Ukraine president holds security meeting in Kyiv
Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has called an emergency meeting of security services as pro-Russian demonstrators take to the streets of several cities demanding referendum and autonomy.
The meeting was held in the capital Kyiv after protesters stormed into government buildings in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Lugansk in on Sunday.
The protesters called an emergency session of the regional council to start by midnight.
They also warned that they would dissolve the regional council and establish a people’s council instead if there’s no quorum by midnight.
“Deputies of the regional council should convene before midnight and take the decision to carry out a referendum,” a protest leader told the crowd over a loudspeaker.
Protesters in Kharkiv also entered the regional state administration building after breaking through police lines.
Meanwhile, in Odessa, Ukraine’s third largest city, people were gathering to hold a demonstration.
Tensions between the Western powers and Moscow heightened after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and formally applied to become part of the Russian Federation following a referendum on March 16, in which nearly 97 percent of voters in Crimea chose to rejoin Russia.
On March 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law documents that officially made the Black Sea peninsula part of the Russian territory despite condemnation from the West and the new Ukrainian government.
The move sparked angry reactions from the US and the European Union, both imposing punitive measures against a number of Russian officials and authorities in Crimea.
NT/MAM/AS