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Poll to confirm Donetsk’s right to self-determination but not sovereignty

The first results of the referendum will become known within 2-3 hours after the last polling station closes at 23:00 Moscow time

DONETSK, May 10 /ITAR-TASS/. The referendum to be held on May 11 in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) will confirm its right to self-determination but won’t give it sovereignty, DNR Central Electoral Commission Chair Roman Lyagin said on Saturday, May 10.

“We will get no sovereignty after the referendum, we will only get the right to self-determination,” he said. “We may hold one more referendum as the next step to ask people if they want to join Russia or stay within Ukraine, unitary or federative, or they want to become an independent state. Today we are only seeking the right to self-determination and no more than that.”

The first results of the referendum will become known within 2-3 hours after the last polling station closes at 23:00 Moscow time, Lyagin said.

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Referendum begins in 2 districts of Ukraine's Donetsk region amid mounting tension

“We have the full understanding of the authorities [Donetsk Regional Administration] and they are not interfering with the referendum. Polling stations will work in schools in all cities of the Donetsk region” he said, adding that the supporters of federalisation had formed 53 territorial electoral commissions and more than 1,500 local commissions for the referendum, which will “be valid with any turnout”.

Voting has begun ahead of time in two constituencies because of the tense situation there. “The referendum began in Mariupol on May 9 after we had learned about a possible deterioration of the situation in the region,” Lyagin said.

The referendum will be held in the Donetsk region and the neighbouring Lugansk region. Their residents will be asked to say whether they support their regions’ right to self-determination.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier asked the supporters of federalisation to postpone the referendum until a later date. However, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics decided against that. “This is not our decision. This is the decision of the people of Donbass. The people of Donbass have a chance to perform a feat and we have no right to take this chance away from them,” Andrei Putgin, one of the DNR leaders, said.

The referendum will be held amid Kiev’s ongoing punitive operation in the South-East of Ukraine.

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