You're reading: Former head of Luhansk Oblast district council detained in Ukraine for organizing referendum a year ago

The Ukrainian military have detained Volodymyr Bilous, former chairman of the Stanytsia Luhanska district council, in the Kharkiv Oblast as he tried to leave Ukraine for Russia, Hennadiy Moskal, the head of the Luhansk Oblast's military-civilian administration, said.

“Volodymyr Bilous personally organized the May 11 ‘referendum’ and called on residents of the Stanytsia Luhanska district to come to vote for the state independence of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic,” Moskal’s press service reported on May 27.