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2 Southeast Ukrainian regions to hold referendum May 11 as planned
“This is not our decision [of the politicians] , this is the decision of people of Donbas region,” said Andrey Purgin, one of the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, “People of Donbas [Region] got their chance to make a heroic deed and we can’t deprive them from this chance.”The councils of the People’s Republics of two southeastern cities of Donetsk and Lugansk won’t postpone the referendums on their regions’ future as part of Ukraine and will hold them as planned on May, 11, the cities’ anti-government activists said.
The decision of holding a referendum as scheduled was approved on the council of People’s Republic of Donetsk unanimously.
“People don’t trust Kiev authorities,” Miroslav Rudenko, one of the Donbas self-defense leaders, told Interfax, “Also the reaction of [coup-appointed PM Arseny] Yatsenyuk to the proposal of Russian President [calling for an end to Kiev’s military operation] was inadequate.”
According to another self-defense leader Denis Pushilin, “the region’s people are determined to organize the referendum.”
“There are millions of people who are ready to cast their votes,” he added.
Meanwhile, the council of the People’s Republic of another eastern Ukrainian city, Lugansk, has decided not to postpone the upcoming referendum and to organize it on May 11, said Vasily Nikitin, from the press service which is organizing the referendum.
“The referendum will take place as planned. The ballots have been already arrived at the polling stations,”said Nikitin.
According to him, at the referendum people will be asked if they “support the state independence of People’s Republic of Lugansk.”
He also added that the results of the referendum on the region’s future will be announced Monday.
Leonid Slutsky, the Chairman of the Russia’s State Duma Committee on the Commonwealth of Independent States, said that the refusal of Donetsk and Lugansk regions to postpone the upcoming referendums is their sovereign right.
Russia by proposing to postpone the referendums wanted only to “solve the conflict peacefully and not to allow further escalation of crisis in Ukraine,” he said.
He added that Russia won’t send observers to Donetsk and Lugansk as these referendums are “their internal affair.”
Meanwhile, the Kremlin will analyze the situation on eastern Ukraine’s refusal to postpone the referendum, said President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
He added that Kremlin hasn’t yet received any proposals from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Ukraine’s crisis.
In April, activists in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, announced they were planning to hold a referendum on their regions’ future as part of Ukraine on Sunday, May 11.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on anti-government protesters in southeastern Ukraine to postpone their May 11 federalization referendums.
“We are calling for southeast Ukraine representatives, supporters of federalization of the country, to postpone the May 11 referendum to create the necessary conditions for dialogue,” Putin said at a press conference with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss President Didier Burkhalter in Moscow.
Ukraine’s coup-appointed PM Arseny Yatsenyuk criticized Putin’s proposal to postpone the referendum.
“The fact that Russia asks to postpone some referendum? Then we need to inform the Russian president that Ukraine hasn’t planned any referendum on May 11. And if terrorists and separatists, who are supported by Russia, were ordered to postpone what wasn’t planned, then it’s their internal affairs,” he said.
Kiev on Thursday said the military operation in the south-east of Ukraine will continue, regardless of the decision made on the regional referendum.
Earlier Thursday, the head of Ukrainian National Security and Defense Committee, Andrey Parubiy, said that the military operation in the southeast of Ukraine will continue, regardless of the decision made on the Donetsk regional referendum.
“The counter-terrorist operation will continue unhindered, despite the presence of terrorist and insurgent groups in the Donetsk region,” he said.
Russia holds military drills to repel nuclear strike
"We are carrying out tests of the readiness of the Russian armed forces. It was announced last November. The exercises will involve all branches of the armed forces across the country," Putin told reporters at the Defense Ministry.
Modern challenges and threats to the country’s national security demand that the army and the fleet are maintained in readiness for quick and effective retaliation in any conditions, the Russian Defense Minister and army general Sergey Shoigu told Putin in a report.
During the drills, it was demonstrated how the missile corps, artillery, aviation and anti-aircraft defenses can be used – for instance, to destroy troops on the ground or to counter massive missile, aviation or nuclear strikes by an enemy.
Plus, it was shown how to inflict a launch-through-attack strike with nuclear missiles.
The training exercises, which are due to include ground troops and artillery as well as the air force, were held during a summit of heads of state of a security bloc made up of former Soviet states.
Led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian aerospace defense troops have successfully overridden a massive nuclear missile strike, an official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry told RIA Novosti news agency.
"At the Priozersk training area (Kazakhstan), a successful interception of a ballistic target by a short-range countermissile was carried out. A massive rocket nuclear strike was repelled by a ballistic missile defense unit of air and missile defense troops," the representative said.
The representative also detailed that the combat crews of Armies of Aerospace Defense have discovered and accompanied the ballistic targets with the launch of a short-range interception missile of the Amur complex.
