Donetsk (Ukraine): Voting began on Sunday in referendums called by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine to split from the rest of the ex-Soviet republic, polls the US slammed as “illegal” as the West fears they could spark civil war. The vote, carried out as two “referendums” in provinces where the insurgents hold more than a dozen towns, marks a serious deepening of the political crisis in Ukraine, which has pushed East-West relations to lows not seen since the end of the Cold War.
Although a “yes” vote would likely be recognised only by Russia, it would greatly undermine a presidential election Ukraine is to hold in two weeks, which the United States and the European Union see as crucial to restoring stability. And they come as fighting continued in eastern Ukraine, with several explosions heard overnight in the flashpoint town of Slavyansk as the Kiev authorities try to flush the rebels from towns they control.
Troops have been battling the well-armed separatists, who have barricaded themselves in towns and cities in the two provinces where the votes are taking place: Donetsk and Lugansk. Interim Ukrainian president Oleksandr Turchynov warned that voting for independence would be a “step into the abyss” for these regions and lead to the “total destruction” of the economy there. The United States warned Russia of imposing greater costs on Moscow if it continues to destabilise its neighbouring country.
“As the United States has said, the referenda being planned for May 11 in portions of eastern Ukraine by armed separatist groups are illegal under Ukrainian law and are an attempt to create further division and disorder,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said. Despite rebel claims that the polling will reach 90 per cent of the seven million people living in these two provinces, the areas they hold account for less than half that population. They decided to go ahead with the vote despite a public request made by Russian President Vladimir Putin to postpone it.
French President Francois Hollande on Sunday denounced separatist votes by pro-Russian rebels as “null and void”. “I don’t want to call them referendums. They have no legitimacy and no legalit,” he said adding that only Ukraine’s presidential vote on May 25 mattered.
