Pro-Russian separatists vow to proceed with referendum despite Putin’s plea
Pro-Russian separatists vow to proceed with referendum despite Putin’s plea
(about 3 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine vowed Thursday to go ahead with a referendum on independence, defying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprise call for Sunday’s vote to be postponed.
DONETSK, Ukraine — Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine vowed Thursday to press ahead with a referendum on independence, defying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprise call for Sunday’s vote to be postponed.
The coordinating committee of a group attempting to establish a “Donetsk People’s Republic” announced its decision following a meeting Thursday. Denis Pushilin, the group’s leader, said the vote by the 78 deputies was unanimous.
Having captured government buildings across eastern Ukraine and vehemently denounced the interim government in Kiev as fascists, the leaders of the self-styled “Donetsk People’s Republic” argued that they would lose credibility if they canceled the vote.
“People want the referendum,” Pushilin told a packed news conference in Donetsk. “And it’s not just a few people; it’s millions of people who want the referendum.”
“People want the referendum,” Denis Pushilin, a prominent leader of the group, told a packed news conference in Donetsk. “And it’s not just a few people; it’s millions of people who want the referendum.”
Flanked by other separatist leaders in the captured regional state administration building, Pushilin said: “Civil war has already begun. The referendum can put a stop to it and start a political process.”
Flanked by other separatist leaders in the captured regional state administration building, Pushilin said their group’s 78 deputies had decided unanimously to go ahead after a meeting Thursday. “Civil war has already begun,” he said. “The referendum can put a stop to it and start a political process.”
Shortly afterward, a separatist group in Luhansk said it, too, would proceed with the vote, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
Another separatist group in Luhansk, the capital of the neighboring region, also decided to ahead, the rebels in Donetsk said.
Roman Lyagin, chairman of the Central Election Committee of the self-styled People’s Republic, said members of the separatist group believed they would lose the trust of their followers if they postponed the referendum.
“If we cancel the referendum, we will lose the trust of the people,” said Roman Lyagin, chairman of the separatists’ Central Election Committee. “If we postpone the referendum, there won’t be a referendum.”
“If we postpone the referendum, there won’t be a referendum,” Lyagin said.
[READ: Who are these men defying both Putin and Kiev?]
[READ: Who are these men defying both Putin and Kiev?]
The decision to proceed with the vote was an apparent rebuff to Putin, whose remarks Wednesday took a more conciliatory tone than previously and appeared to be an attempt to pull Ukraine back from an escalating cycle of violence.
The decision to proceed with the vote could be seen as a rebuff to Putin, whose call Wednesday for a postponement struck a more conciliatory tone than his previous statements on Ukraine. His remarks in a news conference appeared to be an attempt to pull Ukraine back from an escalating cycle of violence.
Putin’s statement that he may be willing to recognize a Ukrainian national election later this month also marked a shift from the hard line that Putin and other top Russian officials have taken toward the acting government in Kiev, which took power after pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych fled in February in the face of popular protests.
But the separatists clearly felt they had little choice but to press on: canceling the vote would leave them without even a fig leaf of popular legitimacy and deflate their movement, perhaps fatally.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk dismissed Putin’s statement as a hollow gesture from the man whose nation is actively stirring separatist tensions in Ukraine. Speaking to reporters in Kharkiv, Yatsenyuk said Putin was trying to “sell air.”
In any case, Putin’s real intentions remained hard to read; analysts in Moscow said he could be playing a double game, disassociating Russia from what is likely to be a deeply flawed referendum while maintaining flexibility in how to respond.
Yatsenyuk said the referendum that Putin now wants to postpone lacked any legitimacy in the first place, and he called on Russia to focus instead on withdrawing its support for “subversive groups in the territory of Ukraine” and carrying out its previous promises to resolve the crisis through diplomacy.
