You're reading: Separatist crisis flares again today in Ukraine’s eastern regions

Pro-Russian separatists today continue to control of some of the government's key administration buildings in the densely populated eastern industrial cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, while there are conflicting reports about the situation in Kharkiv. All three cities were targets of violent takeovers by separatists demanding a Crimean-style referendum on whether to join Russia.

Pro-Russian activists still hold the governor’s offices in at least Donetsk and Luhansk as well as the Security Services of Ukraine offices there as well.

The separatists are demanding oblast-wide referendums to break away from Ukraine and join Russia as soon as possible. Ukrainians see the riots as instigated by the Kremlin to serve as a pretext for Russian soldiers massed on the nation’s eastern borders to invade in order to “bring order” to Ukraine and protect ethnic Russia.

“This is the plan of destabilizing Ukraine in action. The plan that is meant (to give reason) for foreign troops to cross the border and attack the country. We won’t let it happen,” said Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, speaking at the Cabinet of Ministers’ emergency session on April 7.

“(Russian president Vladimir) Putin and (Ukraine’s former president Viktor) Yanukovych ordered and paid for another escalation of separatist riots in the east of Ukraine,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his Facebook page on April 6 before leaving for Kharkiv to take personal control of the situation there.

Donetsk

Around 3:40 a.m. on April 7, pro-Russian protesters broke into the Security Services of Ukraine building in Donetsk and took it over.

The separatist organization Donbas Peoples’ Uprising claimed responsibility for the takeover. On its vkontakte page, the organization calls the people of Donetsk to bring warm clothes and food to support the activists who stay in the building. According to it, the activists started “to check up the documents” found in the SBU office.

Police are preparing to drive the activists out today, according to spokesman of the Donetsk Oblast police Ihor Dyomin.

As of the morning of April 7, separatist activists also hold the oblast’s government center, seized on April 6. They’ve been demanding that members of the oblast council arrive to the building and vote to hold a referendum on Donetsk Oblast joining Russia. If the council members don’t come, activists promise to dismiss it on April 7 and proclaim a new council with new members.

The entrance to the governor’s office was barricaded by tires and fenced with barbed wire.

Donbas Peoples’ Uprising is leaded by Pavlo Hubarev, a pro-Russian activist who was arrested a month ago after proclaiming himself the governor of Donetsk.

Journalists discovered that one of the current leaders’ of the separatist movement in Donetsk, Denys Pushylin, was an active member of MMM-2011, a reboot of the fraudulent financial company that deceived thousands of private investors in early 1990s.

Luhansk

At least nine people were injured when some 2,000 pro-Russian separatists broke into the regional SBU office on April 6. One of the injured is a 16-year old girl who was hospitalized after getting tear gas poisoning and hand injury.

Luhansk police reported that the rioters broke into an armory room in SBU office and took over some guns. The amount of guns is unknown.

Overnight the protesters blocked the central street of Luhansk using fences’ parts.

The regional governor’s office, located close to the SBU office, was closed and all the employees were sent home as the authorities expect the separatists to try to take over the building.

Kharkiv

As of April 7, it remains unclear if separatist activists still hold the Kharkiv governor’s office that they seized a day before. Police reports that the conflict was solved and the protesters left the building, while Interfax news agency denies it, quoting the eyewitnesses who claim there are still some activists in the building.

Before going for the governor’s office on April 6, several thousands of pro-Russian protesters had a street fight with some pro-EuroMaidan protesters.

Avakov arrived in Kharkiv on April 6 to personally take control of the situation. Earlier he ensured that control in the eastern regions will be re-established without any bloodshed. On the morning of April 7, Avakov reported that the governor’s office in Kharkiv was freed of separatists and called citizens of eastern regions to support Ukraine’s interim government in Kyiv which replaced the ousted President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22.

Speaking of the situation in eastern regions on April 7, Yatsenyuk said Kharkiv was “brought back to stability.”

Kyiv Post editor Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]