Obama calls Crimea independence vote illegal as US destroyer sent on ...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama declared on Thursday that a referendum in 10 days on the future of a Ukraine's Crimea peninsula would violate international law, and the United States moved to impose visa restrictions and financial sanctions on Russians and Ukrainians for the moves Moscow already has made into Crimea.

Speaking from the White House, Obama said any decisions on the future of Crimea, a pro-Russian area of Ukraine, must include the country's new government.

'The proposed referendum on the future of Crimea would violate the constitution and violate international law,' Obama said, hours after government officials in Crimea set a March 16 date for a referendum on whether the region should become part of Russia.

The U.S. also began imposing new visa restrictions on an unspecified and unidentified number of people and entities that the Obama administration accused of threatening Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial borders. Obama also signed an executive order that will allow the U.S. to levy financial sanctions.

In a statement, the White House said the penalties would target 'those who are most directly involved in destabilizing Ukraine, including the military intervention in Crimea, and does not preclude further steps should the situation deteriorate.'

In Brussels, meanwhile, the European Union announced it was suspending talks with Russia on an economic pact and on a visa deal in response to the Russian intervention in Crimea. EU leaders, like Obama, threatened further sanctions if Russia pushes ahead.

Officials in Washington said Russian government officials and entities could be among those sanctioned in the U.S. action, though President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to be targeted directly.

The Pentagon said Thursday that six U.S. F-15 fighter jets arrived in Lithuania to boost air patrols over the Baltics as the Ukraine crisis continued. A U.S. warship was also now in the Black Sea for long-planned exercises.

In Moscow, a prominent member of Russia's parliament, Sergei Mironov, said he has introduced a bill to simplify the procedure for Crimea to join Russia and it could be passed as soon as next week. Another senior lawmaker, Leonid Slutsky, said the parliament could consider such a motion after the referendum.

On Tuesday, Putin said Russia had no intention of annexing Crimea, while insisting its population has the right to determine the region's status in a referendum. A popular vote would give Putin a democratic fig-leaf for what would effectively be a formal takeover - although it was too early to tell whether such a move would actually go forward. The Russian president called a meeting of his Security Council on Thursday to discuss Ukraine.

For Putin, Crimea would be a dazzling acquisition, and help cement his authority with a Russian citizenry that has in recent years shown signs of restiveness and still resents the loss of the sprawling empire Moscow ruled in Soviet times. The peninsula was once Russia's imperial crown jewel, a lush land seized by Catherine the Great in the 18th century that evokes Russia's claim to greatness as a world power.

A referendum had previously been scheduled in Crimea on March 30, but the question to be put to voters was on whether their region should enjoy 'state autonomy' within Ukraine.

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