95.5% of Crimeans Vote to Join Russia, U.S. and UK Slam Referendum as Illegitimate

An overwhelming 95.5 percent of Crimeans voted Sunday to become part of Russia in a referendum deemed illegal by the new authorities in Ukraine and most of the international community, exit polls showed.

With 50 percent of ballots counted, referendum commission chairman Mykhaylo Malyshev said 3.5 percent had voted to remain in Ukraine with wider autonomous powers and 1.0 percent were "spoiled ballots."

Crimea's pro-Moscow leader Sergiy Aksyonov said the referendum "will go down in history."

"Today we took a very important decision that will go down in history," Aksyonov tweeted after in the wake of the exit poll.

He said Crimea's regional government will make a formal application Monday to join the Russian Federation.

"The Supreme Soviet of Crimea will make an official application for the republic to join the Russian Federation at a meeting on March 17," Aksyonov said in a tweet.

The United States strongly rejected the vote and called Russian actions in the crisis "dangerous and destabilizing."

"This referendum is contrary to Ukraine's constitution, and the international community will not recognize the results of a poll administered under threats of violence and intimidation from a Russian military intervention that violates international law," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"The United States has steadfastly supported the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine since it declared its independence in 1991, and we reject the 'referendum' that took place today in the Crimean region of Ukraine," Carney said.

Carney said Russia had spurned outreach to Ukraine and calls for international monitoring, instead escalating its military intervention into Crimea and initiating military exercises on Ukraine's eastern border.

"Russia's actions are dangerous and destabilizing," the White House spokesman said.

"As the United States and our allies have made clear, military intervention and violation of international law will bring increasing costs for Russia -- not only due to measures imposed by the United States and our allies but also as a direct result of Russia's own destabilizing actions," he said.

The White House condemnation followed further talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov earlier Sunday.

In a phone call with Lavrov, Kerry urged Moscow to pull back Russian forces to their bases in Crimea in exchange for constitutional reforms to protect minority rights.

A senior State Department official said Kerry "made clear that this crisis can only be resolved politically and that as Ukrainians take the necessary political measures going forward, Russia must reciprocate by pulling forces back to base, and addressing the tensions and concerns about military engagement."

Kerry also raised concerns about Russian military activity in Kherson Oblast, the Ukrainian province just north of Crimea, and "continuing provocations" in the eastern cities in Ukraine, the official said.

Kerry's overture appeared to receive a positive echo in Moscow, where the foreign ministry said Lavrov and Kerry agreed to look for ways to defuse the crisis through "the launch as soon as possible of a constitutional reform with the support of the international community."

For its part, Britain slammed the vote as a "mockery" of democracy and refused to recognize the referendum's outcome.

Speaking in Brussels ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers on Monday, Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the vote as being in breach of the Ukrainian constitution.

"Nothing in the way that the referendum has been conducted should convince anyone that it is a legitimate exercise," he said in a Foreign Office statement.

"It is a mockery of proper democratic practice.

"The UK does not recognize the referendum or its outcome, in common with the majority of the international community," he added.

He called on his EU colleagues to push for measures "that send a strong signal to Russia that this challenge to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia will bring economic and political consequences."