Pro-Russian protesters seized the building of the regional administration in Lugansk
In Lugansk, there was a rally in support of the referendum on the status of the region, which gathered about three thousand people. As a result, pro-Russian protesters seized the regional administration building and staged a skirmish with members of the local "euromaidan".
During the storming of the Lugansk Regional State Administration, about a thousand people with Russian flags broke through to the regional administration building. Protesters marched into the office of the head of the regional administration, Mikhail Bolotskikh, and forced him to write a letter of resignation, Interfax-Ukraine reported. He was read to the protesters.
Before the storm, there was a clash between pro-Russian rally participants and activists of the Luhansk “euromaidan”, who held a rally at the monument to Taras Shevchenko. Then the flag of Ukraine was removed from the flagpole of the regional administration and the Russian tricolor was raised instead.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, police officers in full gear completely left the building, and the protesters with Russian flags greeted them with welcome shouts: “The police are with the people”.
The rally in support of the referendum brought together many more participants than a rally held nearby to mark the 200 anniversary of the birth of Shevchenko, ITAR-TASS said. About a thousand people took part in the latter. Among them were supporters of the Batkivshchyna and VO Svoboda parties, as well as residents of Lugansk, supporting the united Ukraine.
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