“His strategy is to keep as many possibilities for himself as he can, include the possibility for compromise and the possibility to make things stricter,” said Alexei Makarkin at the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies. “Russia is trying to distance itself from the separatists, but if referendums are held, Russia might be able to benefit from them. But there is no guarantee the referendums will be a success. That’s why Russia does not want to be part of them.”
In Washington, the State Department issued a new travel warning for Ukraine, urging Americans to defer all nonessential travel to the country. It also warned U.S. citizens to “defer all travel,” including that deemed “essential,” to several areas — including Crimea, the city of Odessa and the eastern regions of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk — “due to the possibility of violent clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian groups and the presence of Russian military forces” in Crimea and on Ukraine’s eastern border.
In a departure from his previous hard-line attitude toward the pro-Western interim government in Kiev, Putin argued Wednesday that putting off the referendum would help create “necessary conditions of dialogue,” and he even expressed qualified support for Ukraine’s May 25 presidential and mayoral elections.
Feeding a sense that the let-up in tensions was fleeting, Putin on Thursday led major military exercises that simulated a response to a massive attack on Russian soil, defense officials in Moscow said. Kremlin-backed television channels showed vast salvos being fired across Russia, including intercontinental ballistic missiles from submarines, at least one other from land, cruise missiles from a Tupolev TU-95S bomber and scores of Grad rockets raining down on a practice range.
But if Putin were offering an olive branch, Ukraine’s government seemed to choose not to grasp it — or to trust him. Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk dismissed Putin’s statement as a hollow gesture from a man he said is actively stirring separatist tensions in Ukraine, and he accused Putin of trying to “sell air.”
Putin said the strikes were part of exercises that were planned in November.
Yatsenyuk told reporters in the eastern city of Kharkiv that the referendum lacked any legitimacy in the first place, and he called on Russia instead to withdraw its support for “subversive groups in the territory of Ukraine” and to carry out its previous promises to resolve the crisis through diplomacy.
“We have all had a chance to see for ourselves the high readiness and concerted action of our country’s strategic offensive and defensive forces,” Putin said Thursday.
Feeding a sense that the let-up in tensions was fleeting, Putin on Thursday led major military exercises that simulated a response to a massive attack on Russian soil, defense officials in Moscow said.
“Militant nationalism that once led to the emergence of the Nazi ideology is again rearing its head in Europe,” Putin added. “We won’t dwell on each particular hotbed. We know where we face this danger.”
Kremlin-backed television channels showed vast salvos being fired across Russia, including intercontinental ballistic missiles from submarines, cruise missiles from a Tupolev bomber and scores of Grad rockets raining down on a practice range.
Putin said Russia intends to act within the framework of agreements reached Wednesday with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and that he seeks a “direct and equal dialogue between the current authorities in Kiev and representatives of the southeastern regions of Ukraine.”
Putin said the strikes were part of exercises that were planned in November to demonstrate the high readiness of the country’s “strategic offensive and defensive forces.”
Ukrainian authorities have said they are not willing to negotiate with separatists who have seized buildings in cities across eastern Ukraine.
“Militant nationalism that once led to the emergence of the Nazi ideology is again rearing its head in Europe,” Putin added. “We won’t dwell on each particular hotbed. We know where we face this danger.” His remarks were likely to be interpreted as a warning to a Ukrainian government widely portrayed by Russian media as fascist.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that Ukrainian authorities’ skepticism about a call for a cease-fire in Ukraine “causes deep concern.”
Putin said he seeks a “direct and equal dialogue between the current authorities in Kiev and representatives of the southeastern regions of Ukraine.” But the Kiev government has said it is not willing to negotiate with “terrorists,” and Ukrainian forces have been conducting intermittent military operations to try to recapture territory.
“Immediate stopping of the use of force, firstly using the regular army, and practical steps to disarm illegal armed forces and formations are a compulsory precondition” to resolving the crisis, the ministry said. It also said that holding elections on May 25 would be “senseless” unless Kiev stopped using force and agreed to a nationwide dialogue about the Ukrainian constitution.
