Ukraine rebels bent on referendum; Kiev calls it ‘illegal’

Pro-Russian militants in troubled eastern Ukraine vowed on Thursday to press ahead with a referendum seeking autonomy, a risky move that seemed to defy their political patron, President Vladimir V Putin of Russia, as officials in Kiev furiously attacked his motives in urging a delay in the vote.

A day after Putin suggested that the vote should be put off, militant leaders in Donetsk, Luhansk and Slovyansk said they would go ahead with it on Sunday as scheduled.

Far from being mollified by Putin's new stance, Ukrainian officials expressed deep suspicions, accusing him of trying to replay the events preceding Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Although the ability of separatists to stage a legitimate ballot is highly in doubt, the mere possibility that Russia would use the vote as a pretext for another territorial grab had officials in Kiev calling the referendum illegal and insisting that action to suppress the armed separatists would continue in the days ahead.

''The Ukrainian state has never planned any referendum,'' the head of Ukraine's National Security Council, Andriy Parubiy, said at a news conference in Kiev. ''We cannot cancel or postpone something that doesn't exist. This is political fraud.''

However, the process plays out on Sunday, the prospect of resolving the Ukrainian crisis will hinge more on the reactions in Moscow, Kiev and the West than on the results - real or forged.

Ukrainian officials said Putin's remarks were intended to continue destabilising the country with an eye toward disrupting the far more important presidential elections scheduled for 25 May. ''Any calls for their postponement are not an expression of good will, but simply farce,'' the foreign ministry said in a statement. ''This scenario has already been played by Russia in Crimea.''

In Moscow, on Thursday, Putin briefly echoed the remarks he made a day earlier about seeking a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis through mediation by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In another gesture of reconciliation, Ukraine's acting president Oleksander Turchynov and prime minister Arseniy P Yatsenyuk in a statement offered amnesty to any insurgents who did not have ''blood on their hands.''

Caught off guard by Putin's surprise remarks on Wednesday, separatist leaders in southeastern Ukraine regained their balance on Thursday, insisting the referendum would go ahead as planned. ''I think he has reasons to propose rescheduling the referendum,'' the self-appointed mayor of Slovyansk, Vyachislav Ponomaryov, told reporters on Thursday afternoon. ''But I don't know these reasons. We're ready to hold it.''

''The bonds of trust were ruptured in Maidan Square when the westerners decided their cause was too important to wait for the next election when the easterners would have some say in how things went,'' he added.

Ponomaryov displayed what he said was a sample ballot that contained a single question, printed in both Russian and Ukrainian: ''Do you support the declaration of independence of the Donetsk People's Republic?''

He predicted that an ''overwhelming majority'' would vote in favor of independence, a step that he indicated would mean closer relations with Russia and, perhaps, eventual union with the Russian Federation.

''For now, we should just specify for ourselves that we should definitively secede from Kiev,'' Ponomaryov said. ''Then we'll decide for ourselves which path to take further.''