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© Efrem Lukatsky/APA masked pro-Russian activist, standing by a Russian flag, guards a regional administration building Friday
Ukraine's prime minister went on a charm offensive Friday as he visited the country's southeast, pledging to give regions more powers and to defend the rights of Russian speakers.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk met with regional officials who once opposed his new government in Kiev, but not with protesters occupying government buildings in Donetsk or Luhansk.

"There are no separatists among us," said Gennady Kernes, mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, where the government recaptured a building taken over by protesters earlier in the week. Kernes and other officials asked Yatsenyuk to allow votes on autonomy for their regions but not on secession.

Ukraine's government has resisted federalization, saying that would lay the groundwork for the country's breakup.

Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland was the support base for Kremlin-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February after months of protests.

Before leaving Donetsk for another eastern city, Yatsenyuk said he favors a peaceful solution to the standoff. However, he left the door open to storming the buildings occupied by armed men.

The protesters in Donetsk, who have held the regional administration building since Sunday, initially called for a referendum on secession but later reduced the demand to a vote on autonomy, with the possibility of holding a later election on whether to join Russia.

Eastern Ukraine has a high proportion of Russian-speakers and many fear being repressed.

Yatsenyuk sought to assuage these fears, speaking in Russian in a live TV interview: "I will be the first to guarantee the right of every Ukrainian to speak any language they want."

Source: The Associated Press