Coming up, as the president prepares to meet with u. S. President barack obama we will tell you what people here are hoping they will achieve. Parliament in moscow is planning to rush through legislation so crimea can join russia, that is after people in the region overwhelmingly chose to break away from ukraine. Celebrations in crimea as a result and showed over 96 of voters were in favor of joining russia. But many crimea loyal to kiev boycotted the referendum on sunday and u. S. And europe say its illegal and threatening russia with more sanctions and eu Foreign Ministers are meeting in brussels to discuss this and parliament in ukraine is also meet ing this ing in the capital kiev and first this report from barnabie phillips. Reporter they were celebrating before the results were announced and feel that a historical injustice has been corrected. In their hearts they always were russians. Translator he says the new ukraine government calls itself legitimate but do you think this is
Across the country and the controversy keeping mayors out of the celebration. The grand old opra house celebrating 40 years. In the crimea peninsula, the disputed ukraine territory voting to join russia and it was 97 of people who voted said yes to the referendum and good morning and welcome to al jazeera, im stephanie sy and they are deepening the rift between moscow and the west and russia wasted little time saying it will approve the decision quickly and kievs new government rejected the referendum calling it illegitimate and u. S. And eu say sanctions are the next step if russia does not reverse the stance and we have a team of reporters tracking the developments and phil is in kiev but lets begin with Jennifer Glasse in sevastopol and we have seen a see of russian flags through crimea, what has it been like where you are . Well, here in sevastopol and throughout crimea the legislatures have wasted no time in solidifying the decisions made in the elections yesterday. In the Crimea
Their cars at home. We have sport as mesi marks a major milestone as all time leader scorer. Russia not ukrainian. Thats the decision of Crimea Parliament which has formerly applied to join the russian federation. In which 96 of voters cast their ballot in favor of moscow. But the European Union and u. S. Say that vote was illegal. We go to brussels where e. U. Officials have agreed to impose sanction. But first we have the latest out of crimea. Reporter things here are pretty relaxed. Bigger things are taking place inside but the mood on the streets, parliament has declared independence from ukraine. It has formerly apply to join russia. Weve been speaking to one member of parliament who explains why. The e. U. And the u. S. Dont understand our situation. Everything here has been calm and peaceful. 97 , what more do they want . Its the will of the people. My constituency has voted to join russia. Reporter weve walked a short distance from parliament, and weve asked people how they fee
Mistake and a bad thing, what kind of consequences . Im not going to outline what the consequences would be. Obviously, i think the International Community would look closely at any intervention by the russians or anyone else. But im not going to stand here and outline consequent says. What does that mean, the International Community would look closely at . Trying to warn the russians away from doing something that would be bad, and the best you can say the International Community will look closely . There will be consequences, but that is not our goal, our first path. That whenyou believe you say the International Community, i am presuming that you mean the united nations, but you do realize that any attempt to punish russia with the Un Security Council is not going anywhere, right . I understand what you are saying, matt, but i am not going to much further other than to say there are a lot of countries that are watching that feel that territorial integrity is an important component w
Expanded. We start off with his story so that is being drawn ukraines borders are in the us voted overwhelmingly in favor of quitting yet to join russia defining International Opposition to a resounding ninety six percent of voters cast their ballots for a union with the federation and witty official procedures in law still moving at dizzying speed. Russias parliament is set to decide on crime is annexation of east west confrontation has taken on added urgency. The eu and us has slammed the referendum as a legitimate cranny in an emotional eater say its a matter of Self Determination less than twenty four hours after the referendum stated facts they raced outside the parliament to make a toast and terrible. The old anti and maybe gone. After decades of ukrainian rule in any case that the convict to rush and will restore some of the peninsula as costs than that. When it is unwilling to see a lot more investment over the past twenty years has not eaten any of it. Of the underbrush own li