|
 Announcing the result of the vote in one of the two provinces
where it was held, a leader of the "People's Republic of Donetsk",
Denis Pushilin, said it was now an independent state and would
appeal to join the Russian Federation.
"The people of Donetsk have always been part of the Russian world.
For us, the history of Russia is our history," he said.
"Based on the will of the people and on the restoration of historic
justice, we ask the Russian Federation to consider the absorption of
the Donetsk People's Republic into the Russian Federation," he told
a news conference.
There and in neighboring Luhansk, some officials said they might now
hold a second referendum on joining Russia, like one held in Crimea,
a Ukrainian region Moscow seized and annexed in March after
protesters ousted Ukraine's pro-Russian president.
Donetsk and Luhansk together are home to 6.5 million people and
represent around a third of Ukraine's industrial output. Their
declarations create the biggest new self-proclaimed independent
states in Europe since Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet
Union itself broke up more than 20 years ago.
Donetsk separatists said that more than 80 percent of voters had
supported independence. Those in Luhansk said more than 96 percent
did.
The government in Kiev and its Western supporters say the exercise
was absurd, with no legal basis, insecure polling stations, old
voter lists, ballots that could be easily reproduced and
self-proclaimed election officials openly promoting secession. They
say many residents support a united Ukraine but would have stayed
home, both out of fear of rebel gunmen and to avoid lending the vote
credibility.
Unlike in Crimea, Moscow has not recognized the two regions as
independent from Kiev and has said nothing to suggest it would
endorse their absorption into Russia. President Vladimir Putin even
called last week for the referendum to be postponed.
But Moscow indicated clearly on Monday that it intends to use the
results of the referendums to put more pressure on the government in
Kiev to recognize the rebels in the east as a legitimate side in
talks.
"We believe that the results of the referendum should be brought to
life within the framework of dialogue between Kiev, Donetsk and
Luhansk," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
It accused the Kiev government of a "criminal lack of readiness for
dialogue with their own people".
The Russian stance appears calculated to entrench Moscow's allies in
control of Ukraine's industrial heartland without taking the sort of
overt steps - sending in ground forces or formally recognizing the
regions' split from Kiev - that might invite tough sanctions from
the West.
The mayor of Slaviansk, a small city in the Donetsk region that has
become the most heavily fortified rebel redoubt, said Ukrainian
troops were now occupiers, and Russian troops should be invited to
help defend the area.
"They should go," Vyacheslav Ponomaryov said of Ukrainian forces.
"We're going to defend our territory." As for bringing in Russian
forces: "I support this. We need Russian troops to provide stability
and a peaceful life in the region's future."
The European Union added the names of 13 people and two Crimean
firms on Monday to a list of those facing asset freezes and travel
bans, measures Moscow has mocked as pointless.
The new names include Putin's first deputy chief of staff,
Vyacheslav Volodin, but notably exclude bosses of big Russian
companies. Earlier U.S. lists have included the head of Russia's
biggest oil company and the co-founder of a big oil trader, but not
the firms themselves, which say operations are unaffected.
But both Brussels and Washington have so far eschewed wider
"sectoral sanctions" on Russian industry designed to hurt Russia's
economy more broadly, despite repeatedly threatening to impose them.
The EU does more than 10 times as much trade with Russia as the
United States, and big companies have lobbied against sanctions that
would hurt their business.
The United States and European Union both said they would not
recognize the results of the "illegal" referendum.
"We will not recognize the so-called referendums of yesterday. They
are illegal, illegitimate and incredible," Herman Van Rompuy,
president of the European Council of EU leaders, told a news
conference in the Ukrainian capital.
However, in the latest sign that the West is not ready to impose
more serious economic measures, diplomatic sources said France would
press ahead with a 1.2 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) contract to sell
helicopter carrier ships to Russia because cancelling it would hurt
Paris more than Moscow.
INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND
Losing control of Donetsk and Luhansk would be a crippling blow for
Ukraine, a country of around 45 million people the size of France
and facing bankruptcy after half a year of turmoil.
[to top of second column] |
Donetsk and Luhansk yield more than 15 percent of Ukraine's GDP,
including around a third of its industrial output from the giant
steel smelters and other heavy industry of the Donbass, one of
Europe's most productive coal-producing regions.
If they slip out of Kiev's control without being formally absorbed
by Moscow, they would become by far the biggest and most
economically important of the self-proclaimed independent statelets
Russia protects in other parts of the ex-Soviet Union. Since the
early 1990s Russian troops have shielded breakaway statelets in a
sliver of Moldova and two parts of Georgia, but all three of those
regions combined have barely an eighth of the population of Donetsk
and Luhansk.
The International Monetary Fund, which is arranging a bailout of
Ukraine's finances, has said it would have to renegotiate if Kiev
lost control of the east.
The government in Kiev and Western nations accuse Russia of stirring
up unrest in the east following the overthrow of president Viktor
Yanukovich in February by protesters demanding closer links with
Europe.
Since March, Putin has overturned decades of post-Cold War diplomacy
by announcing Russia's right to intervene in Ukraine, taking over
Crimea and massing tens of thousands of troops on the frontier.
Putin said last week he had withdrawn the troops from the border
area, but Washington and NATO said this was not true. They also say
Russian special forces are active on the ground, which Moscow
denies.
Ukraine's acting President Oleksander Turchinov accused Russia of
working to overthrow legitimate state power in Ukraine. He said the
Kremlin was trying to disrupt a Ukrainian presidential election
later this month.
Eastern Ukraine has been plagued by turmoil as Kiev has staged a
largely failed military operation to regain control of towns held by
the separatists. Authorities said 49 people have been killed in
violence in the region of Donetsk since March 13.
REPUBLIC OF LUHANSK
The rebels have given differing accounts of their precise plans.
However, participating in the Ukrainian presidential election on May
25 is clearly ruled out.
"As of today, we are now the Republic of Luhansk, which believes it
to be inappropriate and perhaps even stupid to hold a presidential
election," Russia's RIA news agency cited a spokesman for rebels in
that region as saying.
While some rebels seem content with independence, some have publicly
supported pressing for annexation by Russia.
"This land was never Ukraine ... We speak Russian," said Ponomaryov
in Slaviansk. Asked about a possible second referendum to join
Russia, he said: "There has been no decision, but this referendum
showed we are prepared ... We can put on an election or referendum
at short notice at barely any cost."
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said rebels had made a new
attempt overnight to seize a television tower on the edge of
Slaviansk. Eastern regions of Ukraine receive Russian state
television, which has broadcast relentless accounts of a threat from
"fascists" in Kiev. Ukraine has struggled to keep its own television
stations on the air in the region.
"The information war that they are waging against us in the Donbass
is more dangerous than a bullet," he wrote on Facebook.
But there was hint of compromise in the port of Mariupol, scene of
fierce fighting between Ukrainian forces and rebels over the last
week. Turchinov said police had begun patrols with a volunteer
militia set up by Metinvest, a firm mostly owned by Ukraine's
wealthiest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who controls much of the industry in
Donetsk.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, Lidia Kelly in
Moscow, Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels, John Irish,
Marine Pennetier and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris; Writing by Peter
Graff; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
