Reuters, Ukraine :
Armed pro-Russia separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk rejected Kiev’s offer of amnesty for those who seized government buildings this week and called on others to defy the pro-European government in Kiev.
Protesters wearing bullet-proof vests and armed with Kalashnikov rifles, pistols and other guns inside the security building, a former KGB headquarters, said they would only lay down their weapons if Kiev agreed to hold a referendum on the future of the region.
“We demand concretely a referendum on federalization so that the will of the people is heard,” said Aleksei Kolekin, one of the protest leaders barricaded into the five-storey building in Luhansk.
The demands, which echo the steps the Ukrainian territory of Crimea took before it declared independence and voted to join Russia, have been rejected by Kiev, which says the occupations are part of a Russian-led plan to dismember the country.
Armed pro-Russia separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk rejected Kiev’s offer of amnesty for those who seized government buildings this week and called on others to defy the pro-European government in Kiev.
Protesters wearing bullet-proof vests and armed with Kalashnikov rifles, pistols and other guns inside the security building, a former KGB headquarters, said they would only lay down their weapons if Kiev agreed to hold a referendum on the future of the region.
“We demand concretely a referendum on federalization so that the will of the people is heard,” said Aleksei Kolekin, one of the protest leaders barricaded into the five-storey building in Luhansk.
The demands, which echo the steps the Ukrainian territory of Crimea took before it declared independence and voted to join Russia, have been rejected by Kiev, which says the occupations are part of a Russian-led plan to dismember the country.
