Anti-separatism rally held in Donetsk, Ukraine

DONESTSK , Ukraine, May 20 (UPI) -- Rallies, underwritten by a Ukrainian businessman to protest pro-Russian separatism, attracted hundreds to the Donetsk, Ukraine soccer stadium.

The noisy demonstrations in Donetsk, which include cars flying the Ukrainian flag and car horns blaring throughout the city every day at noon, are the idea of Rinat Akhmetov, whose Donetsk-based industrial enterprises have made him one of Ukraine's richest men.

His fortune is estimated at over $11 billion, and his businesses in the Donbass, industrial eastern Ukraine, employs over 300,000 people.

The demonstrators are those Ukrainians "tired of living in fear and terror," Akhmetov said, eager to vote in Sunday's presidential election and opposed to separatism and vigilante methods of pro-Russian separatists. In an address on Ukrayina TV, a channel Akhmetov owns, he issued criticism of the separatist rebellion and called for "peaceful warning protest," leading to the demonstrations on the roads of the cities. If they didn't, he said, he foresaw "the genocide of Donbass."

Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, said in response, "Akhmetov has made his choice. Unfortunately he chose against the people of Donbass. Paying taxes to Kiev means financing terrorism in Donbass."