The IMF Executive Council approved a new anti-crisis program for Ukraine and a $17.01 billion stand-by agreement for Ukraine with the immediate transfer of the first tranche of about $3.190 billion.

In Donetsk members of the People’s militia of Donbass first sieged and then stormed the building of the Regional Prosecutor Office. Several soldiers got injured. The DPR flag was raised above the building of the Prosecutor Office and the flag of Ukraine was burnt. The DPR authority was also established over the town police departments in Krasnoarmeysk and Rodinskoye.

In Odessa radicals of junta crushed the tent camp on the Kulikovo Pole and burnt the federalisation supporters alive in the Trade Unions House. After the action of intimidation had failed in Donetsk junta sent about 5,000 radicals of the Right Sector, the Maidan Self-Defence and Kharkov football ultras to Odessa. Another march ‘For united Ukraine’ walked through the centre of the city crushing everything in its way. Defenders of the Kulikovo Pole were alarmed and between them and the radicals of junta there happened some local clashes. One of the participants of the march ‘For united Ukraine’ got (allegedly at the hands of a sniper) a fatal gunshot wound. Clashes grew into full-scaled urban battles in which both sides used paving stones, improvised explosive devices with metal striking elements, Molotov cocktails, firearms, traumatic and pneumatic guns. The radicals surrounded small groups of the Kulikovo Pole defenders, severely beating them. One of such groups barricaded itself in the shopping centre Afina, the radicals tried to set the shopping centre on fire but its doors held out and the fire didn’t spread. The wound-up crowd took a decision to head towards the Kulikovo Pole. The radicals of junta crushed and burnt the tent camp. People on the Kulikovo Pole, including passers-by, hid in the Trade Unions House. The radicals threw Molotov cocktails in the building and there a fire broke out; Odessa residents jumping out of the House were beaten to death by the radicals right on the spot. According to the official data, the fire in the Trade Unions House resulted in 48 people dead. According to an independent investigation, the number of those burnt alive, suffocated in the smoke, beaten and hacked to death exceeds 200 people. In Slavyansk at 5 am the Internal Troops and the National Guard, supported by armoured vehicles and helicopters of the MFU, attacked checkpoints on the outskirts of the town; there a new storm started. A checkpoint in the township of Bylbasovka was seized almost immediately as was the TV centre of Slavyansk on the hill Karachun a bit later. This stage of the military operation had been announced the day before; the commandment of it had been passed from the IAM to the Head of the SSU Valentin Nalivaychenko. In particular, the mass media reported about shootings at checkpoints and in the vicinities of the railway station. In the area of the feed mill the rebels shot at a helicopter of the Emergency Ministry with a crew of doctors on board one of whom was injured. The Ukrainian military managed to take the TV tower on the hill Karachun under their control and switch off television in the town; they surrounded the town and seized 10 checkpoints, having pushed Ponomaryov’s supporters to the centre of the town where the latter started to erect barricades. By the end of the day the rebels stated that they had managed to defend the town again. Referring to the Defence Ministry the Ukrainian mass media reported two lost attack helicopter Mi-24, which had been downed from MANPADS, and one damaged landing helicopter Mi-8. 5 people out of two crews of Mi-24 helicopters (6 persons) died. The last member of the helicopter crew was injured, found by the rebels and brought to the town hospital. The rebels lost 1 person dead and tens of injured. The IAM announced demands to the residents of Slavyansk to surrender the weapons, liberate all hostages (members of the OSCE mission, journalists, the ex-Mayor Nellya Shtepa and others) and seized administrative buildings, and stop riots and resistance. The authorities also stated their readiness to amnesty those participants of the confrontation and seizure of the buildings who hadn’t committed violent crimes.

At night on 3 May the storm of Slavyansk resumed. There was a shooting in the area of the township of Yasnogorka where unarmed residents and rebels blocked a column of APCs and other military vehicles of the Ukrainian army, and another one in the area of the township of Andreevka. On the part of the military it was the 95th separated airborne brigade that took part in the confrontation which resulted in 2 Ukrainian soldiers and 10 rebels dead. By the evening the rebels stated that they controlled only the centre of Kramatorsk while their Headquarters were under control of the National Guard, the latter also liberated the building of the SSU. The local mass media reported that the government troops seized all the checkpoints around the town, the airfield and the TV centre where the Ukrainian channels broadcasting was resumed. The next day the rebels stated that they had restored their control over Kramatorsk and several other key towns of the Donetsk region. 5 May fightings near Slavyansk resumed; the National Guard units managed to return the TV station under their control and restore the Ukrainian channels broadcasting. Skirmishes in the micro-district Semyonovka resulted in 4 soldiers of the pro-government forces and 20 civilians dead. At noon the rebels, using a large-calibre machine-gun, downed another attack helicopter Mi-24. The Ukrainian planes, in their turn, destroyed the rebels’ armoured train assembled from civil wagons. Starting from 5 May 2014 Slavyansk was shelled daily; it wasn’t only checkpoints of the rebels but also residential houses that were targets for the Ukrainian artillery, including MIMARS, cluster and phosphorus bombs.

