Two eastern Ukrainian provinces will go ahead with a referendum on seceding from the country as planned this weekend despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call for a delay, separatist leaders told Russia’s Interfax news agency on Thursday.
“The referendum on May 11 will take place,” said Miroslav Rudenko, a separatist leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
The secession referendum will let the 3 million residents of the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk vote on whether they want to stay part of Ukraine. Ukrainians opposed to a split see it as a precursor to an eventual merger with Russia, as happened with Crimea in March.
Separatist leaders said they were merely following popular opinion.
“This is not our decision. This is the decision of the people of the region of Donbas,” Andriy Purgin, using a colloquial name for the region, told the Itar-Tass news agency.
Pro-Russian activists in the Luhansk region also confirmed plans to go ahead with the referendum, saying a citizen’s council had given the go-ahead.
The move comes amid worries that tensions could boil over into violence on Friday. May 9 is the day when Russia and Ukraine traditionally commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Some say this year’s festivities could degenerate into violence.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk attacked Russia in a statement, referring to the country’s attack against Ukraine in 1941, during World War II. He said Friday’s Victory Day celebrations would be the first since 1945 conducted “under war conditions.” “In light of this foreign aggression and terrorism, the Ukraine values more than ever the immortal heroes who defended peace 69 years ago,” he said, warning against provocations and sabotage on Friday.
The decision to proceed with the referendum drew reprisal from the European Union.
“Such unauthorised local referenda have no democratic legitimacy and can only lead to further escalation,” said Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for E.U. foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
The decision to stay the course with the referendums came as Ukrainian officials said military efforts to clear separatist strongholds would continue.
And they both came after a brief window of opportunity seemed to open in which both sides said they could countenance talks to calm the situation, albeit under conditions that would have unlikely been acceptable to each side.
The separatists have been storming government buildings for weeks, prompting the government to send out anti-terrorism units. This has led to clashes and deaths. The government has said it is losing control of the region.
A spat also continued between Russia and the West about whether or not Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s border had been drawn down. U.S. and NATO forces insist that the troops remain in place, which prompted Russian officials to tweet overnight that anyone who couldn’t see the withdrawal had vision problems.
“I have very good vision, but, while we’ve noted Russia’s statement, so far we haven’t seen any — any — indication of troops pulling back,” said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
“If we saw visible signs of a meaningful pullback by Russia troops I’d be the first one to welcome it.” Adding to the worries, Russian military forces on Thursday tested three multi-stage nuclear missiles on its own territory. Russia said the tests were long-planned and conducted under Mr. Putin’s supervision, along with tests of several cruise missiles.
Ms. Kocijancic, Ms. Ashton’s spokeswoman, said the E.U. does not believe claims by Mr. Putin that Russia had no influence on separatists in Ukraine.
“We have always maintained that these pro-Russian separatists have the Russian backing,” Ms. Kocijancic said, adding, “In this respect we... repeat our calls on Russia to exercise influence in that way.” Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called upon Putin to focus on ways to de-escalate the situation.
“The onus lies upon President Putin to get the pro-Russian forces in the Ukraine to lay down their weapons and call for occupied buildings to be cleared,” she said in comments carried by the Rheinischen Post newspaper.
Work is also under way to extend an E.U. sanctions list, which could for the first time also include entities in Crimea, according to E.U. sources. The decision could be taken at a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers on Monday.
The bloc has so far placed travel bans and asset freezes on 48 individuals for their role in destabilizing Ukraine.
The European Union is now looking at changing its sanctions criteria, which have so far stipulated that entities can only be targeted if they are associated with individuals on the list, an E.U. source said.
This linkage would be lifted in the case of Crimea, she said.
