Kiev uses helicopters, APCs, National Guard in Lugansk region to thwart referendum
11 May 2014, 12:56 -- So-called National Guard units made up of neo-Nazi extremists are reportedly heading for Lugansk, eastern Ukraine, to disrupt voting in Sunday's referendum on the future status of the Lugansk region, a source in the elections commission of the Krasny Luch district told Interfax.
'The situation is alarming in the Melovoye, Belokurakino, Troitsk and Novoaydar districts in the north of the Lugansk region. Two Ukrainian army helicopters, ten armored personnel carriers and more than 100 National Guard fighters have been deployed there,' the commission's head, Yelena Khryapina, said.
There are National Guard fighters in the village of Yusupovka, she said, and the administration of Novoaydar has been ordered to accommodate 100 'guardsmen'.
Nevertheless, the voter turnout in the referendum is pretty high, Khryapina said. 'People use devious routes to get to polling places, creeping through some areas. Others come on bicycles.'
The region's self-defense forces have confirmed an attempt by Ukrainian law enforces to disrupt the vote in the northern Svatov district.
'The Svatov district is quite far from Lugansk and closer to the border with the Kharkov region. National Guard militants are other law enforcers are indeed intimidating local residents, demanding that they refuse to vote in the referendum, moving armored vehicles from one place to another,' Interfax quotes Alexei Chmilenko, one of the leaders of the Lugansk self-defense forces, as saying.
A decision has been made to take Svatov residents to adjoining districts to vote.
'We offered people to vote in neighboring districts. We will provide transportation for them,' Chmilenko said.
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