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Ukraine is hoping the United Nations General Assembly will adopt a resolution later this week reaffirming the country's unity and territorial integrity and underscoring that the referendum that led to Crimea's annexation by Russia "has no validity."

The draft resolution, circulated Monday to the 193 assembly members and obtained by The Associated Press, never mentions Russia by name but calls on all countries not to recognize "any alteration of the status" of Crimea.

It also urges all parties to pursue a peaceful resolution of the situation in Ukraine, "refrain from unilateral actions and inflammatory rhetoric that may increase tensions, and to engage fully with international mediation efforts."

The General Assembly's resolutions are not legally binding but they reflect world opinion, and Ukraine will be looking for a strong "yes" vote to show Russia's international isolation.

The U.N.'s most powerful body, the Security Council, has been blocked from taking any action because Russia, has veto power as one of its five permanent members. Even so, the 15-member council has held eight meetings on Ukraine, as Western powers strive to keep up the pressure on Moscow.

On March 15, Russia vetoed a council resolution declaring the referendum on Crimea illegal. Supporters of the U.S.-sponsored resolution expected the veto but went ahead with the vote to show the strength of opposition to Russia's takeover of Crimea. Thirteen council members voted in favor of the resolution. China, Russia's usual ally on the Security Council, abstained rather than joining Russia in voting "no."

Unlike the council, the General Assembly has no vetoes.

Crimea has been at the center of Europe's greatest geopolitical crisis since the end of the Cold War. Russian troops took over the Ukrainian peninsula, where Russia's Black Sea fleet is based, and Moscow officially annexed Crimea following a referendum last week.

The upheaval in Crimea is the fallout of months of anti-government protests and outbursts of violence that led to the ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych, who fled last month.

The U.S. and European Union have denounced Moscow's action as illegal.

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Ukraine Seeks UN Vote Against Crimea Annexation

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) A hairstyling business closes four salons rather than deal with crooked officials. An independent salesman hustling paint from the trunk of his car faces a $5 million tax penalty. A humble crafts stall gives up after taxes increase ten-fold overnight.

That's the world of small business in Ukraine a tangled thicket of bribe-hungry government inspectors and complicated, unpredictable regulations.

Reducing graft and red tape are set to be part of the conditions Ukraine will face in exchange for an international financial rescue package. Officials in Kiev are expected to wrap up talks with the International Monetary Fund as soon as Tuesday.

Yet it will take some doing. Ukraine's culture of corruption and bureaucracy is deeply entrenched.

Take the story of Aleksey Antonyuk, who runs a hairstyling, marketing and publishing company in Kiev.

He was part of the first wave of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in the waning days of the Soviet Union, setting up a hair salon with one stylist. He expanded that to a company that employed 200 people at its peak. He branched out into media, publishing a stack of glossy magazine on hair and makeup, and offered marketing services, training courses and hairstyling competitions.

The trouble began when his business grew large enough to register as a limited liability corporation. That means he needed to install cash registers and with those came government inspectors eager to find evidence of rule-breaking.

"It's like honey for flies," said Antonyuk, a tall, slim 48-year-old, in an interview at his offices in a nondescript Soviet-era building away from the bustle of Kiev's city center.

The inspectors found something wrong at every turn a register a few coins short, the safe in the wrong place. It was either a large fine or bribe to ensure a smaller one. The going bribe rate is the equivalent of $100 for small, recurring matters, and $2,000 for yearly inspections.

Meanwhile, competitors had a simpler model: renting salon chairs to independent stylists, who didn't declare any income at all.

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Ukraine To Face Its 'Graft Culture' Under Aid Plan

KIEV: Ukraine's parliament sacked the crisis-hit country's besieged defence minister on Tuesday after his forces began a humiliating withdrawal from Crimea without firing a shot against Russian forces who claimed the Black Sea peninsula.

Crimea's effective loss -- though recognised by no Western power -- has dealt a heavy psychological blow to many Ukrainians who have already spent the past years mired in corruption and economic malaise.

Ukraine's ground commanders in Crimea had complained bitterly of confusion among the top brass in Kiev since Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision on March 1 to seek the right to use force against his neighbour in response to last month's fall in Kiev of a pro-Kremlin regime.

Some 228 deputies in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada parliament supported Igor Tenyukh's dismissal after the acting defence minister tendered his resignation in an emotional address broadcast live to the nation of 46 million people.

"It seems that the actions of the interim defence minister in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea... have displeased some," said Tenyukh.

"I have never clung on to my job, and I don't intend to do so now," he said. "I have honour."

Tenyukh also admitted that 14,500 of Ukraine's 18,800 soldiers in Crimea had informed their superiors they would prefer to remain on the peninsula as part of the Russian military -- a massive majority that underscores the demoralised state of Kiev's force.

Deputies then voted to appoint Lieutenant General Mykhailo Koval as the new acting defence minister after his name was submitted for approval by interim President Oleksandr Turchynov.

Koval had made the news earlier this month when he was briefly abducted by pro-Kremlin militias near his military base in the Crimean port of Yalta.

Tuesday's session gave lawmakers a chance to voice growing frustrations with how the Western-backed leaders have handled their jobs since coming to power on the back of three months of deadly protests whose ultimate aim was to eliminate the corruption and Kremlin dependence that have weighed over Ukraine throughout its post-Soviet history.

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Ukraine sacks defence minister over Crimea

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's fledgling government ordered troops to retreat from Crimea on Monday, ending days of wavering as Western leaders tried to present a unified response to Russia's increasingly firm control of the peninsula.

Russian forces have been systematically seizing Ukrainian ships and military installations in Crimea, including a naval base near the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia, where two injured servicemen were taken captive on Monday and as many as 80 were detained on-site, Ukrainian officials said.

With the storming of at least three military facilities over the past three days alone -- and the decision by some to switch to the Russian side -- it wasn't clear how many Ukrainian troops remained on the peninsula. The former chief of Ukraine's navy, who was charged with treason after he swore allegiance to the Crimean authorities and urged others to defect, was named a deputy chief of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchnynov, whose new government has struggled to maintain control and cohesion, said the Defense Ministry was ordered to withdraw all servicemen in Crimea to Ukraine's mainland.

The situation in Ukraine is set to dominate U.S. President Barack Obama's agenda as he begins a week of international travel in the Netherlands, where he was to attend a nuclear security summit. The event has been overshadowed by hurriedly scheduled talks on Ukraine among the Group of Seven industrialized economies -- the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

"We're united in imposing a cost on Russia for its actions so far," Obama said.

Speaking to leading lawmakers in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Turchnynov said Ukrainian troops would be evacuated with their families in response to unspecified threats from what he termed occupying Russian forces.

The interim government in Kiev has been criticized for its indecision over Ukrainian troops in Crimea, where Russian forces have steadily gained control of bases and ships. Over the weekend, Russian troops stormed the Belbek air force base near Sevastopol and detained the commander.

Tired of weeks of tension, uncertainty and Kiev's indecision, some Ukrainian troops were leaving their bases. In the bay of Donuzlav in western Crimea, the crew of the Ukrainian navy ship Konstantin Olshanskiy were packing up and leaving Monday.

The ship's crew was using a small boat that made several round trips to carry them to the shore.

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Ukraine orders troops to withdraw from Crimea

"Friendly" Russians in Support of Ukraine Crisis. Part 2
In Support of UKRAINE? Hero #39;s From Russia. Against Sanctions. Outside The White House . Washington DC 03 22 2014.

By: Boris Mironov

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"Friendly" Russians in Support of Ukraine Crisis. Part 2 - Video