DHAKA: About 50 pro-Russian protesters chanting ‘Donetsk is a Russian city!’ broke through police lines on Sunday and stormed inside the main administration building of the eastern Ukrainian city.

The activists moved away from a crowd of about 2,000 rallying on the main city square and threw firecrackers at police surrounding the government seat before raising the Russian flag above the 11-storey building.

An AFP reporter at the scene said security officers pulled a water-cannon up to the building but did not use force against the activists, reports The Straits Times.

The action began earlier in the day with calls for Donetsk, a heavily Russified industrial city of one million people that has witnessed weeks of similar Sunday rallies, to stage an independence referendum like the one that led to Crimea’s annexation by Russia last month.

Some in the crowd chanted ‘Give us a referendum’ and ‘Nato go home’.

BDST: 2024 HRS, APR 06, 2014