--- title: Ukraine's Parliament Votes to Form National Guard Ahead of Referendum description: As many as 60,000 national guardsmen will bolster country's defenses ahead of Sunday's referendum in Crimea canonical: https://time.com/23146/ukraine-establishes-national-guard-ahead-of-crimea-vote/ author: Maddy Fry article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-13T13:00:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:45:02.497Z article:section: World og:title: Ukraine votes to create National Guard og:description: As many as 60,000 national guardsmen will bolster country's defenses ahead of Sunday's referendum in Crimea og:url: https://time.com/23146/ukraine-establishes-national-guard-ahead-of-crimea-vote/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ukraine votes to create National Guard twitter:description: As many as 60,000 national guardsmen will bolster country's defenses ahead of Sunday's referendum in Crimea twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Ukraine Establishes National Guard Ahead of Crimea Vote by [Maddy Fry](/author/maddy-fry/) ## Maddy Fry Mar 13, 2014 1:00 PM CUT by [Maddy Fry](/author/maddy-fry/) ## Maddy Fry Mar 13, 2014 1:00 PM CUT Ukraine’s parliament voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to establish a [National Guard](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26558288 "undefined") of 60,000 military personnel in order to boost the country’s defenses. The vote happened ahead of Sunday’s referendum in Crimea on whether it should leave Ukraine to reunite with Russia, reports the BBC. Russian forces occupied Crimea in late February after violent demonstrations led to the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych and the installation of a new, interim parliament in Ukraine. Both Europe and the U.S. have threatened sanctions and other actions if Russia does not pull its troops out of the Crimea. President Barack Obama welcomed interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the White House on Tuesday, and said the U.S. would “stand with Ukraine.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Wednesday that “if Russia continues on its course of the past weeks, it will not only be a catastrophe for Ukraine.” \[BBC\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/23146/ukraine-establishes-national-guard-ahead-of-crimea-vote/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/23146/ukraine-establishes-national-guard-ahead-of-crimea-vote/"},"headline":"Ukraine Establishes National Guard Ahead of Crimea Vote","datePublished":"2014-03-13T13:00:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:45:02.497Z","description":"As many as 60,000 national guardsmen will bolster country's defenses ahead of Sunday's referendum in Crimea","url":"https://time.com/23146/ukraine-establishes-national-guard-ahead-of-crimea-vote/","keywords":["Ukraine","russia","National Guard","Crimea"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maddy Fry","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maddy-fry/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/23146/ukraine-establishes-national-guard-ahead-of-crimea-vote/","name":"Ukraine Establishes National Guard Ahead of Crimea Vote"}}]}] ```