KIEV, May 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Kiev has suffered losses worth $100 billion due to Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and the peninsula’s subsequent merger with Russia, Ukrainian parliament-appointed interim President and Verkhovna Rada Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov said on Wednesday.

“Ukraine has suffered a total of $100 billion in direct losses,” Turchynov said.

The Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, where most residents are Russians, refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian authorities, brought to power amid riots after a coup in February.

Crimea and Sevastopol adopted declarations of independence on March 11. They held a referendum on March 16, in which 96.77% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. The voter turnout stood at 83.01% in Crimea and 89.5% in Sevastopol.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deals on March 18. The deals were subsequently approved by both houses of Russia's parliament, the State Duma and the Federation Council. On March 21, he signed the federal constitutional law on accession of two new constituent members to the Russian Federation - the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol.

The work on integrating the Crimean Peninsula into Russia’s economic, financial, credit, legal, state power, military conscription and infrastructure systems is actively underway now that Crimea has become part of Russia.

In the Soviet Union, Crimea used to be part of Russia until 1954, when it was gifted to Ukraine by Soviet Communist Party leader Nikita Khrushchev.