As the Ukrainian government did not respond to these demands, 2,000 to 3,000 activists, some of them armed, seized the RSA building, and a local prosecutor's office, on 29 April. The buildings were both ransacked, and then occupied by the protesters. Protestors waived local flags, alongside those of Russia and the neighbouring Donetsk People's Republic. The police officers that had been guarding the building offered little resistance to the takeover, and some of them defected and supported the activists.