Ukraine Separatists Stay Put Despite Deal

Pro-Russian insurgents occupying government buildings in eastern Ukraine say they will only leave them if the interim government in Kiev resigns.

Denis Pushilin, a figurehead of the self-appointed Donetsk People's Republic, said that the insurgents do not recognise the Ukrainian government as legitimate.

Ukraine and Russia agreed on Thursday to take tentative steps toward calming tensions along their shared border after more than a month of bloodshed.

But Mr Pushilin said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "did not sign anything for us, he signed on behalf of the Russian Federation".

He said that because the deal specifies that all illegally-seized buildings should be vacated the interim government in Kiev, which replaced democratically-elected President Viktor Yanukovich, is occupying public buildings illegally.

Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the parliament that a law offering amnesty to all those willing to lay down their arms and leave the occupied government buildings had been drafted.

Sky's Katie Stallard, in Donetsk on Friday morning, said there was no sign of anyone there acting on the deal reached in Geneva at talks attended by the US, Russia, the European Union and Ukraine.

She added: "None of those at the talks directly represented those on the ground, particularly those occupying the buildings."

In Slavyansk, a city that has become a flashpoint in the crisis after men with Kalashnikovs took control last weekend, leaders of the pro-Russian gunmen held a meeting on how to respond to the agreement inside one of the seized buildings.

On the street, there was little change. In front of the Slavyansk mayor's office, men armed with Kalashnikovs peered over sandbags which had been piled higher overnight.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

Separatists remained in control of the city's main streets, searching cars at checkpoints around the city.

"Are we going to leave the buildings so that they can come and arrest us? I don't think so," said a man guarding the road to the security office, another building the separatists seized, who identified himself as Alexei.

In the capital, Kiev, people on Independence Square, which was the centre of protests that eventually toppled President Viktor Yanukovich, said the barricades would not come down until the May 25 presidential election.

"The people gave their word to stay until the presidential elections so that nobody will be able to rig the result. Then after the election we'll go of our own accord," said 56-year-old Viktor Palamaryuk from the western town of Chernivtsi.

US President Barack Obama said: "I don't think we can be sure of anything at this point. There is the possibility, the prospect, that diplomacy may de-escalate the situation."

He warned that the West stood ready to impose further sanctions on Russia if no progress was made in defusing the crisis.

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