Putin urges postponing eastern Ukraine referendum

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin says a planned May 11 referendum on autonomy in southeast Ukraine should be postponed.

In a Wednesday meeting with Swiss president Didier Burkhalter, Putin also called on Ukraine’s military to halt all operations against pro-Russia activists who have seized government buildings and police stations across at least a dozen towns in eastern Ukraine.

Putin also said the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine – slated for May 25 – are a move “in the right direction,” but repeated that constitutional reforms would have to precede any nationwide vote in Ukraine.