Polish FM: 'Anschluss' in Crimea needs EU response
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
17.03.2014 12:13
Poland's foreign minister has referred to the soviet-style result in Crimea, where nearly 97 percent voted to leave Ukraine for Russia on Sunday, as an annexation or "anschluss".
A man holding a Soviet era red flag salutes in front of the parliament building after the end of the referendum in Simferopol in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine, 17 March 2014: photo - EPA
"Unfortunately instead of de-escalation we have anschluss of Crimea, which cannot be left without a response," the 'Poland in Europe' group tweeted Radoslaw Sikorski as saying before a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday morning, referring to the German word for the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938.
EU foreign ministers are to decide on new sanctions against Russia following its support of the Crimea referendum, which the EU and US has called illegal.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski speaks to the media at the start of European foreign affairs ministers council at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 17 March 2014. EU foreign ministers are due to discuss further sanctions against Russia after a Moscow-backed referendum in Crimea backed a split from Ukraine: photo - EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ
The Crimean local government declared that 96.6 percent of those who voted on Sunday supported a bid to leave Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's parliament endorsed on Monday a plan to mobilise 40,000 reservists to counter Russia's "blatant aggression" in Crimea and guard against what a senior official described as further incursions in the south and east of the country. (pg)