An assembly, held in the central square of Sloviansk, a town in Donetsk region, on April 14 elected an organizing committee to coordinate the life of the territorial community, the Slavgorod online newspaper writes. Local Communist Party leader Anatoliy Khmelevoy announced that the coordinating council would represent the interests of the more than 100,000 members of the local community, Slavgorod said. The coordinating council will make decisions which the town hall will not be able to make for reasons based on political bias, he said.
“We will coordinate law enforcement agencies at our disposal, as well as the local authorities’ decisions. We will act as intermediaries,” Khmelevoy said.
Commander of the so-called “self-defense of Sloviansk” Viacheslav Ponomariov read out an address to the Ukrainian leaders, to the people of Donbass and to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said he represents the Donetsk people’s republic and does not obey the Ukrainian authorities.
Ponomariov urged Russian leadership “to pay attention to the current situation and to provide whatever assistance they can.”As a sign of unity of the fraternal peoples we are raising the flag of the Donetsk people’s republic with the flag of the Russian Federation,” he said.