On 7 May the Ukrainian National Guard battalions managed to seize the building of the Town Hall of Mariupol occupied by the rebels. The military pushed the DPR supporters from the building using gas; on the roof there was raised the flag of Ukraine. However, several hours later the Town Hall returned under control of the DPR supporters. In the area of the township of Mangush soldiers of the Donbass militia shot at a bus of the special forces battalion Azov that was moving from Mariupol towards Berdyansk; during the battle one of the attackers was killed, both sides had several injured people and two of attackers were captured, including the DPR “Defence Minister” Igor Kakidzyanov. On 9 May, on the Day of Victory, in Mariupol there was a battle between the rebels and the National Guard of Ukraine and the special forces battalion Azov. Junta took a decision to disperse a meeting of the DPR supporters, which the law enforcements in the town were informed of. The local policemen refused to use force against their fellow citizens. Units of the National Guard and the battalion Azov entered the town on military vehicles, burnt the rebellious policemen alive in the building of the police station where the latter had hidden and opened fire at a crowd of residents gathered there. Mariupol people stopped the moving military vehicles with their bare hands, literally throwing themselves under the wheels. The military of junta were forced to leave the town. During the confrontation 7 people were killed, 39 were injured. In Slavyansk during the celebration of the Day of Victory the town Mayor Nellya Shtepa made a speech at a meeting organised by the DPR supporters; she urged residents to take part in the referendum of 11 May. Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the “People’s Mayor” announced that the militia wouldn’t take war prisoners anymore. In some food shops of Slavyansk shelves got empty, many banks closed, cash machines were running out of money; the town started to feel the lack of cash.

In the Donetsk and Lugansk regions there were held the referendums on their self-determination. The turnout at the referendums was respectively 74.87% and 75.0%; respectively 89.07% and 96.2% of those who took part in the referendums voted for creating the People’s republics. In Krasnoarmeysk soldiers of the battalion Dnieper seized the polling station and opened fire at civilians who came to the referendum. As a result, 1 person was killed and 2 people were injured. According to the interim President of Ukraine Alexander Turchinov, only 24% and 32% of voters of the regions respectively took part in the referendums.

According to the results of the referendums, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic declared their sovereignty and expressed a desire to unite into Novorossia and enter the Customs Union. Denis Pushilin, the co-chairman of the DPR interim government, read ‘the DPR appeal’ including a request to the Russian Federation to consider a matter of the Donetsk People’s Republic acceding Russia. According to the appeal, the Republican Assembly became the highest organ of the state power in the Donetsk People’s Republic; the Assembly was to form the DPR government and the Security Council. After the referendum on the future of Donbass held the day before Igor Strelkov stated that he had accepted the post of the commander of the Military Forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and announced the regime of the “counter-terroristic operation” (CTO). In the order issued by Strelkov there was an address to the Russian Federation ‘to take adequate measures to protect the DPR population, including a possibility to enter peacekeeping forces from the eastern border’. The order also declared that ‘within the CTO all radicals of the Ukrainian neo-nazi groups (the National Guard of Ukraine, the Right Sector, the battalions Azov, Donbass etc) are to be detained, disarmed and in case of armed resistance destroyed on the spot’.

The battalion Azov supported by Ukrainian military and armoured vehicles cleared the centre of Mariupol out of the DPR rebels. By the end of the day the town was reported to have been taken by the Ukrainian army; Ukrainian flags were raised above administrative buildings. According to the preliminary information, the operation resulted in no less than 5 DPR soldiers killed and more than 30 arrested. A column of Ukrainian military got into a trap of rebels in the area of the Octyabrskoye village, 20 km away from Kramatorsk. Igor Strelkov informed in his communique that the DPR soldiers had attacked a column of the National Guard delivering ammunition to Ukrainian units located on the hill Karachun. According to the official IAM information, the column ‘was carrying water and food from one checkpoint to another’. During shooting 7 paratroopers from the 95th airmobile brigade were killed; the brigade also lost an ACV and a GAS-66 with a mortar on it. According to the rebels, they lost two soldiers.

