The city council of Crimea's port city of Sevastopol, which houses Russia's Black Sea Fleet, has voted to join Russia effective immediately and break all links with Ukraine.
The council said in a statement posted on its website yesterday that it had taken a decision "to affiliate itself with the Russian Federation as a subject of the Russian Federation".
The city legislature also said it fully backed the Crimean parliament's decision to hold a local referendum on March 16 on whether the predominantly Russian-speaking peninsula of two million people should switch over to Kremlin rule.
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Ukraine's new Western-backed leadership has denounced the regional lawmakers' decision as illegitimate and moved to disband the Crimean parliament.
Russian forces have been in effective control of Crimea since President Vladimir Putin won senators' authorisation last weekend to use force against Russia's neighbour in response to the ouster of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych.