DHAKA: Crimea’s separatist leader on Monday said Russia had sent the autonomous republic the equivalent of nearly 295 million euros in ‘financial assistance’, a day after it voted overwhelmingly to split from Ukraine.

‘The Russian Federation today gave the republic 15 billion rubles in financial assistance,’ local leader Sergiy Aksyonov said in a tweet.

The Straits Times publishes this report.

BDST: 1857 HRS, MAR 17, 2014