DHAKA: A majority of inhabitants in Ukraine’s pro-Russian protest hub Donetsk do not want to join Russia but consider the government in Kiev to be illegitimate, according to a poll published on Saturday.

52.2 percent of people questioned in the region, the focal point of separatist unrest that has seen pro-Moscow militants seize a string of towns, said they were against joining Russia while 27.5 percent favoured rule from Ukraine’s former Soviet master Moscow.

Among the 3,200 respondents across Ukraine’s entire Russian-speaking south-east, the number of those opposed to Moscow taking control rose to 69.7 percent, according to the poll from Kiev’s Institute for International Sociology published in the Russian-language Weekly Mirror newspaper, The Straits Times reports.

In the Donetsk region, where separatists have declared an independent republic and demanded a referendum on autonomy, 38.4 percent said they backed Kremlin demands to federalise Ukraine and 41 percent said they wanted a decentralisation of power.

BDST: 1855 HRS, APR 19, 2014