By Sabina Zawadzki and Lina Kushch MARIUPOL/DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Factories sounded their sirens in two cities of eastern Ukraine on Tuesday and steel workers held a peace rally in support of a call by Ukraine's richest man for protests against armed separatists who plan to disrupt a May 25 presidential election. In his strongest condemnation yet of rebels who have seized strategic points in towns in the heavily industrialized Russian-speaking east, Rinat Akhmetov urged people to unite "for Donbass without weapons! For Donbass without masks!" Akhmetov, a coal and steel magnate who has an estimated 300,000 employees on his payroll and enjoys huge authority in the region, said Ukrainians should stage a "peaceful warning protest" at their companies from noon on Tuesday when sirens would sound across the region. Kiev's pro-Western authorities, who hailed Akhmetov's move hoping it would trigger a groundswell of support from ordinary workers to change the dynamics on the ground ahead of Sunday's election, may be disappointed. Read More http://ift.tt/TpXqEV
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