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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Ukraine crisis: Pro-Russia activists seize Luhansk HQ | Ukraine crisis: Pro-Russia activists seize Luhansk HQ |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A large crowd of pro-Russian separatists has stormed the regional administration's headquarters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk. | |
| A few dozen men, some reportedly armed with metal bars, smashed windows and doors to break into the building. | A few dozen men, some reportedly armed with metal bars, smashed windows and doors to break into the building. |
| Activists shouting "Referendum Russia" later flew a Russian flag over it. | Activists shouting "Referendum Russia" later flew a Russian flag over it. |
| Earlier, Russia criticised sanctions imposed by the US and EU on individuals and companies over their alleged actions aimed at destabilising Ukraine. | Earlier, Russia criticised sanctions imposed by the US and EU on individuals and companies over their alleged actions aimed at destabilising Ukraine. |
| Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the US had "essentially lowered an 'Iron Curtain'" by targeting Russia's high-tech sector. | Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the US had "essentially lowered an 'Iron Curtain'" by targeting Russia's high-tech sector. |
| The EU, he added, had proved that it was "under Washington's thumb". | |
| 'No control' | |
| Mr Ryabkov also stressed that Russia had no intention of invading eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia activists have seized government buildings in more than a dozen towns and cities. | |
| Until now, only the local office of the State Security Service (SBU) in Luhansk, a city of 465,000 people not far from the Russian border, had been targeted. | |
| But on Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of people gathered outside the headquarters of the regional government to demand a referendum on granting greater autonomy to the east. | |
| A group of men armed with sticks and metal bars broke into the building, whose entrances were not protected by police. They then pulled down the Ukrainian flag flying from the roof and replaced it with a Russian one, and opened the main entrance to the crowd. | |
| Inside the building's courtyard, the activists found security personnel in riot gear massed together in a defensive position. There was a stand-off, but no violence, according to the Associated Press news agency. | |
| "The regional leadership does not control its police force," Stanislav Rechynsky, an aide to the interior minister in Kiev, told Reuters news agency. "The local police did nothing." | |
| Mr Rechynsky added that the government had information to suggest that the separatists would now seize the local television centre. |