Middle-aged municipal worker Masha bent down in her green parks department overall to tend the pristine flowerbeds on a tree-lined avenue in downtown Donetsk.
"We don't know who will be paying our salaries from now on," she said, digging around in the soil with her trowel.
"Last month it was the local town authorities but who knows in future."
The uncertainty came to the fore as the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Kiev-appointed regional governor tussled Tuesday over who was actually in charge.
The dispute arose a day after rebels claimed to have founded their own independent state and asked to join Russia following a referendum Sunday rejected by Ukraine's central government.
"As for the Donetsk Republic -– such a republic does not exist legally or politically," regional governor Serhiy Taruta told journalists at a press conference.
"There is only a dreamt up name and nothing else."
Unfortunately for Taruta -- a billionaire oligarch appointed by Kiev to run the restive region following the ouster of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych in February -- he was being forced to talk to journalists from a meeting room in a luxury hotel.
A five-minute walk away the rebels have turned what should be his office on the top floor of the region's barricaded administration building into the headquarters of their self-declared state.
Still, the bespectacled industrialist scoffed at the separatists' insistence that the result of their referendum, in which they claimed millions of voters backed splitting from Kiev, has to be respected.
- 'Social survey' -
"You can't call it a referendum as we have a precise definition in our law of what a referendum is. You can call it a social survey and that is how we should relate to it -- what are the opinions of those who went and what they want," Taruta said.
The rebels have demanded that the region's police and the government troops deployed against them across the region either switch sides or leave.
"Who is there to cross over to?" Taruta asked.
"They have no economic and social programmes, no investment programmes, no law enforcement," he said.
Despite separatist claims that they would not let a presidential election planned for May 25 take place in the region, Taruta insisted it would go ahead and said a separate referendum should be held later on devolving powers to the regions.
An hour later across the city centre, rebel leader Denis Pushilin hunched over journalists' microphones in the room Taruta should have been speaking in and was in a feisty mood.
"We've seen interviews before with Taruta when he's said he's here in his office on the eleventh floor working as normal when we've been sitting in it," Pushilin said.
"It is difficult to believe any of his plans -- he can say whatever he likes," said the bearded joint chairman of the rebel's ruling people's council.
- Ukraine army 'occupiers' -
He said there was no way the rebels would allow the election "of a neighbouring country" take place on their territory, adding that the Ukrainian army in the region had now become "occupiers" on foreign soil.
Wandering around the deserted and litter-strewn offices in their headquarters -- one of a few buildings they have seized in the city -- it does not appear that the insurgents have the capability to run much and concrete policies remain vague.
When asked about his new nation's economic plans, Pushilin admitted that they were still to be worked out.
He did admit reluctantly that for the payment of social benefits like pensions it was still Kiev in charge and not the rebel authorities. They have yet to start collecting taxes, he said.
Questions also remained over who exactly was in charge of the rebels after rumours had swirled that the self-proclaimed state had seen a putsch by its military wing before it had even barely managed to declare itself independent.
"There has been no coup and no seizure of power," Pushilin said.
Talk that the commander-in-chief of the separatists' armed forces -- a shadowy figure known as Igor Strelkov, whom Kiev accuses of being a Russian intelligence agent --was just "the latest provocation", Pushilin said.
"We don't have just one main person who is in charge -- we are a collegial organ," he said.
Middle-aged municipal worker Masha bent down in her green parks department overall to tend the pristine flowerbeds on a tree-lined avenue in downtown Donetsk.
“We don’t know who will be paying our salaries from now on,” she said, digging around in the soil with her trowel.
“Last month it was the local town authorities but who knows in future.”
The uncertainty came to the fore as the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Kiev-appointed regional governor tussled Tuesday over who was actually in charge.
The dispute arose a day after rebels claimed to have founded their own independent state and asked to join Russia following a referendum Sunday rejected by Ukraine’s central government.
“As for the Donetsk Republic -– such a republic does not exist legally or politically,” regional governor Serhiy Taruta told journalists at a press conference.
“There is only a dreamt up name and nothing else.”
Unfortunately for Taruta — a billionaire oligarch appointed by Kiev to run the restive region following the ouster of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych in February — he was being forced to talk to journalists from a meeting room in a luxury hotel.
A five-minute walk away the rebels have turned what should be his office on the top floor of the region’s barricaded administration building into the headquarters of their self-declared state.
Still, the bespectacled industrialist scoffed at the separatists’ insistence that the result of their referendum, in which they claimed millions of voters backed splitting from Kiev, has to be respected.
– ‘Social survey’ –
“You can’t call it a referendum as we have a precise definition in our law of what a referendum is. You can call it a social survey and that is how we should relate to it — what are the opinions of those who went and what they want,” Taruta said.
The rebels have demanded that the region’s police and the government troops deployed against them across the region either switch sides or leave.
“Who is there to cross over to?” Taruta asked.
“They have no economic and social programmes, no investment programmes, no law enforcement,” he said.
Despite separatist claims that they would not let a presidential election planned for May 25 take place in the region, Taruta insisted it would go ahead and said a separate referendum should be held later on devolving powers to the regions.
An hour later across the city centre, rebel leader Denis Pushilin hunched over journalists’ microphones in the room Taruta should have been speaking in and was in a feisty mood.
“We’ve seen interviews before with Taruta when he’s said he’s here in his office on the eleventh floor working as normal when we’ve been sitting in it,” Pushilin said.
“It is difficult to believe any of his plans — he can say whatever he likes,” said the bearded joint chairman of the rebel’s ruling people’s council.
– Ukraine army ‘occupiers’ –
He said there was no way the rebels would allow the election “of a neighbouring country” take place on their territory, adding that the Ukrainian army in the region had now become “occupiers” on foreign soil.
Wandering around the deserted and litter-strewn offices in their headquarters — one of a few buildings they have seized in the city — it does not appear that the insurgents have the capability to run much and concrete policies remain vague.
When asked about his new nation’s economic plans, Pushilin admitted that they were still to be worked out.
He did admit reluctantly that for the payment of social benefits like pensions it was still Kiev in charge and not the rebel authorities. They have yet to start collecting taxes, he said.
Questions also remained over who exactly was in charge of the rebels after rumours had swirled that the self-proclaimed state had seen a putsch by its military wing before it had even barely managed to declare itself independent.
“There has been no coup and no seizure of power,” Pushilin said.
Talk that the commander-in-chief of the separatists’ armed forces — a shadowy figure known as Igor Strelkov, whom Kiev accuses of being a Russian intelligence agent –was just “the latest provocation”, Pushilin said.
“We don’t have just one main person who is in charge — we are a collegial organ,” he said.
