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)
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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