Pro-Russian Protesters Storm Offices in Ukraine's Luhansk
Pro-Russian activists attack the regional administration building in Luhansk on April 29.
Pro-Russian Protesters Storm Offices in Ukraine's Luhansk
Pro-Russian demonstrators have seized the regional administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk.
Several thousand demonstrators marched on the building on April 29. Some of them broke into the building through windows and opened the doors, unopposed by police.
Ukrainian National Guard troops inside the building eventually surrendered and left as the crowd chanted "Well done!"
Russia's Rossia-24 television showed footage of demonstrators on the administration building roof waving Russian flags.
Pro-Russian militants in Luhansk, a city of 465,000 near the Russian border, seized the local Ukrainian Security Service headquarters three weeks ago.
The April 29 protest march in Luhansk began at the Security Service headquarters in the city.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops stand in formation as pro-Russian supporters gather in the courtyard of the regional administration building during an attack by activists on the building in Luhansk on April 29.
In other news, a hospital in northern Israel says the mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Hennadiy Kernes, has undergone "successful" surgery and is recovering.
The statement from Haifa's Elisha Hospital on April 29 comes a day after Kernes was shot in the back in eastern Ukraine.
Earlier, the director of Kharkiv's Surgery Institute said Kernes suffered "very serious injuries" and transferred for surgery in Israel.
Kharkiv is one of several eastern Ukrainian cities where militant pro-Russian separatists seized control of government buildings earlier this month.
Ukrainian security forces and police later expelled the occupiers from government buildings in Kharkiv.
Kernes first held a pro-Russian stance, but later positioned himself as loyal to Kyiv's pro-Western government.
In Donetsk, police say they've freed supporters of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv who were seized by pro-Russian separatists on April 28.
Based on reporting by AFP, RIA Novosti, Interfax, Reuters, AP, and UNIAN
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