In Donetsk the Republican Assembly adopted the Constitution of the DPR. Denis Pushilin became the speaker of the parliament and Alexander Boroday, a citizen of Russia, took a post of the Prime-Minister of the DPR. Stella Khorosheva, a press-secretary of the Mayor of Slavyansk, announced that the militia was moving from the defence to attack phase. She also informed that during the previous day there had been 11 Ukrainian soldiers killed and 34 injured and announced an ultimatum to the Ukrainian authorities to withdraw their troops from Slavyansk. When the term of ultimatum was over the rebels attacked a base of Ukrainian military in the area of Izyum and blocked and shot at the military airfield in Kramatorsk.

In Donetsk the Republican Assembly adopted the Constitution of the DPR. Denis Pushilin became the speaker of the parliament and Alexander Boroday, a citizen of Russia, took a post of the Prime-Minister of the DPR. Stella Khorosheva, a press-secretary of the Mayor of Slavyansk, announced that the militia was moving from the defence to attack phase. She also informed that during the previous day there had been 11 Ukrainian soldiers killed and 34 injured and announced an ultimatum to the Ukrainian authorities to withdraw their troops from Slavyansk. When the term of ultimatum was over the rebels attacked a base of Ukrainian military in the area of Izyum and blocked and shot at the military airfield in Kramatorsk.

The General Prosecutor Office of Ukraine recognised the self-proclaimed republics as terroristic organisations. The institution explained that the structures had all relevant traits, such as clear hierarchy, channels of financing and delivering weapons.

In Lugansk the Republican Assembly adopted the Constitution of the LPR. The Ukrainian military supported by heavy artillery and attack aircraft made another assault along the line Slavyansk-Kramatorsk. As a result, they managed to get through into Kramatorsk; street fightings began there. According to a representative of the people’s self-defence of the town, a column of armoured vehicles including 6 ACVs didn’t manage to get further than a bridge in the area of the plant Energomashspetsstal. The Ukrainian military units retreated in the direction of the hill Karachun. At night the militia managed to return two checkpoints seized before under their control.

The Republican Assembly of the Lugansk People’s Republic sent a letter to the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon with a request to recognise its sovereignty and independence.

In Donetsk the Prime Minister of the DPR Alexander Boroday and the Head of the parliament of the LPR Alexey Karyakin signed the document on two republics uniting into ‘the state Novorossia’. At the same time the Head of the LPR Valery Bolotov announced that the creation of Novorossia didn’t mean merging of two republics; they remained independent. The independence of the republics was also confirmed by Pavel Gubarev who was unanimously elected the leader of the public-political movement Novorossia that was to represent interests of the new state. At the same time at the congress in Donetsk there was created the United National Front that, according to the plan of 145 organisers from 8 regions of the South-East of Ukraine, would act in the South-East of Ukraine and unite supporters of federalisation from all the regions of the country. Andrea Rocchelli, an Italian journalist, and Andrey Mironov, a Russian journalist and human rights activist accompanying him, were killed near Slavyansk. William Roguelon, a French photographer who was in a car with them, was injured. According to the rebels, the car with the journalists was shelled from a mortar by the Ukrainian military when the group stopped at a checkpoint of the rebels. The first vice Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema stated, though, that the mortar shelling had been conducted from the side of the separatists.

In Ukraine there took place the early presidential elections. There were 23 candidates running for the presidency. It was Petr Poroshenko who won; he got 54.70% of votes at the turnout of 59.48% of voters.

The battalion Vostok of the DPR army arrived at the airport of Donetsk with an ultimatum to Ukrainian military staying there to leave the territory of the airport. At about 2 pm the Ukrainian military attacked the militia, using two planes Su-25, two Mig-29 and 4 helicopters Mi-24; the Ukrainian military in the airport also received reinforcements. During the many-hour battle several missiles hit the building of the plant Tochmash and several civilians were killed in the city. At 18:00 the DPR forces started a retreat. One of the trucks carrying injured militiamen from the airport got under a “friendly fire” of the DPR forces that had taken them for attacking Ukrainian military. As a result, only 3 persons of those in the KamAS survived. The airport Donetsk suspended all flights.

At the south-eastern suburb of Slavyansk, in the area of the township Chervony Molochar, rebels downed a Ukrainian military helicopter Mi-8 which resulted in the death of 14 Ukrainian soldiers and officers, including Sergey Kulchitsky, a general of the internal troops of Ukraine. On the same day in the area the village Dolina rebels attacked a Ukrainian column moving from Izyum.

There was approved the national flag of Novorossia which united the red flag of the Great Victory and St Andrew’s cross of the Russian Navy.