KIEV: A referendum will be held on Sunday in the eastern Ukraine regions of Donetsk and Luhansk on their freedom from the country.
In a statement on Saturday, elections chief of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Roman Lyahin said that about 1,200 polling stations have been set up in schools, hospitals, and government buildings across the region.
In the referendum, people will be asked to answer “Yes” or “No” to the following question:
“Do you support the act of proclamation of state sovereignty for the Donetsk People’s Republic?”
The referendum will also be held in a number of towns and cities in neighboring Luhansk region where activists have formed the Luhansk People’s Republic.
The two regions are home to about 7.3 million of the 46 million population of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Germany and France denounced the planned referendum on independence in eastern Ukraine as illegal.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande while talking to media after a meeting in the Baltic Sea town of Stralsund on Saturday emphasized that holding a referendum on independence by pro-Russia protesters in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk is illegitimate.
The two sides also threatened Russia with fresh economic sanctions if Ukraine’s presidential election on May 25 is not held.
