VICE News

Detained in Donetsk on Referendum Day: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 38) (2x41)

: 14, 2014

On Sunday, a referendum was finally held by the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine on whether to declare independence. Polling stations were set up all over the city. With no independent monitors present, the DPR used locals to ensure that the vote was free and fair — a provision that hardly inspired confidence. VICE News correspondent Henry Langston visited Donetsk to witness the ballot and ask people what they were voting for, but he and his crew quickly ran afoul of masked gunmen who were patrolling the station. They forced the crew inside the occupied administration building, where they were detained, searched, and interrogated for three hours before being allowed to leave. The experience offered some indication of what press freedom in the DPR would look like should it ever become independent.