KIEV, March 13 (RAPSI) – The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has filed a lawsuit challenging the adoption by Crimea's parliament of a decree vesting itself and the local government with federal powers.

Crimea’s Supreme Council on March 11 adopted a declaration supporting independence from Ukraine, as well as  a motion to join the Russian Federation. The declaration was approved by 78 of 100 lawmakers.

The declaration states that the Crimean parliament and Sevastopol City Council adopted the decision on the basis of “the UN Charter and other international legislative documents supporting the right for self-determination.”

Earlier the Crimean Supreme Council adopted resolutions on a system of justice and on changing the system and structure of executive authority on the territory of Crimea.

On February 22, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada impeached Viktor Yanukovich and amended the constitution. Presidential authority was assigned to parliament speaker Alexander Turchinov and a presidential election was scheduled for May 25.

Russia has marked the events that have unfolded in Ukraine recently a coup, and the armed seizure of power. President Vladimir Putin said during a press conference earlier in March that Viktor Yanukovich, who fled to Russia, remains Ukraine’s legitimate president.

Yanukovich said earlier at a press conference that he was forced to leave Ukraine under a threat to his life.

Crimea, a peninsula of some 2 million people, has resisted the authority of the leadership that came to power in Kiev last month. Crimea’s Supreme Council on Tuesday adopted a declaration supporting independence from Ukraine. Crimea will be declared an independent state with a republican form of government, if the referendum set for March 16 will result in the decision to join the Russian Federation.