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On Monday, Pro-Russian insurgents covered even more Ukrainian separatist territory, as the new western-backed government in Ukraine looked for a way out of the international crisis by seeking UN help and proposing a referendum. Russia added a perilous tone to the escalation, saying that President Putin had received “a lot” of requests from the Russian-majority rust belt in Ukraine, “to help, to intervene in some form”.
The possibility of an aggression by around 40,000 Russian troops, stationed along the eastern border of Ukraine, drew calls for even more sanctions against Russia and the authorization of more than $2 billion in EU and US aid for the embattled interim administration in Kiev. However, pro-Russian militiamen have taken over several Ukrainian state buildings in planned attacks on economically depressed parts of Eastern Ukraine, and only seem to gain in confidence, while giving almost minimal attention to the “full-scale anti-terrorist operation” announced in Kiev.
Protestors armed with clubs and rocks smashed their way into a police station in the coal mining town of Gorlovka, which lies on the highway between city of Slavyansk to its north and regional capital Donetsk. The town is now effectively under the control of militants, as unrestrained crowds cheered and whistled while they seized the local police force’s metal shields, before waving the flag of the self-declared “People’s Republic of Donetsk”.
Several rifle-wielding troops in the city of Slavyansk, who already control the local security service office and the police force, took command on the city’s administration building before asking Russia to send in its troops. Rebel leader Vyacheslav Ponomaryov addressed several reporters, saying “We call on Russia to protect us and not to allow the genocide of the people of Donbass (Donetsk region). We ask President Putin to help us”.
On Monday, the Interim President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov made a dramatic U-turn to defuse tensions because of the crisis, by backing a nation-wide poll on turning the nation into a loose federation with local administrations enjoying broader rights. “We are not against holding a national referendum. I am certain that a majority of Ukrainians will support an indivisible, independent, democratic and united Ukraine”, he said.
