The people of Crimea rejected the coup government in Kyiv and voted to split from Ukraine and join Russia. In response to the referendum held Sunday, the United States and the European Union will announce “tough diplomatic and economic sanctions against Moscow as early as today,” according to ABC News. The U.S. and the EU consider the vote illegal and unconstitutional.

Obama called Vladimir Putin and told him the will of the people of Crimea will “never be recognized by the United States and the international community.” He said the U.S. and its partners in the EU and the United Nations are “prepared to impose additional costs on Russia for its actions.”

Those costs will undoubtedly fall on the people of Europe who will suffer in the wake of economic sanctions. EU bureaucrats and Western politicians, however, have announced they are willing to make Europeans suffer in order to punish Russia. “The West could also suffer costs if Russia cuts off energy supplies to Europe and further squeezes the Ukrainian economy,” The Washington Post reports today. “But Western officials say that is a price they are willing to pay and have pledged economic support to Ukraine.”