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© ITAR-TASS/Konstantin Sazonchik
Unknown persons overnight destroyed about a million ballots printed for a referendum on independence in the Donetsk Region, local police said on Thursday.

Witnesses said unknown persons broke into a printing house and destroyed 800,000 ballots prepared for a referendum planned for May 11. The attackers also destroyed printing equipment.

A similar incident occurred in another printing house in Donetsk, where unknown people stole about 300,000 ballots and damaged printing equipment.

The attacks were committed by radicals from the Right Sector extremist organization, witnesses said. The attackers were in modern army uniform with yellow and red-and-black bands with Right Sector marks.

There were several groups of attackers, whose aim was to prevent printing of ballots for the referendum, police noted.

The attackers escaped away in a white Volkswagen minibus and a silver-color Mazda minibus, both with Dnipropetrovsk region registration numbers.