DONETSK, Ukraine (AFP) - Pro-Russian rebels on Monday seized the Ukrainian government's central bank building in the eastern separatist stronghold city of Donetsk in a bid to win control over its assets, an AFP correspondent said.

"We have been preparing this for more than a month," a rebel named Oleksandr Matsyushin told AFP as five separatist gunmen stood guard at its main entrance and bank staff filed out of the building.