Wednesday 9 April 2014

Ukraine update - 04/08/2014

Kiev cracks down on eastern Ukraine after 2 regions proclaim independence
Dozens have been arrested as Kiev authorities launched a crackdown on anti-Maidan activists in cities of eastern Ukraine that attempted to declare their independence.


RT,
8 April, 2014

At least 70 activists have been arrested after a so-called “anti-terrorist operation” launched by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry in the eastern city of Kharkov.

According to the country’s interior minister, Arsen Avakov, “the building of the regional state administration is totally free of the separatists who seized it earlier.”

Hundreds of protesters rallied in Svoboda Square near Kharkov’s regional council building, demanding the release of 70 pro-Russian activists later on Tuesday. The building was surrounded by police.

On Monday, Kharkov protesters erected barricades around administrative buildings and the regional headquarters of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). The demonstrators soon took control of the building.

This was followed by clashes with police who reportedly unleashed fire-hoses, stun grenades and tear gas to push the crowd back from the building. In response, protesters threw several Molotov cocktails at the building and set a pile of tires on fire. The blaze soon spread to the first floor of the building.

Eventually, a group of local police outside the administration building moved in to push protesters back, allowing fire crews to extinguish the blaze. The building was slightly damaged by the blaze and several windows were broken in the scuffles.

Activists at the scene said the law enforcement officers who used force against protesters had been deployed from western Ukraine. According to some witnesses, the violence was initially triggered by a group of provocateurs.

Despite the crackdown, a group of at least 150 people gathered in front of Kharkov’s administration building Tuesday to protest against the new authorities in Kiev.

Donetsk

Ukraine’s southeast has been seeing weekly anti-Maidan demonstrations.

In Donetsk, activists proclaimed the creation of a People’s Republic of Donetsk after seizing the local administration building.

This action on Monday was also followed by a special operation. Police took weapons seized by the protesters in the SBU’s regional headquarters, Donetsk Mayor Aleksandr Lukyanchenko said.

Ukrainian media however report that the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk has ceased to exist.

The Committee on Patriotic forces of Donbass has been receiving numerous calls from the public voicing their disagreement with the proclamation of the republic and its joining the neighboring state as well as conducting a referendum – all those without a legal base in place,” Ukrainskaya Pravda daily cited the committee said as saying.

The proclamation and referendum plans were thus annulled till the legal base is created, the committee said. The group’s original posting on Facebook has become unavailable.

Lugansk, Nikolaev, Dnepropetrovsk

On Tuesday, protesters gathered in Lugansk – also outside the regional department of the SBU. Interfax-Ukraine reported that the protesters were setting up barricades and pouring flammable mixtures on them.

The speakers at the demonstration called for the creation of a parliament of the Lugansk republic, choosing new MPs and establishing a new government. Calls for an independence referendum were also heard.





On Monday, clashes erupted in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikolaev after at least 300 activists attempted to storm the city administration building. The protesters were also trying to remove the Ukrainian flag from the administration building. Police reportedly used rubber bullets to force the crowd back from the building.

At least 15 people have been injured, with 11 of them were admitted to hospital, and more than 20 arrested, the city’s Health Department reported.
An elderly woman looks at the Russian flag set up by pro-Russian activists at a barricade blocking access to the Ukrainian Security Service building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk on April 8, 2014.(AFP Photo / Genya Savilov)
An elderly woman looks at the Russian flag set up by pro-Russian activists at a barricade blocking access to the Ukrainian Security Service building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk on April 8, 2014.(AFP Photo / Genya Savilov)

After pro-Russian demonstrators expressed their discontent with Kiev authorities in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, the city authorities moved to negotiate with the anti-government activists.



According to the region’s deputy governor, Boris Filatov, both the left-wing” and the pro-Russian protesters agreed to refrain from calls for separatist actions.” In return, the authorities said they will let the activists use some offices in the administrative buildings for their meetings and work,” as well as provide them with free access” to local printed media.

Meanwhile, Russia has called on Kiev and Washington not to ignore the interests of all of Ukraine’s regions, including those in southeastern Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry voiced concerns over the build-up of Ukrainian forces and US mercenaries in southeastern parts of the country, calling on Kiev to immediately cease military preparations which could lead to a civil war.
According to Russian FM Sergey Lavrov, the coup-appointed government in Ukraine has not made any positive steps towards these regions and the people there fear that their interests are being ignored by Kiev.”


