DONETSK, Ukraine — Men in the uniforms of Ukraine's now-defunct riot police on Saturday occupied police headquarters in Donetsk, the eastern city that is one of the flashpoints of a wave of pro-Russia protests, hours after armed men seized local police headquarters and local branch of the Security Service in a nearby city.
As a result the Regional police chief Kostyantyn Pozhydayev of the troubled east Ukrainian city of Donetsk said on Saturday he was quitting his post, bowing to demands from pro-Russian protesters. Above the police headquarters, the Ukrainian flag was no longer flying, and was replaced with a separatist flag, according to several witnesses who spoke to news agency.The new self-proclaimed police-chief came out, says he's on the side of the demonstrators.
Via statement Ukraine's interior ministry confirmed, on Saturday, pro-Russian gunmen seized a second state security building in the eastern city of Slovyansk.
"The same group of armed men who seized the district police station also seized the Slavyansk Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) building," the regional interior ministry said.
Pro-Russian activists seized the police station in eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast.
In Slovyansk, the mayor said the men who seized the police station were demanding a referendum on autonomy and possible annexation by Russia. Protesters in other eastern cities have made similar demands after a referendum in Crimea last month in which voters opted to split off from Ukraine, leading to annexation by Russia.
A regional news website said another police station had been seized in the town of Krasnyi Lyman, a town near Slovyansk, but that report could not immediately be confirmed. In Kramatorsk, another town near Slovyansk, protesters flew the flag of the Independent Donetsk Republic above the local administration building, according to Kramatorsk's news website.
Witnesses said the men who entered the police building in Donetsk were wearing the uniforms of the Berkut, the feared riot police squad that was disbanded in February after Yanukovych's ouster. Berkut officers' violent dispersal of a demonstration in Kiev in November set off vast protests in the capital that culminated in bloodshed in February when more than 100 people died in sniper fire; the acting government says the snipers were police.
It was not immediately clear if the men who occupied the Donetsk police building had made any demands, but the Donetsk police chief said on national television that he was forced to offer his resignation. Interfax Ukraine reported that pro-Russian protesters had invited the former police chief to resume his duties.
In Slovyansk, about 20 men in balaclavas armed with automatic rifles and pistols were guarding the entrance to the police station in the city of about 120,000 people, and another 20 were believed to be inside. They wore St. George's ribbons, which have become a symbol of pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine. The ribbons were originally associated with the Soviet Union's victory in World War II.
An armed pro-Russian extremist guards at a newly installed checkpoint on the entrance to the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on April 12.
The man said they seized the building because they wanted to protect it from radical nationalists from western Ukraine and "the junta who seized power in Kiev."
"We don't want to be slaves of America and the West," he said. "We want to live with Russia."
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the attackers used tear gas and stun grenades when they stormed the building, injuring three policemen. The attackers' goal was to seize arms from the police station, authorities said, adding that there were about 40 automatic rifles and 400 pistols as well as ammunition inside.
The Interior Ministry reported later on Saturday that men from the same group have seized the building of the local Security Service.
A video from the scene showed one man carrying a sniper rifle. An AP reporter saw another man loading the magazine of a pistol at the police station.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov pledged a "very tough response" to the seizure while local media reported special forces dispatched to the area.
As the tension escalates, armed pro-Russians maintain control of government buildings in Donetsk despite PM Yatsenyuk's pledge for more power to regions.
Local sympathizers brought tires to the police station to start building barricades. Gunshots rang out in the background in a video from the scene after an armed man shouted to a cameraman to stop recording.
About 10 men wearing camouflage and carrying automatic rifles set up a makeshift checkpoint at the entrance to the town late Saturday afternoon.
Businessman Petro Poroshenko, the front-runner in the presidential race, on Saturday lambasted Ukraine's fledging government of inaction in the face of unrest in eastern Ukraine.
The Kiev authorities and the United States have accused Russia of fomenting the unrest in the east and seeking to use it as a pretext for sending in troops. Russia has reportedly massed forces in areas near the Ukrainian border.
But Mayor Nelya Shtepa told the AP that she held talks with the protesters and said they were local residents, not Russians.
"They told me: 'We don't have anything against you,' " she said, adding that the men said they "want to be heard, want a dialogue with authorities in Kiev."
Protesters, who have held the administration building in Donetsk for days, initially called for a referendum on secession but later reduced the demand to a vote on autonomy within Ukraine with the possibility of holding another later on whether to join Russia.
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Friday warned the Ukrainian government against using force against protesters, saying that such action would derail the talks on settling the crisis between the United States, the European Union, Russia and Ukraine set for next week, as well as any other diplomatic efforts.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pressed the complaint in a telephone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Deschytsia, on Saturday.
Lavrov told Deschytsia of "the unacceptability of the constant threats from Kiev to storm buildings held by protesters," according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s interior minister Arsen Avakov said, on Saturday, gunmen with Russian-issued machine guns opened fire on police stations in the Donetsk region towns of Kramatorsk and Krasnyi Lyman.
He did not report any casualties and blamed the attacks on "aggression by the Russian Federation".
Further more Ukraine's Interior Ministry denied allegations that (up to this moment) anti-Maidan protesters seized control of police stations in three cities in Donetsk region - Krasny Liman, Chervonoarmiysk and Kramatorsk.
"In Kramatorsk and Chervonoarmiysk, Operation Fortress, which was launched in the morning made it possible to thwart attempted seizures of buildings. In the city of Krasny Liman, law enforcers and local residents took the police building under joint protection at 8 a.m. As a result, armed men who had arrived there were unable to storm the building. The building remains under joint protection," the ministry said in a statement.
Kramatorsk police station seized by armed men earlier. usual bumbling self-defense guys they ain't.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said that Ukraine considered attacks by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Saturday as an "act of aggression by Russia".
"Units of the interior and defence ministries are implementing an operational response plan," he said in a statement on his Facebook page.
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