Ukraine faces fresh secessionist crisis

DONETSK: Ukraine faced a fresh secessionist crisis Monday as pro-Kremlin militants occupying the Donetsk government seat proclaimed independence from Kiev and vowed to hold a referendum on joining Russia.
The declaration and accompanying appeal for Russian military help put the nation of 46 million people in danger of disintegration and intensified pressure on Western powers to act, according to a news agency.
The ex-Soviet nation on the EU's eastern frontier continues to be watched by tens of thousands of Russian troops who had already annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in response to last month's ouster in Kiev of a Moscow-backed regime.
The political pressure on Kiev's embattled leaders reached boiling point on Sunday when thousands of activists chanting "Russia!" seized administration buildings in Kharkiv and Donetsk as well as the security service headquarters in the eastern region of Lugansk.
The Donetsk activists went one step further on Monday by proclaiming the creation of a sovereign "people's republic" in the region of about five million people.