A handful of pro-Russian separatists in the barricaded Donetsk Oblast government administration declared the creation of the Donetsk People's Republic on April 7, as a few hundred activists continued to rally outside the building, which is surrounded by piles of car tires and wrapped in barbed wire.
People in the square cheered and congratulated each other, and sang the Russian national anthem. The Russian state flag was raised over the regional administration on Sunday.
The declaration of independence, which was read by the separatists during a live broadcast by one of their activists, said that “the people of Donetsk People’s Republic have an exclusive right for its land, subsoil, air space, water and other natural resources” and that the republic has a right for an independent financial, economic and other policies.
“The declaration is effective from the moment of its approval and serves as basis for approval of the Constitution of Donetsk People’s Republic,” it said.
Crimea’s Prime Minister Serhiy Aksyonov tweeted that a referendum for Donetsk Oblast independence will be held on May 11. Segodnya daily also quoted the separatists inside the building as saying that the date has been agreed with Luhansk and Kharkiv movements.
“If we’re impeded in holding a referendum, we will turn to Russia and ask them to move in their troops,” the newspaper quoted a separatist as saying.
Russian troops, which claimed to have completed their trainings close to the eastern Ukrainian border, in fact, were just rotated, according to Serhiy Astakhov, assistant to the head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
“They (Russian military) repeatedly stated that they had completed their training and returned to their disposition posts, which they probably did, but later were replaced with other division. The Russian military forces are situated further than the area our planes are allowed to observe,” Astakhov said. He added that check-points on the border continue to work, but examination procedures have been made more vigorous.
The latest development in Donetsk is an indication that the government is losing its grip over eastern parts of the country fast, despite its attempts to keep a straight face.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said on April 7 that the government has a plan of action, and as a part of that plan, acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov went to Kharkiv, and first deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema was sent off to Donetsk.
But by mid-day, none of their efforts seemed to be successful, while the situation continued to escalate in Kharkiv, where pro-Russian rallies continued for the second day.
Singer Ruslana posted on Facebook that her friends in Kharkiv saw pro-Russian activists throw “fire crackers and military grenades towards the protesters for a Unified Ukraine on the other side of the square. There are many people with bloody heads.”
She said that the pro-Ukraine rally was dispersed as a result.
Yatseniuk said that the pro-Russian meetings that had started off in the eastern regions in March had mostly calmed down, and only 1,000-1,500 radicals were left in each region, who act in coordination “with special services of foreign countries.” But even so, the government so far failed to neutralize them.
One video from the pro-Russian rally in Donetsk on April 6 showed an activist speaking from stage who named all the organizations who were behind the mass disturbances. He said they were People’s Militia of Donbass headed by Pavlo Gubarev, who has been in custody for organizing mass disturbances since March 6; the People’s Liberation Movement of Andrei Fyodorov; the Russian Block; and an organization called the Essence of Time led by Sergei Kurginyan.
An intercepted radio communication from April 6 also indicated that the events in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv are coordinated from the same center. A senior official at the National Security and Defense Council confirmed that the conversation is authentic.
Meanwhile, the majority of the population of eastern regions of the country, have remained silently complicit with what is happening, which reflects their attitude towards the change of the central government in Kyiv that took place on Feb. 22, after disgraced former President Viktor Yanukovych fled his post amid the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Only 12 percent of the southern areas of Ukraine and 9 percent of the nation’s east say the country is moving in the right direction, according to a nationwide poll by GfK-Ukraine.
Only 48 percent of the respondents said they supported the change of the government, and in the southeast, this number stands at 20 percent.
Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected]
