UKRAINE: Ukrainians in southern city of Kherson call for country's unification and protest against Russian annexation

Record ID: 214499

  • Title: UKRAINE: Ukrainians in southern city of Kherson call for country's unification and protest against Russian annexation
  • Date: 22nd March 2014
  • Summary: POLICEMAN CALMING PROTESTER POLICEMEN ALIGNED VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS ON SQUARE
  • Embargoed: 6th April 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4Q8VL6NKCDZHY5TCXDX5U9BZY
  • Story Text: Dozens of Ukrainians gathered in the southern city of Kherson on Saturday (March 22), calling for country's unification and to rally against Russian annexation.
    Protests, some several thousand strong, spread to Russian-speaking southern districts as Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, under the control of the Russian military, voted in a referendum to join Russia last week.
    On Friday (March 22), Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws completing Russia's annexation of Crimea.
    But Kherson residents in Southern Ukraine took to the streets on Saturday to show that not all the south wished to follow Crimea and join Russia.
    "There are a lot of protests, but I don't see any separatist ones. Maybe some want it, but I don't see it," Marina Kripnichenko said.
    "As for separatism, I think it is mostly made up by the politics of the other country, not ours. Our Ukraine is for united Ukraine, including youth," another rally participant Elena Serdyk said.
    In a Kremlin ceremony shown live on state television, Putin signed a law on ratification of a treaty making Crimea part of Russia and another creating two new Russian administrative districts: Crimea and the port city of Sevastopol, where Moscow keeps part of its Black Sea fleet.
    Thousands of Russians marked the annexation with fireworks and celebrations in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea where the population is around 58 percent ethnic Russian.
    Some of the pro-Russia supporters also showed up at the rally on Saturday, saying that the south-east of country should join Russia.
    "The only way out is federalisation and the annexation of the South-East to Russia. So referendum is the only way, but a referendum with legitimate authorities, who is unfortunately abroad now, in Russia to be precise," Kherson resident Tatiana Glushak said.
    Violence in the east, where Russian-speakers are in the majority, has prompted warnings from Moscow that it is prepared to defend the rights of residents who disagree with the new pro-Western authorities in Kiev.
    Clashes have broken out when rival rallies take place in proximity - pro-Russian groups against others backing the call by Ukraine's leaders for closer ties with the European Union.
    The Kiev authorities, which have denounced the pro-Russian protests in the east as the work of "Kremlin agents", came to power after three months of often violent protests culminated in the removal of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich.
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