DONETSK, April 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Protesters in Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk, who are picketing the building of the regional television centre, have begun talks with the TV centre’s executives to launch the broadcasting of the Donetsk People’s Republic television channel and to resume the broadcasting of Russian television channels, local media report on Sunday.

It is not ruled out that broadcasting of Ukrainian television channels might soon be stopped. The protesters have taken into the building satellite antennas and other equipment and placed guards at the entrance to the television centre.

Earlier on Sunday, a rally in Donetsk’s central Lenin Square gathered about 3,000 participants. The rally began with a minute of silence in the memory of Berkut police unit officers who had been killed in clashes with radicals in Kiev’s Independence Square and activists killed by Right Sector radicals at a check point in Slavyansk in the Easter night.

Protesters demanded a referendum on federalization of Ukraine, chanting slogans “No to bloody Kiev junta!” and “Stop the occupation of Donbas [a large Ukrainian coalmining region]!” Activists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic fenced off the square to ensure law and order at the rally.