The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern” about the military operations and Ukraine’s failure to disarm “illegal armed forces.” It also said that holding elections on May 25 would be “senseless” unless Kiev stopped using force and agreed to a nationwide dialogue about the Ukrainian constitution.
In a belated response to additional sanctions imposed early last week by the United States and Canada, the Foreign Ministry also announced it was instituting a new blacklist of people who were not allowed to travel to Russia. It said the list would not be made public. Moscow banned nine U.S. lawmakers and Obama administration officials in March in response to an initial round of sanctions.
Putin asserted Wednesday that he has withdrawn Russian troops from the Ukrainian border. The claim was swiftly disputed by the Pentagon and NATO, sparking a Twitter spat Thursday between the Russian Foreign Ministry and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The former Danish prime minister said he had seen no sign of a withdrawal.
Putin asserted Wednesday that he has withdrawn Russian troops from the Ukrainian border. The claim was swiftly disputed by the Pentagon and NATO, sparking a Twitter spat Thursday between the Russian Foreign Ministry and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The former Danish prime minister said he had seen no sign of a withdrawal.
After the ministry tweeted that Rasmussen was “blind,” he responded that “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.”
After the ministry tweeted that Rasmussen was “blind,” he responded that “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.”
The Russian Defense Ministry also weighed in Thursday, denouncing U.S. and NATO officials’ statements about the deployments. “Stop cynically misleading the international community concerning the real state of affairs on the Russian-Ukrainian border,” Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters, Interfax reported.
In a statement posted on NATO’s Web site, Rasmussen said Thursday that the Ukrainian crisis has increased the urgency for alliance members to develop their military capabilities and reverse declines in defense spending.
In a statement posted on NATO’s Web site, Rasmussen said Thursday that the Ukrainian crisis has increased the urgency for alliance members to develop their military capabilities and reverse declines in defense spending.
“The crisis shows us more clearly than ever that defense matters. That collective defense matters,” Rasmussen said following talks in Warsaw with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The separatists called the referendum to decide whether the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the nation’s industrial heartland of Donetsk and Luhansk, should declare independence.
In eastern Ukraine, the reaction of some pro-Russian separatists reflected uncertainty about whether Putin’s efforts would actually rein in violence, including whether Russia retained control over the bands of armed separatists who have taken over cities across the region and whether his proposals were palatable to the Ukrainians.
But with little coordination or trust among separatist leaders in different cities across the region, it was far from clear what a putative new republic would look like.
“My personal position is that we need to conduct this referendum because the people of Donbas want it,” said Boris Litvinov, a leader of the referendum effort. Donbas refers to the Donets Basin, the heart of the eastern Ukrainian area that the separatists want to carve away from the central government in Kiev. Litvinov said the referendum would be conducted peacefully despite the tense standoff between separatist militants and Ukrainian forces in the area.
There was also widespread skepticism about the separatists’ ability to stage a referendum with even a minimum of credibility.
In an interview, Litvinov said about 3 million ballots have already been printed and 2.7 million of them distributed. “Mostly authorities do not resist the referendum because it is the will of the people,” he said.
Boris Litvinov, a leader of the referendum effort, said that about 3 million ballots have already been printed and 2.7 million of them distributed. The ballots ask voters whether they support the “independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic.”
The ballot asks voters, “Do you support the act of state independence of Donetsk People’s Republic?”
But he said authorities in Kiev have denied the separatists access to voter rolls. Therefore, he said, the referendum would be an “open process” in which people would simply turn up at polling centers, show their passports, sign their names and cast their ballots.
Separatist leaders said there was still room for negotiation or even postponing the referendum if Kiev withdrew its troops from the region. But they said that if a majority votes yes in the referendum, they would proclaim independence.
In the streets of Donetsk, confusion reigned Thursday about what the vote really means, and there appeared to be agreement on only one thing: people want peace and stability to return.