“The anti-missile system successfully struck the target that imitated a ballistic rocket,” the representative added.
The strategic weapon carrier Tu-95MC conducted launches of six cruise missiles aiming at targets on the ground in the aviation training area of the Western military district, as part of the drills.
The simulated targets were key facilities of military infrastructure of a hypothetical enemy.
All the targets were hit as planned, Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed.
The presidents of Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan observed the drills from the Russian National Defense Command Center.
Strategic bomber aircraft and underwater missile carriers of the Pacific and Northern fleets were involved in the drills. Also, strategic land-based mobile missile systems, as well as the missile corps of the Southern and Central military districts, participated in the tests.
Ukrainian military surround Mariupol City Hall, shoot at protesters (VIDEO)
Armed Ukrainian men have surrounded Mariupol City Council building. Reports suggest they were deployed to dismantle barricades, but as anti-Kiev activists tried to negotiate, the armed men opened fire.
In footage from the scene, a group of armed men is seen guarding barricades and the building, freed of protesters. They shoot in the air from time to time. As a man approaches them and tries to speak, a military-clad man aims his weapon at the ground and starts shooting, close to the protester’s feet.
“The man tried to prevent them from dismantling barricades, military started shooting. First two shot were in the air, the third – in his foot,” local “0629” news website reported. It said the man was taken to a hospital.
A crowd of locals gathered outside the building as, they said they heard the shooting. According to media estimates, by 14:00 local time nearly 200 people came to the city council. They chanted anti-government slogans and shouted at police accusing them of letting armed men freely shoot in the city.
Some of the protesters set a row of tires ablaze. Black smoke was seen billowing over the building.
The fire was shortly put out by the fire brigade.
At around 15:00 local time, the armed men left.
According to a local man who spoke to RT, they “left on two or three” buses.
“It all finished as they left,” he said. “When they left, people started putting barricades back together,” he added.
Local Mariupolnews website suggested the armed men, supposedly from the National Guard, were deployed to dismantle barricades that protesters left after the Interior Troops seized the building.
In the past two days, there has been fighting between anti-Kiev protesters and the country’s armed forces, who in turns were taking control over the city council. There were reports that on May, 7 interior troops used toxic gas as they stormed the administration building.
However, in the afternoon of that same day, anti-Kiev activists managed to retake the building and raise the flag of the People’s Republic of Donetsk.
Kiev has been conducting a new stage of the military operation against autonomy supporters in the country’s south-east starting May, 2.
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Kive to stop the military operation in the southeast of the country. But the latter opted to ignore the call.
“The counterterrorist operation will go on regardless of any decisions by any subversive or terrorist groups in the Donetsk region,” Andrey Parubiy told reporters in Kiev.
Armed group stages provocation at Ukraine-Russia border checkpoint
It was a surprize that the attack on the checkpoint Izvarino on Russian-Ukrainian border did actually happen, despite earlier warnings of such provocations being planned, a source in the Russian power structures told RIA Novosti.
“Despite information which has appeared the day before of preparation of such a provocation, SBU [Security Service] of Ukraine together with Right Sector did carry it out after all, without even inventing anything new,” the source said.
“It is not the first time that Ukrainian radicals used men in camouflaged black uniforms, without identification marks and with St. George's Ribbons,” the source added implying that it is “no secret” for Ukrainians that men in black belong to ultra-nationalist groups armed and equipped by the Kiev authorities.
An armed provocation on Thursday was staged by people in black uniforms without any insignia but bearing St. George ribbons, a symbol of the pro-federalization resistance, the head of Russia's Federal Customs Service Andrey Belyaninov confirmed to RIA.
According to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, at around 18:00 local time, two minibuses carrying around 40 men drove towards the Izvarino crossing, Iterfax reports. As the buses were going through the registration process as if about to leave Ukraine, the armed men, wearing black camouflage and with St. George's ribbons got out of the bus, surrounding the Ukrainian guards at gun point.
The armed men demanded the border guard officers lay down weapons. The border troops however, refused to obey, and took up positions to defend the checkpoint. The disguised armed assailants threw several Molotov cocktails at the checkpoint before retreating and driving away back to the Ukrainian side. The fire at the crossing has destroyed one of the booths, but was soon extinguished. Ukrainian border guards suffered minor injuries.
On Wednesday, a source within the Ukrainian security services, warned RIA about the planned provocations by members of the Right Sector reportedly coordinated by Ukraine's Security Services. According to the source a special body guard unit of Dnepropetrovsk governor Igor Kolomoysky was sent from Kiev to Donetsk to help the Right Sector stage attacks on the border crossings disguised as the Russian military. Furthermore, the staged attacks were to be taped, as to provide false evidence of Russian involvement. The group of about 20 men reportedly transported a cargo of about 200 sets of Russian military uniforms as well as about 70 blank Russian military IDs, according to the source.
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