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Pro Russians take control of key buildings

Armed men take over more cities and buildings in eastern Ukraine
Slavyansk (Ukraine) : Kalashnikov wielding gunmen on Saturday seized a police station and a security building in Ukraine’s restive eastern industrial heartland amid spreading protests to press for the heavily Russified region to join Kremlin rule.
The coordinated attacks and a subsequent raid by a few hundred pro Russian protesters on the police headquarters of the local capital Donetsk underscored the volatility of the crisis ahead of peace talks between EU and US diplomats and their Moscow and Kiev counterparts in Geneva on Thursday.
Ukraine’s interim leaders have been facing unceasing pressure from Russia since their February ouster of an unpopular Kremlin backed president and decision to seek closer ties with the West. Ukraine’s interior minister said on Saturday that pro Kremlin gunmen had opened fire on police stations in two heavily Russified eastern cities and blamed the attacks on Moscow’s “aggression” while a meeting was convened by acting President Oleksandr Turchynov to address the seizures of buildings.
( Source : AFP )
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