UKRAINE’S acting President has launched a military crackdown on anti-government protesters in the country’s east.

RT reports President Oleksandr Turchynov announced the crackdown on pro-Russia supporters in the north of the Donetsk region.

“The anti-terrorist operation started overnight Monday,” said Turchynov.

“The aim of these actions is to protect the citizens of Ukraine.”

Turchynov on Sunday had vowed to launch military action unless the separatists laid down their arms by Monday morning.

“Overnight, an antiterrorist operation began in the north of Donetsk. But it will be phased, responsible and balanced. The purpose of the actions, I stress once again, is to protect the citizens of Ukraine,” Turchynov told Ukraine’s parliament, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The head Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Andrey Parubiy said today the first battalion of the National Guard had been deployed from Kiev to the southeast of the country.

Pro-Russian activists seized at least two more government buildings on Sunday, bringing to more than 10 the number of occupied buildings in the Russian-speaking eastern provinces, which form Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

Kiev authorities refer to the protesters in the east as “terrorists”.

Turchynov yesterday offered a referendum on federalisation and suggested deployment of UN peacekeepers.

Turchynov proposed holding a referendum over Ukraine’s future as a unitary or federal state at the same time as the May 25 presidential election.

“I am sure that a big majority of Ukrainians will vote for an indivisible, independent, democratic and unitarian Ukraine,” he told a meeting of parliamentary leaders.

Turchynov then suggested deploying United Nations peacekeepers. “Ukraine does not object to a joint anti-terrorist operation with UN peacekeeping forces,” he told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a telephone conversation, his office said.