A Free And Fair Referendum

"I do not support the occupation of this territory by separatists. I have no idea what separation really means. I want a fair vote, but I think that it could mostly be falsified."
Darya, 19-year-old Ukrainian student, Donetsk

"Our country needs to be free and happy and to do that we need to be free of nationalists and fascists who have seized power in Kyiv."
Larissa Papazova, 67, cardiologist, Donetsk

"...Perhaps Russia needs to digest Crimea first, before taking eastern Ukraine."
Leonid Goldman, 74, doctor, Donetsk

A man reacts next to the body of a pro-Russia man in Krasnoarmeisk, Ukraine. Ukrainian national guardsmen opened fire on a crowd outside a town hall in Krasnoarmeisk, and an official with the region’s insurgents said there were fatalities. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

The referendum question printed in Russian and Ukrainian read: "Do you support the act of state self-reliance of the Donetsk People's Republic?" The ballot took place in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Sunday. Organizers were confident that the regions would become sovereign people's republics. And that they would be welcomed with open arms by Russian President Vladimir Putin who did, after all, help engineer the situation.

As far as the woman identifying herself as Larissa Papazova was concerned, Kyiv's actions resembled those of Nazi Germany. She wanted Donetsk to mirror what occurred in Crimea, when Moscow took the results of their referendum passed with flying colours by a majority Russian-ethnic population to bring the Crimean peninsula into the Russian geography, restoring to Russia what it long brooded about having lost.

In eastern Europe nationalism and ethnic bellicosity is a tradition, one that the Soviet Union managed to stifle, but which only served on its demise, to bring back into sharp focus that resentment of the long forced acquiescence to Russian domination. Russia's former satellites don't miss their former status, but Russia laments the passing of their golden age of Soviet domination of east Europe.

Pro-Russia militants line up to vote at a polling station in Slovyansk, Ukraine. (Sergey Ponomarev/The New York Times)

Ukrainians, having suffered the atrocity of forced starvation under the Soviets that spelled the death knell of over seven million Ukrainians during the Holdomor, haven't that short a memory. On the other hand, Slavic brotherhood tolerated the presence of ethnic Russians in southern and eastern Ukraine, a large demographic that loved the geography but felt no national loyalty for Ukraine, ever yearning for Russia to be restored to its former status of dominance.

Condemnation from the international community over President Putin's revenge for the removal of a Russophile Ukrainian president evidently hasn't bothered the Russian president one bit. Although biting sanctions may in due time, given the precarious position of the Russian economy. Does Mr. Putin spend scant seconds wishing he could restore the $60-billion outlay of the Sochi Games? He might demand of his close friends and colleagues a return on his investment in them.

An Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) with a Russian flag drives through the center of Slaviansk during the day of referendum organized by the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic members, in Slaviansk, Ukraine. (EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY)

Donetsk is now celebrating its massive 'win', claiming that a 70% turnout has given it the advantage to secede from Ukraine. Vladimir Putin is eviscerating a neighbouring country. First Crimea, the Ukrainian fleet and all the peninsula's infrastructure. Next in line eastern Ukraine representing the industrial heartland of the country, without which the future for what is left looks horribly anaemic.

True, polling stations looked packed with voters, but there was a paucity of such stations. The vote was ignored by Ukraine-supporters. And 30 kilometres from Donetsk in Krasnoarmeisk armed men with AK-47s shouted "Go home, get out of here", to the crowd waiting to vote at the town hall. One man steps forward from the crowd to speak with a gunman who fires a warning shot but the man continues his approach until, struck by a bullet he falls to the ground, his leg bleeding, caught on video.

There were no international electoral figures to vet the situation and confirm that anything the organizers claimed represented reality. A snap vote, poorly organized lacking outside scrutiny. A three-day count of the three million ballots that were printed. No ballot markings, no voter rolls. People could vote anywhere, and if they had a mind to stroll by any voting booths they wished to continue casting votes in, who would stop them?

Members of election committee count ballots after voting closed at a polling station in Donetsk, Ukraine, Sunday, May 11, 2014. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Obviously the results, counted by hand, are guaranteed not to reflect cities like Slavyansk and Mariupol where few polling stations were open. Nor would they reflect the results of surveys conducted by Ukrainian and international polling firms that found the reality that only about one-third of citizens in Donetsk favoured independence. They did look for greater autonomy from Kyiv, but not independence.