Crimea formally leaves Ukraine

The Ukrainian parliament has also approved the president’s order for partial armed forces mobilisation of up to 20,000 people and said that all Ukrainian state property on the territory of the Black Sea peninsula will be nationalised and become the property of the Crimean Republic.

Residents in Crimea voted in a referendum to secede from Ukraine and join Russia on Sunday.

The referendum is not recognised by the West, and yesterday the EU agreed to impose travel bans and asset freezes on 21 people linked to unrest in Ukraine.

Those targeted are thought to be linked to the push for the secession and possible annexation of the peninsula.

Two diplomats said the sanctions targeted 13 Russians and eight people from Crimea.

President Barack Obama told Russian president Vladimir Putin on Sunday that the vote “would never be recognised” by the United States, as he and other top US officials warned Moscow against making further military moves toward southern and eastern Ukraine.

The EU is walking a tightrope between punishing Moscow and keeping open lines of communication with Russia for a diplomatic resolution of one of the worst geopolitical crises in years.

Before a meeting in Brussels, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said sanctions must leave “ways and possibilities open to prevent a further escalation that could lead to the division of Europe”.

The EU has already suspended talks with Russia on a wide-ranging economic pact and a visa agreement. The bloc’s leaders are meeting on Thursday and Friday and could start imposing economic sanctions on Russia this weekend if Moscow does not back down.

Western allies are calling on Mr Putin to “de-escalate” the crisis, support Ukrainian plans for political reform, return Russian troops in Crimea to their barracks and halt advances into Ukraine and military build-ups along its borders.

Ukraine’s new government in Kiev called Sunday’s referendum a “circus” directed at gunpoint by Moscow.

Mr Putin, however, insisted it was conducted in “full accordance with international law and the UN charter” and cited Kosovo’s independence from Serbia as its precedent.