Sunday, May 11, 2014

 
Map: Donetsk & Luhansk
 
Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's two eastern regions are holding "self-rule" referendums - a move condemned by the Ukrainian government and the West.
Self-proclaimed leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk areas are going ahead with the vote despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's call to postpone it.
The BBC's Richard Galpin visited a polling station in Sloviansk and said there was "no checking about whether people have vote multiple times".
He suggested that "pretty much everyone" was voting in favour of self-determination. Thousands of Ukrainians went to vote at a polling station set up in Moscow - here people hold up their passports
A second round of voting is planned in a week's time, on joining Russia. Organisers also say they will boycott Ukraine's presidential elections on 25 May.
Ukraine's interim President Olexandr Turchynov has admitted many in the east supported pro-Russian militants, but warned the referendums were "a step towards the abyss".
Voting in separatist-controlled cities and towns of Donetsk and Luhansk
  • Some 3,000,000 ballot papers ask: "Do you support the Act of State Self-rule of the Donetsk People's Republic?"
  • Second round on joining Russia planned for 18 May
  • Vote deemed illegal by Kiev government and international community
The EU and US have also condemned the referendums, amid fears Ukraine could be sliding to civil war.
A Pew Research Centre survey suggested a majority even in eastern Ukraine - 70% - wanted to remain in a united country, despite concerns about governance.
Russia annexed Ukraine's southern autonomous republic of Crimea, after a March referendum.
Bill Taylor, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, said results from Sunday's vote should be treated with caution after what happened in Crimea.

 
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

David Stern has written an interesting piece in National Geographic about the role of social media in the Ukraine crisis, focusing on the deaths in Odessa, and how how each side twisted the facts to suit its own perspective.


There have been some objective attempts to chronicle the Odessa events, notably by Roland Oliphant for the Telegraph and Howard Amos for the Guardian. But among the few honest efforts to bring order to what amounted to utter mayhem, there have been many more incomplete or one-sided versions, distortions, and sometimes outright falsehoods. As Ukraine teeters on the edge of civil war, much of the rage and division in the country, it seems, is fueled directly by social networks.

May 11, 2014 at 6:57 PM
Anonymous said...

Separatist leader: 'All military troops in Donetsk will be illegal'


A separatist leader from Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region said it would form its own state bodies and consider government soldiers there as "occupiers" once results were announced from today's referendum on self-rule, Interfax news agency said.

"All military troops on our territory after the official announcement of referendum results will be considered illegal and declared occupiers," Denis Pushilin, a leader of the self-styled Donetsk republic said, according to the agency. "It is necessary to form state bodies and military authorities as soon as possible."

May 11, 2014 at 6:59 PM

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