There are mounting fears that Russia is orchestrating a repeat of its seizure of Crimea, after Pro-Russian protesters who seized the regional government building in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk proclaimed themselves a “people’s republic” independent of Kiev.

“An anti-Ukrainian plan is being put into operation.. under which foreign troops will cross the border and seize the territory of the country,” said interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk Yatsenyuk at a cabinet meeting in Kiev, “We will not allow this.”

The protesters, after declaring a “people’s republic”, said they would hold a referendum on splitting from Ukraine – and asked Russia to have “peacekeeping troops” standing by.  Russia claimed to have begun pulling troops back from Ukraine’s eastern border, but US and NATO officials dispute that.

“We have strong evidence that there are tens of thousands of forces on the border and again not in their normal peacetime positions or garrisons,” said Daniel Baer, US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).