Pro-Russians build barricades in east Ukraine, Kiev warns of force

Reuters, Ukraine :
Pro-Russian separatists reinforced barricades and prepared petrol bombs on Wednesday at a security services building they have seized in the east Ukrainian city of Luhansk after the government in Kiev warned it could use force to restore order.
The building is one of several in the east of the country seized by protesters demanding regional referendums on independence from Kiev, similar to the one that led to Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region last month.
A police spokeswoman said reports that hostages had been taken in Luhansk were incorrect. The protesters have also denied the reports.
Protesters in Donetsk, to the south, remain in control of the main regional authority building, but authorities have ended the occupation in the city of Kharkiv.
“A resolution to this crisis will be found within the next 48 hours,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told reporters in the capital Kiev.
“For those who want dialogue, we propose talks and a political solution. For the minority who want conflict they will get a forceful answer from the Ukrainian authorities,” he said.
A spokesman for the protesters holding the building in Luhansk said that 50 people had left overnight and that talks on resolving the crisis were continuing. Others remained there.
Activists, many in balaclavas and masks, continued to build up barricades using tires, wooden crates and sandbags, and prepared petrol bombs. Several were holding automatic rifles.
“Those who left were not ready to stay and fight,” said the spokesman, who gave his name as Vasily and said his “soldiers” would fight on until a referendum on independence from Kiev was held.
“We of course must ask Russia to let us join it,” he said, adding that he hoped for assistance from President Vladimir Putin.”
The Ukrainian government says the occupations are part of a Russian-led plan to dismember the country, a charge Moscow denies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Russian agents and special forces on Tuesday of stirring separatist unrest and said Moscow could be trying to prepare for military action as it had in Crimea.
Russia denied the accusations on Wednesday and dismissed concerns over a troop buildup near the border with Ukraine in what has become the worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War in 1991.