U.N. General Assembly resolution calls Crimean referendum invalidBy Alex Felton and Marie-Louise Gumuchian, CNN
updated 2:26 PM EDT, Thu March 27, 2014
Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday approved a resolution calling the Crimean referendum to secede from Ukraine invalid.
The vote on the nonbinding resolution was 100-11, with 58 countries abstaining.
It's the latest indication of Russia's isolation within the international community over its actions in Ukraine.
Moscow formally annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea region last week, days after the controversial referendum in which a majority of Crimeans voted to leave Ukraine for Russia.
Adding to tensions, Russia now may have as many as 40,000 troops near its border with Ukraine, two U.S. officials told CNN on Thursday. The officials said that this estimate was largely based on satellite imagery and that a firm number is difficult to assess.
However, a spokesman for Ukraine's Council of National Security and Defense told CNN his government estimates 88,000 Russian troops are at the Ukrainian border.
U.S. officials said they believe the higher estimates may reflect Russian troops on alert farther to the east.
Earlier Thursday, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, released from jail last month, said she intends to run for president in May elections.
After more than two years in prison, she was released in February after the ouster of her archrival, President Viktor Yanukovych.
She has already been Prime Minister twice before and ran for President in 2010.
"Yes, I am planning to run," she said at a news conference at her Kiev office.
Tymoshenko said she intended to ask delegates at her Batkivshchyna Party congress on Saturday to nominate her as a presidential candidate.
Ukraine's elections are taking place against a backdrop of poor economic conditions, Moscow's annexation of Crimea and rumblings of discontent in the mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions.
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