Reuters
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Pro-Russian demonstrators occupied the regional government building in east Ukraine’s city of Donetsk yesterday, where they presided as besieged lawmakers voted to hold a referendum, without saying what the public would be asked to decide upon.
The chaotic scene in the heart of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east was one of the boldest actions yet by pro-Russian youths after several days of rallies in eastern and southern cities that Kiev says are organised by Moscow as a pretext to invade.
The protesters stormed the building and reached the second floor where the regional council sits, despite efforts to keep them out by switching off lifts and sealing stairwell doors.
A Reuters photographer outside said hundreds of demonstrators, chanting “Putin, come”, managed to enter the building through a side door after clashing with police who guarded the front of the building.
Windows were smashed, making it possible for some to reach the second floor.
Reporters inside, who sheltered on the fourth floor after the first floor was overrun, were eventually escorted out of the besieged building by police. The protesters checked documents to prevent municipal employees and lawmakers from leaving.
The 11-storey building has been flying the Russian flag, rather than the Ukrainian flag, for three days, with pro-Russian protesters staging rallies outside.
Barricaded inside the building, the local lawmakers voted 98-3 in favour of a declaration that pledged “support for the popular initiatives of the residents of the Donetsk region, put forward at demonstrations”, according to a text of the resolution on the regional government website.
However, the text fell shy of the demands of the protesters, who are led by a man named Pavel Gubarev, who has declared himself “people’s governor” of the region.
He had demanded that deputies declare the government in Kiev illegitimate, put all security forces under regional control, withhold taxes from Kiev and a host of other measures.
The resolution called for a referendum in the region, but did not say what question would be asked or when it would be held.