A day after storming government buildings in Luhansk, pro-Russian separatists remain in control.

The armed men and other demonstrators smashed their way in and are not letting go.

(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) LUHANSK RESIDENT MAXIM SAYING:

"The people of our city showed that we will not tolerate the illegal government which we don't need and which we know is Fascist and Neo-Nazi".

The city is the latest in eastern Ukraine to fall to the separatists.

In Slaviansk, separatists said they stopped an early morning attack on a roadblock at the city's entrance by Ukrainian troops.

The barricades were still smoldering hours later.

Inside the city, one resident said she just wants peace.

(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SLAVIANSK RESIDENT LYUDMILA SAYING:

"We want this brawling to stop, this war, this confrontation, so everything will be settled, so that the factories would work and people could live normally. That's what we are for. And we also want a presid