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Protestors Gather in Front of Regional Administration in Eastern Ukraine

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About a hundred supporters of Ukrainian federalization have gathered for a spontaneous rally in front of the regional administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Tuesday.

KHARKIV, Ukraine, April 8 (RIA Novosti) - About a hundred supporters of Ukrainian federalization have gathered for a spontaneous rally in front of the regional administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Tuesday.

The protesters, who have approached police cordons, are not carrying flags or banners, but some of them are wearing St. George ribbons, a military symbol associated with the Soviet defeat of fascism in World War II.

Demonstrators are also chanting "Russia" and demanding local law enforcement agencies remove security barriers around the building.

A major operation against protesters began in Ukraine’s Kharkiv early Tuesday, acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said.

Pro-Russian opposition protesters have been rallying across Ukraine’s eastern and southeastern regions since the recent change of power in the country.

Ukraine’s interim authorities vowed tough “anti-separatism measures” in regions with substantial ethnic Russian communities, which saw a series of rallies in support of greater autonomy over the weekend.

The Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine announced plans Monday to schedule a referendum by mid-May on declaring independence and joining Russia. Ukrainian media said similar intentions were voiced by protesters in Kharkiv late Monday, although no formal measures have been taken so far.

Russia has repeatedly said that Ukrainian nationalists and their aggressive rhetoric bear full responsibility for the crisis in the country, which resulted in the reunification of Crimea with Russia last month.

Moscow said that a federal form of government is the only way out of the protracted political crisis in Ukraine, currently a unitary state which is de-facto split into a Ukrainian-speaking west and Russian-speaking east and south.

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