[Live] Ukraine: Pro-Russian separatists reinforce barricades in Luhansk and …
Pro-Russian separatists reinforced barricades and prepared petrol bombs on Wednesday at a security services building they have seized in the east Ukrainian city of Luhansk after the government in Kyiv warned it could use force to restore order.
The building is one of several in the east of the country seized by protesters demanding regional referendums on independence from Kyiv, similar to the one that led to Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region last month.
A police spokeswoman said reports that hostages had been taken in Luhansk were incorrect. The protesters have also denied the reports.
Protesters in Donetsk, to the south, remain in control of the main regional authority building, but authorities have ended the occupation in the city of Kharkiv.
“A resolution to this crisis will be found within the next 48 hours,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told reporters in the capital Kyiv
The Ukrainian government says the occupations are part of a Russian-led plan to dismember the country, a charge Moscow denies.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russian agents and special forces on Tuesday of stirring separatist unrest and said Moscow could be trying to prepare for military action as it had in Crimea.
Russia denied the accusations on Wednesday and dismissed concerns over a troop buildup near the border with Ukraine in what has become the worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War in 1991.