Ex-Ukraine minister says Crimea nears 'point of no return'

Ex-Ukraine minister says Crimea nears 'point of no return'

NATO and the European Union say that the vote in Crimea will not be recognised.

A man is searched as armed militiamen secure the area near the Crimean parliament building in central Simferopol on Monday (March 17th). [AFP]

Global organisations moved this week to sanction Russia and Ukraine's autonomous republic of Crimea following a weekend vote that led Crimea to apply to join the Russian Federation.

Meanwhile, experts began raising concerns for what is being seen as the beginning of a humanitarian crisis for ethnic Tatars and other Ukrainians who are fleeing Crimea because they do not want to be assimilated into Russia.

"There are ethnic Crimea Tatars and ethnic Crimeans who are very fearful about what may happen to them, post-referendum," Christopher Miller, editor of the Kyiv Post, told SETimes, reporters and analysts on Monday on a conference call organised by the global NGO Wilson Centre.

"They are very worried," said Miller, who added that the mood in Ukraine is tense. "They have been harassed and intimidated extensively over the last couple of weeks. The sense that I'm getting is that [they] don't want to be under Russian rule. Some of them began leaving for western Ukraine last week."

NATO issued a statement on Monday (March 17th) calling the referendum "illegal and illegitimate."

"This was demonstrated by the rushed nature of the poll under conditions of military intervention and the restrictions on, and the manipulation of, the media, which precluded any possibility of free debate and deliberation and deprived the vote of any credibility," NATO said in the statement.

"We urge the Russian Federation to de-escalate the...