A bit of history about the cities of eastern Ukraine.

[vostok]

Kharkov - Russian city . Was founded in 1630's. There settled Little Russians fleeing from Poles at the right bank of the Dnieper. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov built a fort and founded in 1656 Kharkov province .
Sumy - the city founded by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov no later than 1655 . Tsar allowed refugees-Little Russians, which were killing by the Poles to settle there.
Poltava - was in the XVII century, the center of the pro-Russian Little Russia. During this traitor Hetman Vygovskyy (something like this Klitschko or Yatseniuk ) attacked the city and its inhabitants sold into slavery to the Crimean Tatars .
Dnepropetrovsk - founded by Empress Catherine II in 1776 and was called Ekaterinoslav .
Lugansk - founded in 1795 when Empress Catherine II built ironworks on the river Lugan . To work on it come to live in Lugansk natives of central and north - western provinces of Russia .
Kherson - founded by Empress Catherine II in 1778 for the construction of the Russian fleet. Construction carried by Potemkin .
Donetsk - founded by Emperor Alexander II in 1869 during the construction of a metallurgical plant in Yuzovka .
Nikolaev - founded by Empress Catherine II in 1789. At this time there Potemkin built ship "St. Nicholas ."
Odessa - founded by Empress Catherine II in 1794 on the site of a fortress built just before by Suvorov.
Chernihov - one of the oldest Russian cities, it alredy existed in the beginning of X century. In 1503, it became part of Russia . In 1611 it was destroyed by the Poles , and seized the territory from the Russian . But in 1654 returned to Russia and since then Chernigov has always been a part of it.
Simferopol - founded by Catherine II in 1784. It was built on the site of Potemkin-Suvorov military camp and near the Tatar settlement.
Sevastopol - founded by Catherine II in 1783 on the site of a fortress built before Suvorov. Potemkin Built the city of .
Mariupol - founded in 1778 by Catherine II. She settled there Greeks - immigrants from the Crimea.
Krivoy Rog - founded by Catherine II in 1775. And its industrial development as the base metal was in Soviet times.
Zaporozhye - a city founded by Catherine II in 1770 and was called Alexandrovsk .
KIirovograd - was founded in 1754 by Russian Empress Elizabeth as a fortress to protect the southern borders of the Russian Empire from the Tatars . It called Elizabetgrad .

 

[Developereo]

Ukraine's east rallies for referendum | News.com.au

MORE than 5000 pro-Russia residents of a major city in Ukraine's east have demonstrated in favour of holding a referendum on whether to seek to split off and become part of Russia.

Saturday's rally in Donetsk came less than a week after the Ukrainian region of Crimea approved secession in a referendum regarded as illegitimate by the Western countries. After the referendum, Russia moved to formally annex Crimea.

With Crimea now effectively under the control of Russian forces, which ring Ukrainian military bases on the strategic Black Sea peninsula, concern is rising that Ukraine's eastern regions will agitate for a similar move.

Russia has brought large military contingents to areas near the border with eastern Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there is no intention to move into eastern Ukraine, but the prospect of violence between pro- and anti-secession groups in the east could be used as a pretext for sending in troops.

Eastern Ukraine is the heartland of Ukraine's economically vital heavy industry and mining and the support base for Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president who fled to Russia last month after being ousted in the wake of three months of protests in the capital, Kiev.

Russia and Yanukovych supporters contend Yanukovych's ouster was a coup and allege that the authorities who then came to power are nationalists who would oppress the east's large ethnic Russian population.

"They're trying to tear us away from Russia," said demonstrator Igor Shapoval, a 59-year-old businessman.

"But Donbass is ready to fight against this band which already lost Crimea and is losing in the east."

Donbass is the name for the region of factories and mines that includes Donetsk.

The demonstrators erected about several tents, an ironic echo of the massive tent camp that was established on Kiev's central square after the protests against Yanukovych broke out in late November.

The local parliament on Friday formed a working group to develop a referendum analogous to the one in Crimea.