“The only negotiation with Kiev [after the referendum] will be for them to withdraw their troops,” said Litvinov. Previously, separatist leaders said people would decide after the referendum whether to join Russia or remain independent.
Many residents feel that democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country in February, was ousted illegally through street protests. To them, the interim government in Kiev that replaced him does not represent people in the mainly Russian-speaking east and is in league with Ukrainian ultra-nationalists.
Polls show that most people in eastern Ukraine want the country to stay together, but many are disenchanted with the central government and would like greater autonomy.
But people expressed a wide range of views on the best way forward, which the yes-no question posed by the referendum will not be able to capture, and few seemed to want to become part of Russia. Indeed, polls show that most people in eastern Ukraine want the country to stay together, although many would like greater autonomy.
In the industrial port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists set up new barricades of burning tires near the city administration building and talked about storming it, Ukrainian news media reported Thursday. But Thursday’s activity appeared to cause only minor disruptions in the city, and there was no sign that the separatist protesters had moved to retake control of the building, according to a report in Ukrainian Pravda. The building has changed hands more than once since Tuesday in clashes between Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian activists.
A 31-year-old doctor who gave her name only as Tatyana said she would not vote. “I have not received any invitation or information,” she said while walking her baby in a stroller. “And even if I wanted to give my opinion, I am afraid of the men with guns.” Like others interviewed, she declined to give her full name.
In Odessa, Ukraine’s main Black Sea port and the scene of deadly clashes last week, Ukrainian special forces began patrolling city streets Thursday to help safeguard “Ukraine’s unity,” the Interior Ministry announced. Police said they had prevented a separatist attempt to seize the regional administration building earlier this week, and the government’s central draft office was registering men for what officers called a “second wave of mobilization.”
Three men chatting on a street corner expressed indifference toward the whole process, which they said described as maneuvering by political leaders and business magnates that did not concern them. “We can’t do anything; our voice does not matter,” said Zhenya, a 29-year-old warehouse worker.
In Moscow on Wednesday, Putin said that putting off the referendum in eastern Ukraine on whether to establish independence from Kiev would help create the “necessary conditions of dialogue” with the acting central government.
A group of construction workers who were having a drink after work near the city’s central market said they support the referendum because they want their region to be independent of Kiev. But they said they do not want to join Russia.
“All of us are interested in settling this crisis, in settling it as soon as possible, accounting for the interests of all Ukrainian citizens irrespective of their place of residence,” Putin said, speaking in Moscow alongside Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, who is leading negotiations as chairman of the OSCE.
“There is a lot of antagonism toward Kiev, but there is a still a lot of support for Donbas staying in a united Ukraine,” said Adam Swain, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham who was visiting Donetsk and has been conducting economic research in Ukraine for two decades.
Putin’s statements came after a week of escalating violence as Ukrainian authorities attempted to regain control over the east, largely without success. Many Ukrainians fear fresh violence on Victory Day, the annual May 9 holiday that holds deep significance for Russians because it marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union during World War II.
He said that although the “small population of marginals, dispossessed and poor” leading the separatist uprising have failed to mobilized a wider popular movement, people might vote to support the referendum to send Kiev a message. “Although the revolution hasn’t happened, people may well see the referendum as a protest vote,” Swain said.
Putin also expressed qualified support for Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election, a vote aimed at legitimizing a new government that would replace the current interim administration. Kremlin officials had previously said they would consider the election illegitimate if it were held in a climate of violence, while the United States and its allies had warned against delay or disruption.
Separatist leaders said there was still room for negotiation or even postponing the referendum if Kiev withdrew its troops from the region. But they said that if a majority votes yes in the referendum, they would proclaim independence. The question of whether to join Russia would come later, they said.
The Obama administration offered a muted response to Putin’s remarks, emphasizing the need for actions in addition to words.
“The only negotiation with Kiev will be for them to withdraw their troops,” said Litvinov.
“We would certainly welcome a meaningful and transparent withdrawal” of Russian troops deployed along Ukraine’s border, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “To date, there has been no evidence that such a withdrawal has taken place.”
