The referendum (on whether to join Russia or to remain with Ukraine) is scheduled on May 11. The presidential elections are 2 weeks after that. By the time of the presidential elections, Donetsk might be officially a part of Russia.
I think that the situation must be calmed down before any sort of regional referendum or country-wide elections can be held. Calling people to vote in this circumstances, when armed groups are shooting at each other cannot yield very realistic results.
Agree with you there, but is there any other option? It's a chicken and egg problem. The situation cannot calm down until people see a government that they can call legitimate, and which represents also there interests, and a legitimate government is difficult to form with the country in turmoil.
The situation is very much different from Crimea, where the state of people mind was positive, peaceful, and euphoric with the prospect of finally throwing off Ukrainian 60-year long occupation. South-Eastern regions are, on the other hand, almost in a state of civil war, and they've been under the Ukrainian rule for longer - 96 years. There's much more pent up negative emotion there, ready to explode.
