Donetsk region passes under the authority of supporters of the federalization of Ukraine

In the Donetsk region a growing number of cities where supporters of federalization take control of administrative buildings. In Mariupol on Sunday after the rally for the creation of the Donetsk Republic, a group of protesters occupied the city council. In the city of Yenakiyevo, demonstrators at night captured the city council, the prosecutor's office and the city police department.

Denis Pushilin, one of the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, intends to undertake the preparation of a referendum. “Our first priority is to send people to the cities of Donetsk region who will prepare a referendum,” said Pushilin in Donetsk at a rally.
However, he did not explain exactly what questions he wants to submit to a referendum. Protesters who seized the building of the Donetsk Regional State Administration require, in particular, to give Russian the status of the second state language.

On the eve of the city council, police and security services in the Red Liman, Kramatorsk and Druzhkovka. In these cities, the police did not intervene and in fact expressed their support for the militia.

In Slavyansk, where all the administrative buildings are under the control of the protesters for the second day, the militia fighters are preparing to repel a possible security attack. In the morning, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine announced the start of a special operation in this city. According to the authorities, there was already a battle on the outskirts of the city, there are dead and wounded.

Eyewitnesses say that at one of the entrances to Slavyansk there was a shootout, an APC shot, a local resident fisherman was injured. He was dressed in camouflage, and could have been mistaken for a self-defense fighter, the Russia 24 channel reports.

However, the command of the national militia in Slavyansk denies information about the collision and the victims. They declare that the city is calm, there is no destruction. True, they admit that they are preparing for an assault on the part of the Ukrainian security officials, ITAR-TASS reports.

On Sunday morning, two combat helicopters patrolled the sky over Slavyansk. Every five minutes they flew at a low altitude above the district center.