Pro-Russia supporters in Ukraine’s Donetsk region declared independence from Ukraine on Monday and asked to join Russia, a day after holding a vote on separatism that Ukraine’s government and its western allies said violated international law. Earlier in the day pro-Moscow leaders declared a resounding victory in a referendum on self-rule for eastern Ukraine.
Organizers in the main region holding the makeshift vote on Sunday said nearly 90 percent had voted in favor.
Well before polls closed, one separatist leader said the region would form its own state bodies and military after the referendum, formalizing a split that began with the armed takeover of state buildings in a dozen eastern towns last month. Another said the vote simply showed that the East wanted to decide its own fate, whether in Ukraine, on its own, or as part of Russia. ‘Eighty-nine percent, that’s it,’ the head of the separatist electoral commission in Donetsk, Roman Lyagin, said by telephone when asked for the result of a vote that the pro-Western Ukrainian government in Kiev has condemned as illegal.
Sunday’s vote went ahead despite a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to postpone it — a move that briefly raised hopes for an easing of tension. Western leaders have accused Putin of destabilizing Ukraine, a charge Moscow denies. The European Union declared the referendum illegal and prepared to increase pressure on Russia on Monday by taking a first step towards extending sanctions to companies, as well as people, linked to Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
Russia raised the stakes in the Ukraine crisis on Monday by saying it respected what rebels claimed was a resounding vote in favour of self-rule in the east of the country.
But the Kremlin also called for dialogue between authorities in Kiev and rebel leaders, as European Union ministers prepared to meet in Brussels to consider toughening sanctions on Russia. ‘Moscow respects the expression of the people’s will in Donetsk and Lugansk,’ the Kremlin said in a statement, calling for ‘the results to be implemented in a civilised manner, without any repeat of violence, through dialogue between representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk.’
Meanwhile Ukraine’s interim president on Monday slammed the rebel-held ‘referendum’ in two eastern regions as a ‘propaganda farce without any legal basis’ that sought to cover up serious crimes. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine stand-off may jeopardise natural gas supplies to the European countries despite Moscow’s efforts to abide by contracts, a senior official said Monday. ‘Countries that have no alternative supply (routes) other than the Ukrainian gas transportation system are most at risk,’ Xinhua cited Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky as saying Monday.
‘It is not a matter of Gazprom wanting or not wanting (to demand prepayment), it is an obligation under the contract. In order to supply gas to Ukraine, Gazprom has to pay custom duties to the Russian budget; that is why it simply must ask for pre-payment,’ Xinhua quoted the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
Organizers in the main region holding the makeshift vote on Sunday said nearly 90 percent had voted in favor.
Well before polls closed, one separatist leader said the region would form its own state bodies and military after the referendum, formalizing a split that began with the armed takeover of state buildings in a dozen eastern towns last month. Another said the vote simply showed that the East wanted to decide its own fate, whether in Ukraine, on its own, or as part of Russia. ‘Eighty-nine percent, that’s it,’ the head of the separatist electoral commission in Donetsk, Roman Lyagin, said by telephone when asked for the result of a vote that the pro-Western Ukrainian government in Kiev has condemned as illegal.
Sunday’s vote went ahead despite a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to postpone it — a move that briefly raised hopes for an easing of tension. Western leaders have accused Putin of destabilizing Ukraine, a charge Moscow denies. The European Union declared the referendum illegal and prepared to increase pressure on Russia on Monday by taking a first step towards extending sanctions to companies, as well as people, linked to Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
Russia raised the stakes in the Ukraine crisis on Monday by saying it respected what rebels claimed was a resounding vote in favour of self-rule in the east of the country.
But the Kremlin also called for dialogue between authorities in Kiev and rebel leaders, as European Union ministers prepared to meet in Brussels to consider toughening sanctions on Russia. ‘Moscow respects the expression of the people’s will in Donetsk and Lugansk,’ the Kremlin said in a statement, calling for ‘the results to be implemented in a civilised manner, without any repeat of violence, through dialogue between representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk.’
Meanwhile Ukraine’s interim president on Monday slammed the rebel-held ‘referendum’ in two eastern regions as a ‘propaganda farce without any legal basis’ that sought to cover up serious crimes. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine stand-off may jeopardise natural gas supplies to the European countries despite Moscow’s efforts to abide by contracts, a senior official said Monday. ‘Countries that have no alternative supply (routes) other than the Ukrainian gas transportation system are most at risk,’ Xinhua cited Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky as saying Monday.
‘It is not a matter of Gazprom wanting or not wanting (to demand prepayment), it is an obligation under the contract. In order to supply gas to Ukraine, Gazprom has to pay custom duties to the Russian budget; that is why it simply must ask for pre-payment,’ Xinhua quoted the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.