SLAVIANSK, Ukraine, April 14 (RIA Novosti) – Supporters of federalization, who continue to control the town of Slaviansk in eastern Ukraine, said Monday that two trucks with rocket launcher ammunition for government troops were stopped at a local checkpoint.
“We stop all suspicious cars. The detained vehicles were two KrAZ trucks accompanied by traffic police,” local militia told RIA Novosti.
A close inspection revealed the cargo as ammunition for Grad rocket launchers belonging to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. "We did not let them pass, the vehicles turned around and drove off,” the source added.
An ultimatum by the new authorities in Kiev demanding federalists in southeastern Ukraine lay down arms expired Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time. Pro-federalization protesters in Donetsk Region have ignored the central regime’s threat of a crackdown if they refuse to relinquish captured government buildings.
Nikolai Solntsev, a Commissioner for the Eastern Front social-patriotic movement told RIA Novosti on Monday morning by phone that demonstrators are ready to “stand until the bitter end.”
The rallies of pro-federalization activists began last month in eastern Ukraine, with protesters in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv calling for a referendum on the status of their respective regions within the country. On Saturday, the protests spread to several more cities of Donetsk region: Slaviansk, Mariupol, Yenakievo and Kramatorsk, in addition to a number of small towns, where protesters seized government buildings.
