The protesters were not entirely unified in their demands. Some said they wanted the rebels to attack the Ukrainian Army, to push the front farther from their neighborhoods, while others demanded that the separatists remove artillery pieces from backyards and city streets, so as not to invite retaliatory strikes.

Some also demanded pension payments, which Kiev has suspended as part of the blockade.

The protesters came mainly from the Kievsky and October Market neighborhoods, where rebel units have mortar emplacements that draw return fire from the Ukrainian Army. Despite a cease-fire brokered in February, skirmishes are common.

The line of contact runs between these districts of Donetsk, controlled by Russian-backed rebels, and adjacent villages controlled by Ukrainian forces.

The separatist police turned out but allowed the protest to go ahead.

The Donetsk separatist leader, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, addressed the crowd to say his government was working to pay pensions more regularly. People shouted back that the fighting should stop or the separatist leadership should provide them with housing farther from the front, Novaya Gazeta, the independent Russian newspaper, reported. The crowd dispersed later Monday.

Though the war was ostensibly fought for their benefit, Russian-speaking residents of the breakaway east in Ukraine have borne the brunt of the violence and its economic fallout.