Crying wolf.

I posted an article where the US was saying Russia would invade the Ukraine '3-5 days from now'. The 5 days are up and still they are repeating the same assertion!

Moscow may be planning 
intervention in eastern Ukraine, US warns
John Kerry fears potential Crimea-style action after pro-Russian forces cement control of government building in Donetsk

John Kerry, a hairstyle in search of a brain

8 April, 2014

The US issued a stark warning on Tuesday that Moscow could be orchestrating another Crimea-style intervention in eastern Ukraine, after pro-Russian forces cemented their control of a government building in the city of Donetsk and there were claims that in Luhansk protesters had taken up to 60 people hostage and were laying mines.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, described recent developments in eastern Ukraine as "more than deeply disturbing" and repeated threats of western sanctions against Russia, which he said would be expanded to the country's energy, banking and mining sectors.

Kerry blamed pro-Russian protests in eastern Ukraine on "special forces and agents" sent by Moscow in a move he said "could potentially be a contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in Crimea".

The top US diplomat was speaking at the Senate foreign relations committee as Ukraine's state security service said that pro-Russian separatists had placed explosives in a building they seized in the eastern city of Luhansk on Sunday and were holding around 60 people against their will.

Protesters in Donetsk, who have taken over a regional building and are calling for independence from Kiev, meanwhile fortified the building with barricades of barbed wire and tyres and earlier in Kharkiv, Ukrainian police detained 70 pro-Russia demonstrators who had occupied a regional government building. Hundreds of angry pro-Russian protesters rallied in front of the building on Tuesday afternoon, demanding the release of 70 people arrested in the raid.

"When there was the protest in Kiev everyone called it a peaceful protest, so why aren't we allowed to do the same thing here?" said Olga Maleyeva, a 52-year-old businesswoman in the crowd. People threw eggs and stones at a police bus as it drove past.

Ukraine's security service said "terrorists" in Luhansk were keeping 60 people hostage inside the building and had laid mines. The protesters, who are believed to have weapons, are still in control of the local government headquarters in the city, but denied they had taken any hostages.

Kerry said: "Everything that we've seen in the past 48 hours from Russian provocateurs and agents operating in eastern Ukraine tells us that they've been sent there determined to create chaos. That is absolutely unacceptable. These efforts are as ham-handed as they are transparent, frankly."

In return, a Russian foreign ministry statement claimed that about 150 operatives of Greystone, a division of the controversial US private security firm Blackwater, were operating in Ukraine disguised as local law enforcement, an allegation the US ambassador in Kiev dismissed as "rubbish".

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said the separatist movements in Kharkiv and Donetsk were "being led by Russian security services". The ministry described the current events as setting the scene for "the second stage of the occupation of Ukraine", after the annexation of Crimea by Moscow last month.

Kerry said: "Quite simply, what we see from Russia is an illegal and illegitimate effort to destabilise a sovereign state and create a contrived crisis with paid operatives, across an international boundary, engaged in this initiative." He added that while the west's preference was for a diplomatic de-escalation of the crisis of the Ukraine, Washington was ready "to do what is necessary" to maintain the international order.

He gave no specifics, but repeated previous threats of expanded sanctions, some of which are already targeting officials close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over the attempted annexation of Crimea. Referring to aspects of Russia's economy that could be targeted he added: "Energy, banking, mining – they're all on the table."

Events have mirrored the initial scenario in Crimea, which began with the seizure of the local parliament and ended with Russian annexation. There have been several waves of unrest in the east, though support for integration with Russia is nowhere near as strong as it was in Crimea. Despite the tens of thousands of troops allegedly poised on the border, it is not clear whether Russia is planning an actual incursion or is merely trying to put pressure on Kiev to accede to its demands for the federalisation of Ukraine.

Putin intends to meet with the Russian cabinet on Wednesday to discuss economic ties with Ukraine. Russia's energy giant Gazprom says Kiev owes it at least $2.2bn and has also not paid anything for gas deliveries in March. Gazprom raised the price for gas to Ukraine by 80% last week, a move that was described in Kiev as political. Putin's spokesman did not say whether the cabinet would discuss discontinuing gas supplies to Ukraine.

Russia said it was prepared to take part in four-way talks with Washington, Kiev and the EU, but said representatives of south and east Ukrainian regions should be present at any such talks.



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