Ukraine’s Security Service said Wednesday morning that 56 people held inside an agency’s local headquarters in the eastern city of Luhansk occupied by pro-Russian separatists have been allowed to leave the premises.
The Luhansk security services building was among several government offices seized by crowds pro-Moscow groups shouting of “Russia, Russia” on Sunday in an escalation of protests against the interim government in power since the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in February.
All the cities affected by the uprisings are in Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the east, which has a large population of ethnic Russians and where hostility is strong toward the new government in Kiev.
Those occupying the building have issued a video statement warning that any attempt to storm the place would be met with armed force.
In the video, posted by Ukrainian media, a masked man identified the occupiers as Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and said that if authorities try to retake the building, “Welcome to hell, then!”
