Independence vote in east Ukraine will go ahead: rebels

Pro-Russian militants walk at a barricade outside the seized regional state building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on May 5, 2014. An independence vote in east Ukraine will go ahead this weekend as planned, rebels there said Thursday, desp
Pro-Russian militants walk at a barricade outside the seized regional state building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on May 5, 2014. An independence vote in east Ukraine will go ahead this weekend as planned, rebels there said Thursday, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin calling on them to postpone it. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP

DONETSK, Ukraine (AFP) - An independence vote in east Ukraine will go ahead this weekend as planned, rebels there said Thursday, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin calling on them to postpone it.

"The referendum will happen May 11," the leader of the rebel's self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, told reporters.

A spokeswoman for insurgents in the flashpoint town of Slavyansk simultaneously confirmed to AFP that the vote would happen Sunday.

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