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| Vote counting in East Ukraine. (Screen capture from YouTube video) |
Separatists in eastern Ukraine proclaimed the birth of two new “sovereign” republics Monday after asserting victory in controversial self-rule referendums, and one of the regions promptly asked to join Russia.
Leaders of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic also demanded that Ukrainian security forces leave the separatists’ territory.
The statements represented a hardening of positions that could drag Ukraine closer to all-out civil war and is likely to intensify tensions between Russia and the West.
“Based on the will of the people and on the restoration of a historic justice, we ask the Russian Federation to consider the absorption of the Donetsk People’s Republic into the Russian Federation,” Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader, said at a news conference.
Leaders of the parallel Luhansk People’s Republic told a crowd in the region’s capital that they proposed to join with Donetsk to form a new republic called “Novorossiya,” or New Russia, Ukrainian news media reported. According to a spokesman, the leaders were also considering whether to stage a second referendum to ask people outright if they wanted to join Russia.Russia responded cautiously, repeating an earlier call for negotiations within Ukraine.
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