Word spread quickly through the few hundred pro-Russian protesters in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine: “The miners are coming!”
The crowd parted as a group of a dozen or so burly men in orange work helmets marched past barbed-wire and tyre barricades into the 11-storeyadministration building, which protesters seized last weekend as they demanded greater independence from Kiev.
Irina Grinenko rushed through the barbed-wired barricades and into the occupied regional administration building in Donetsk, rolls of toilet paper in one hand and a bag of bandages in the other.
“If they attack us, I will bandage people,” the pro-Russian protester said, adding that she expected an assault by non-local law enforcement personnel.
“We will be here until the end, until they beat us out or meet our demands … I want an autonomous region on good terms with Russia,” she added.
It was hard to avoid Vladimir Putin at the rally in Red Square on Tuesday celebrating the joining of Crimea to Russia. As the president’s defiant speech from earlier in the day was replayed on speakers, supporters waved giant white flags with Putin’s face and the words “We’re together!”, and signs reading “Putin is right” and “We believe Putin”.
Alec Luhn 