East Ukraine goes to the polls for independence referendum
People wait in line at a polling station in the center
of Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, May 11, 2014.
(Photo: Darko Vojinovic, Associated Press )
Donetsk on the brink of civil war as army, police and pro-Russia forces exchange fire in port city of Mariupol. ● Polling stations have opened in a hastily organised referendum in eastern Ukraine that will ask voters whether they want to create a quasi-independent statelet from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, as violence and chaos have plunged the east of the country into what increasingly resembles the beginning of a civil war. Early in the morning, huge queues were visible in the few polling stations open in the southern port city of Mariupol, scene of the most recent violence. "I want to be independent from everyone," ex-factory worker Nikolai Cherepin told AFP. "Yugoslavia broke up and they live well now." Tatiana, a 35-year-old florist voting in the regional hub of Donetsk, said: "We have come to fight for our rights and become independent and we are happy that we've been given the right to voice our opinion. If we're independent, it will be hard at the beginning but it will be better than being with the fascists."
Moon of Alamaba: Serious Media Largely Confirm Donetsk Poll Results
RT.com: Referendum results in Donetsk and Lugansk Regions show landslide support for self-rule
Zeit Online: Separatisten suchen Anschluss nach Russland
The Saker: The Donbass referendum - yet another abject failure of US foreign policy The exact results of the referendum in the Donbass are still unknown, but the following three facts are undeniable:
1) Participation was extremely high.
2) The yes vote won by a landslide.
3) The neo-Nazi junta tried hard, but failed to disrupt the vote.
We also know that the validity of this referendum will be rejected by a crushing majority of UN members. Ditto for the regime in power who has already denounced it has a "farce". As for the Ukie terror squads in the Donbass, they are unlikely to simply pack up and leave. So this begs a simply question: Is this referendum a non-event or does it matter? I would argue that far from being a non-event, the outcome of this referendum is a huge development, a watershed really. Why? Because the importance of this referendum is not in its legal acceptance by any party, but in the fact that it now makes undeniable a fact which previously could not be established with certainty: the Donbass does not want to be part of Banderastan.