(Reuters) - Crimea's parliament voted on Thursday to join Russia, and its Moscow-backed government set a referendum in 10 days, in a dramatic escalation of the crisis over the Ukrainian region that drew a sharp riposte from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Obama ordered sanctions on those responsible for Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine, including bans on travel to the United States and freezing of their U.S. assets.
He echoed European Union leaders and the pro-Western government in Ukraine in declaring that the proposed referendum would violate international law.
Obama also held a one-hour call on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, their second phone conversation in the past six days, and urged him to accept the terms of a potential diplomatic solution to the crisis.
The sudden acceleration of moves to bring Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority and has effectively been seized by Russian forces, formally under Moscow's rule came as EU leaders held an emergency summit, groping for ways to pressure Russia to back down and accept mediation.
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