You're reading: Two referendums to be held in Luhansk region in May

Luhansk - Delegates to the "people's assembly" in Luhansk have made the decision to hold a regional referendum on the region's territorial status. 

The news was announced from an improvised stage near the captured building of the regional security service department on Monday evening, an Interfax correspondent reported.

The delegates said that the referendum must fall into two stages. The first one is to be held on May 11 and voters are to state whether they want the region to retain its current status or to become an autonomous entity. At the second stage on May 18 they will be asked to state their opinion on whether the Luhansk region should be independent or become integrated with Russia as a constituent territory.

No details were provided on how the referendum will be organized.

“People’s assemblies” were held on Monday in different cities of the Luhansk region, where delegates were elected to the regional “people assembly.”

The Prosecutor General’s Office sees the calls for federalization, and demonstrators’ speeches and insignia as separatists and it has entered information about them on the single register of pre-trial investigations. It qualified the rallies as illegal and said that “if the separatists’ demands are formalized and followed by decisions, a rigorous assessment will be given in answer to these moves.”