whopping 80% of voters turning
out at a polling station in Bakhchysaray were not on the electoral roll, the
registrar told CNN.
Those not on the roll have their
passport and papers checked to establish identity. On the spot, election staff
decide with a show of hands, whether to allow those voters to participate.
Turnout is heavy, but Crimean
Tatars, an ethnic Turkic group with deep roots on the peninsula, are boycotting
the vote, as are many ethnic Ukrainians.
Tatars, which make up a minority
of Crimeans have faced severe persecution, when Crimea belonged to Russia in the
past. On Saturday, representatives issued a statement recognizing the Ukraine
with its present borders, which would include Crimea.
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They asked the Ukrainian
parliament in Kiev for more legal protection for their ethnic group.
Russian
squeeze
The pressure is on from Russia,
with pro-Russian troops firmly in control of the peninsula with an ethnic
Russian majority. Ukraine and the West insist they belong to Moscow, but the
Kremlin vehemently denies it.
Russia tightened its military
grip Saturday.
About 60 Russian troops in six
helicopters and three armored vehicles reportedly crossed into Ukraine's Kherson
region and were in the town of Strilkove, on a strip of land just northeast of
Crimea.
The State Border Guard Service
of Ukraine said the Russian troops were on the ground and the Ukrainian guards
had taken defensive positions.
The region is key to neighboring
Crimea, because it gets electricity, freshwater and natural gas from there. The
Russians said they were in Kherson to prevent a possible terrorist attack on oil
assets in the area, according to the Ukrainian border guards.
Ukraine's foreign ministry
termed the move a "military invasion" and called on Russia to withdraw its
forces.
Also Saturday, Russia wielded
it's veto power as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council against a
U.S. draft resolution that declared Sunday's Crimea referendum invalid.
Thirteen of the 15 Security
Council members backed the resolution, while China abstained.
"The reason only one country
voted 'no' today is that the world believes that international borders are more
than mere suggestions," said U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power after the vote.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin argued that Crimean citizens had a right to self-determination.
What happens next in
Crimea?
If the vote goes in favor of
joining Russia, Crimea's government will declare its independence and ask Moscow
to let it join the Russian Federation.
In Simferopol and other places
with Russian majorities, blue, white and red Russian flags have dominated the
streets.
In the coastal Crimean town of
Sevastopol concerts on the main square have been celebrating the return to the
"motherland" this past week.
"Everybody believes the results
are already rigged," said CNN iReporter Maia Mikhaluk from Kiev.
"People are concerned what is
going to happen after the referendum," she said. "People are concerned that the
Russian army will use force, guns to push (the) Ukrainian army from Crimea."
The referendum will present
Crimean residents with the choice of whether to secede from Ukraine and join
Russia or effectively become independent.
Ukraine's acting foreign
minister, Andrii Deshchytsia, repeated Saturday the interim government's
position that the referendum is illegitimate and will not be recognized by Kiev
or the international community.
Ukraine is engaged in a
"diplomatic war" with Russia, he said, but is looking for a peaceful resolution
to the crisis in Crimea. It will not respond to Russian "provocations," he
said.
Russia -- which the West and
Ukraine insist has the majority ethnic Russian Crimean peninsula under its
effective military control -- has come under concerted international pressure to
halt its activities there and talk to the interim government in Kiev.
But, so far, it has refused to
budge. Talks between U.S. Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov ended in disagreement. After a call with Kerry on Saturday, Lavrov
said in a statement that Crimea's referendum conforms to international law.
European nations and the United
States consider what is happening in Crimea a de facto annexation and have
announced some targeted punishments against Russia. They have threatened that
they could get worse, if it goes through.
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In addition, the West is shoring
up Ukraine with offers of billions in aid to its fledgling government.
Investors would also seem to be
punishing Russia, which has seen steep declines in its stock market and the
value of the ruble in recent days.
Moscow has repeatedly denied
direct involvement in Crimea, saying that the well-armed men in uniforms without
identifying insignia are not Russian troops.
Already, eight
Ukrainian military units in Crimea have been taken over, 22 others are blocked,
and 49 of 56 border patrol stations are in similar straits, Ukraine's foreign
ministry said.
Kiev's new Western-leaning
government, which came to power following the ouster of President Viktor
Yanukovych, has insisted that Ukraine's territorial integrity, including Crimea,
must be respected.
Moscow has insisted it has the
right to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine, who it claims are threatened by
radical nationalists and "fascists."
Protests for both
sides
In the eastern Ukraine city of
Donetsk, thousands of pro-Russia demonstrators rallied beneath a towering statue
of Soviet revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in the city's main square.
They waved Russian flags and red
flags emblazoned with the iconic image of Argentinian Marxist revolutionary Che
Guevara.
There was not a single Ukraine
flag to be seen, according to a CNN team on the ground.
"They are frightened," said
local journalist Denis Kazansky of pro-Ukraine protesters. "They will not come
out and demonstrate."
A man was fatally stabbed and at
least 10 others were injured in clashes in Donetsk on Thursday. Russia blamed
"right-wing radical groups" for the violence, while Ukrainian authorities
suggested it was linked to Russian citizens who want to escalate tensions in
Ukraine.
Many people living in Ukraine's
eastern region, along the Ukraine-Russia border, identify more with Russia than
with Ukraine.
Saturday, protesters also took
to the streets in the Russian capital, Moscow.
State news agency Itar-Tass,
citing Moscow police, said some 15,000 turned out for a rally in support of the
referendum in Crimea, while about 3,000 marched in protest against attempts to
reunite Crimea with Russia.
The Black Sea peninsula was part
of Russia until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine in 1954.
Ukraine was then part of the Soviet Union. But Russia maintains its Black Sea
Fleet in Crimea.
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