Pro-Russian
Demonstrators Burn Books, Storm Buildings In Eastern Ukraine
Mar. 16, 2014, 1:39 PM
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Demonstrators react as they take part in a
pro-Russian rally in Donetsk March 16, 2014. Ukraine's new leaders announced on
Sunday a call-up to raise 20,000 men for a newly-created National Guard,
accusing Russia of sending "touring" trouble-makers across the border
to stir up separatism in the country. REUTERS/Stringer
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DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters)
- Pro-Russian demonstrators in eastern Ukraine smashed
their way into public buildings and burned Ukrainian-language books on Sunday
in further protests following two deadly clashes in the region last week.
Protests, some several thousand strong, spread to
Russian-speaking southern districts as Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, under
the control of the Russian military for two weeks, voted in a
referendum on joining Russia.
Violence in eastern Ukraine, where
Russian-speaking ethnic Ukrainians are in the majority, has prompted warnings
from Moscow that it is prepared to "defend" the rights of
residents who disagree with the new pro-Western authorities in Kiev.
Clashes have broken out when rival rallies take
place in proximity - pro-Russian groups against others backing the
call by Ukraine's leaders for closer ties with the European Union.
The Kiev authorities, who have denounced
the pro-Russian protests in the east as the work of "Kremlin
agents", came to power after three months of often violent protests
culminated in the removal of Moscow-backed president Viktor
Yanukovich.
In
Kharkiv, Reuters Television footage
showed pro-Russian activists breaking into the headquarters of a
Ukrainian cultural centre, removing Ukrainian-language books and setting them
alight in small bonfires in the street.
Protesters
moved through the city centre trailing banners dozens of meters (yards) in
length bearing the Russian tricolor.
On
Friday, two pro-Russian protesters were killed by buckshot after a
confrontation outside the same cultural centre with activists
from Ukraine's extreme-right Right Sector group.
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Ukrainian books burned in Crimea
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://twitter.com/VeikoSpolitis/status/443688353746001920]
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PROTESTERS SMASH DOORS,
WINDOWS
In Donetsk,
the heart of the Donbass coalfield, where a pro-Ukrainian activist
died in clashes on Thursday, 5,000 protesters roamed from a central square to
several public buildings, smashing doors and windows as they went.
The
massed for a time outside the local prosecutor's office before lines of riot
police let them through and they pushed their way inside with poles and sticks.
A small group clambered onto the roof, snatched away the blue and yellow
Ukrainian flag and waved red-white-and-blue Russian standards.
Activists
then moved on to the offices of the SBU security service, pushing their way
inside for the second day running, before going to the headquarters of
the Industrial Union of Donbass, owned by magnate and local Kiev-appointed
governor Sergei Taruta.
Activists,
many of them bearing the orange and black colors of the "St George
ribbons" worn by Russian nationalists, were demanding the release of an
activist who had briefly proclaimed himself "people's governor" of
the region this month.
Several
thousand pro-Russian demonstrators marched through the streets of
the Black Sea port of Odessa.
Two
cities held impromptu "referendums", banned by local courts, echoing
the plebiscite being conducted in Crimea.
In
Luhansk, a coal-mining centre in northeastern Ukraine, organizers set up
ballot boxes in a square asking voters five questions ranging from Kiev's new
leaders to the creation of a federal state. A similar referendum was staged in
the southern city of Mikolayiv.
(Writing
by Ron Popeski; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.businessinsider.com/pro-russian-demonstrators-burn-books-storm-buildings-in-eastern-ukraine-2014-3/?r=AU&IR=T
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The protest was held outside the US Embassy in
Moscow
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