Hundreds of pro-Russian separatists, some armed with assault rifles, seized government buildings and laid siege to police headquarters in a second Ukrainian regional capital yesterday as they expanded the reach of their rebellion against Kiev.
Their storming of the regional administration and prosecutor's offices in Luhansk, just 25km from the Russian border, came as US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed that American eavesdroppers have overheard intelligence operatives being directed by Moscow.
"We know exactly who's giving those orders, we know where they are coming from," he said, in a private meeting, the details of which were leaked yesterday.
"Intel is producing taped conversations of intelligence operatives taking their orders from Moscow and everybody can tell the difference in the accents, in the idioms, in the language."
The seizures in Luhansk, 130km east of the centre of the rebellion in Donetsk, suggest the separatists are continuing the occupations that have spread across eastern Ukraine.
