Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
Apparently 90 percent of voters in eastern Ukraine supported the pro-Russian referendum for sovereignty on Sunday. As expected, Ukraine and its Western allies have denounced the victory as a total farce and will not recognize it as legitimate. Acting Ukrainian President Oleksander Turchinov slammed Russia and the separatists for their sovereignty efforts, which “are destructive to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions' economies and threaten the lives and welfare of citizens and have the aim of destabilizing the situation in Ukraine.” Russia, unsurprisingly, supported the referendum outcomes, but did not make any bold moves. The Kremlin released a brief statement saying that it hopes the desires of the voters in the Donetsk and Luhansk region will be carried out in a “civilized way.”