KIEV, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – The National Bank of Ukraine denied reports on Monday that its branch in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk was seized by demonstrators demanding greater regional autonomy, the UNIAN news agency reported Monday.
“We officially announce that this information is false,” the agency said, citing the bank’s press service, which also added the branch is operating normally.
A group of protesters pushing for broader regional autonomy stormed government buildings in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, according to local media reports.
Nearly 3,000 people reportedly took control of the national bank’s building in Lugansk. Demonstrators flooded the streets in the city, waving Russian flags and chanting “Russia! Russia!”
Calls for secession and federalization have been spreading across Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions after Ukrainian ultranationalists, who make up the bulk of the erstwhile opposition, rose to political prominence following a change of the country’s leadership that resembled a coup in February.
Protesters in eastern Ukraine, who have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new authorities, have been gathering since March, demanding referendums on the status of their regions.
Talk turned to action in Crimea, a predominantly Russian-ethnic peninsula, which voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia in a referendum on March 16. The region’s reunification with Russia was finalized several days later.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said late last month Russia has no intentions or interests whatsoever in crossing the Ukrainian border.
He also said Moscow believes the only solution to the political crisis in the country is constitutional reform providing for the federalization of the country, which is split linguistically into a Russian-speaking east and a Ukrainian-speaking west.
A recent report by Russia’s Institute for Globalization and Social Movements (IGSO) said the presidential election in Ukraine could increase separatist tendencies in eastern and southern regions, adding the country might split after the May 25 election.
