Donetsk activists ignore Putin calls against referendum

Pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine decided Thursday to move ahead with their plan to hold a May 11 referendum on the region's independence, despite Moscow's calls to postpone it.

"The referendum is the only way to solve the controversial issues and to inform the world what is really going on here," pro-Russian leader Denis Pushilin said.

According to Pushilin, the working groups of the self-proclaimed republics in the country's Donetsk and Lugansk regions voted unanimously in favour of holding the referendum Sunday, Xinhua reported.

The vote, initiated by the pro-Russian movement in eastern Ukraine, will ask people whether their regions should become sovereign republics, independent from government in Kiev.

If the referendum goes ahead, it could see the region move to join Russia as happened in Crimea in mid-March, when the peninsula and its city of Sevastopol became Russian regions following a vote recognised by Moscow.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday asked the pro-Russian protestors in eastern Ukraine to postpone their referendum.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government said it would continue its "anti-terror" operations in the eastern region of the country.