Birnbaum reported from Moscow and Kunkle from Kiev. Alex Ryabchyn in Donetsk and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.
Ukraine had never recognized the planned referendum as legitimate, and officials in Kiev reacted dismissively to Putin’s move. Even before Putin’s request for a delay, the referendum’s success had been in doubt, with each city organizing its own balloting and popular enthusiasm limited at best.
The separatists called the referendum to decide whether the eastern region of Ukraine, the country’s industrial heartland, should declare independence and become the sovereign republic of Novorossiya, the czarist-era name for part of the area.
Federalization push
Apart from the Sunday vote, the Kremlin has pushed for a version of federalization in Ukraine that would keep eastern Ukraine, with its large ethnic Russian population, within Russia’s orbit. Ukrainian leaders in Kiev have said they would not agree to such a move, which would delegate authority over law enforcement and foreign policy to the country’s regions.
Putin said a presidential election would be “a movement in the right direction, but only if all citizens of Ukraine understand that their rights are guaranteed.’’
The Russian leader also said Wednesday that he had pulled back some forces from Ukraine’s borders. But the claim was immediately contradicted by U.S. and NATO officials, who said they had “seen no change” in Russian troops in the region.
“We would know,” Col. Steven C. Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. Senior Russian defense officials also said late last month that they were pulling troops back but did not appear to do so, Western officials said.
Andriy Parubiy, who leads Ukraine’s equivalent of the National Security Council, said Putin’s remarks should be seen as confirmation that the Kremlin has been stoking the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine all along. If Putin was making a concession, Parubiy said, it was because of the military campaign that Ukrainian forces have launched in recent days to regain control in the east.
“This is also evidence of the fact that the Ukrainian government is going in the right direction and successfully protecting its national interests,” Parubiy said through an interpreter during an interview at his office in Kiev on Wednesday.
Parubiy said he had just met with local separatist leaders in the eastern regional capitals of Donetsk and Luhansk, armed with a presidential decree of amnesty for those willing to lay down their arms. He said the two sides could negotiate a satisfactory solution on autonomy and other issues without Russia’s interference.
Avoiding escalation
Analysts said Wednesday that Putin may also have been searching for a way to avoid having to send in troops if the situation escalated further. Doing so would almost certainly have resulted in Ukrainian forces fighting back — unlike in Putin’s swift move in March to annex the Crimean Peninsula — and could have quickly diminished his popularity at home, which has risen to vertiginous heights during his handling of the crisis.
President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said last week that any attempt to disrupt the May 25 election would trigger broad sectoral economic sanctions against Russia.
Burkhalter said the OSCE would suggest a road map in Moscow for Ukraine that would include a cease-fire, a de-escalation of tensions, dialogue and elections. A proposal that he outlined Tuesday ahead of the meeting with Putin offered a nonbinding poll to be held in conjunction with the elections that would sample citizens’ attitudes about how much control they want the central government in Kiev to have over its far-flung regions.
Speaking in Kiev before Putin made his surprise call for postponement of the separatist referendum, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters that a failure to hold the May 25 election as scheduled would be “a terrible blow for democracy.”
In interviews in the eastern city of Mariupol, where Ukrainian forces battled Wednesday with separatists, detaining dozens but leaving a motley crew of them to occupy the city council building, residents said they wished for a return to peace and normalcy, and most welcomed Putin’s statement.
“I was born in Voronezh in Russia, and I have relatives there, but nobody should interfere in the internal affairs of another country,’’ said a shopkeeper who gave her name only as Anna. She held up her hand and said “Ukraine.” She did not want to be fully identified for fear of retaliation.
Birnbaum reported from Moscow. Denyer reported from Mariupol, Ukraine. Anna Nemtsova in Odessa, Alex Ryabchyn in Donetsk and William Branigin, Karen DeYoung and Ernesto Londoño in Washington contributed to this report.
