Ukraine crisis: separatist in Donetsk proclaims ‘people’s government’

The city was the political support base of Ukraine’s ousted president, Viktor
Yanukovych and has not adjusted well to his downfall. Two days before Mr
Gubarev and friends stormed the building, the Russian flag was erected on
the roof. But despite setting a referendum on autonomy, the provincial
council was effectively ousted by more radical elements from the street.

The organisers of the rally have denied accusations that protestors were
bussed in from Russia to take part in rallies. One local activist said
members of the crowd spoke with the distinct hard g-sound common in the
Rostov region just over the border.

“I sure they were paid to participate in those numbers but I have to say
unfortunately that most of the people are from this city,” a city
journalist who witnessed the storming of the building said.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, acknowledged those reports in the House
of Commons on Tuesday, warning the presence of Russian-backed provocateurs
was a “serious possibility”.

For many in Donetsk, the interim Ukrainian leadership put in place when Mr
Yanukovych fled, failed to win their confidence from the outset. The passage
of a now annulled law removing Russian as an official language alienated
eastern cities, such as Donetsk.

Natalia Kuzemko, a 50-year-old shop owner and supporter of Mr Gubarev, angrily
accused the west of Ukraine of refusing to accept the will of the majority. “It’s
not that we all love Yanukovych – he broke many of his promises to us – but
we were prepared to wait for the chance to vote him out,” she said. “But
the minority in the west of Ukraine, who lost the last election, were not
prepared to do that and rose up to throw out the system. That’s why we are
angry and are looking at our historical place in Ukraine. This area was
Cossack and was drafted into the Ukraine Soviet by Lenin. If it can be drawn
in, it can be drawn out. We want a say.”

The imposition of a prominent business tycoon, Sergey Taruta, a billionaire,
as regional governor has also annoyed many in the town.

Mr Taruta is worth an estimated £1.2 billion but his appointment has been
condemned as a backward step in the fight against the heartily resented
power of elite oligarchs in Ukrainian politics.

“We have had this man imposed on us,” said Sergey Molchan, 28,
unemployed. “It is an illegitimate move by an illegal authority that we
reject. Where is our president?”

Beyond the immediate grounds of the council offices, the Russian-speaking
residents of Donetsk, which is the centre of Ukraine’s mining and metals
industries, were ambivalent or critical of the takeover.

Alexander Vanshi, a well-known activist, has organised a “self-defence
force” to prevent other installations being taken over by Gubarev. The
25-year-old has installed himself at the foot of the city centre’s hulking
statue of Lenin. With a walkie-talkie that is tuned on two channels he
co-ordinates a network of activists deployed on the look-out for trouble.

“It’s our role to ensure the city remains stable and calm until we can
have a referendum on our future. If there are serious clashes that disrupt
the city others will use this as a pretext to decide our future for us,”
he said.

Asked why he had set up his post under the gaze of the founder of the Soviet
Union, Mr Vanshi pointed up the road to the city hall. “We are
protecting a monument so that it doesn’t become one of the Vladimir Lenins
that have fallen to the mood of destruction. People are being made
aggressive in this town and if that happened those on the rampage up there
would want to destroy something from the other side in revenge.”

Hundreds of Donetsk residents sympathetic to Kyiv’s revolutionaries turned out
on the streets of the city last night for a counter-demonstration against
the self-appointed leadership. It passed off peacefully.