Mayor of east Ukraine city shot, critical
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine â?? The mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city was shot in the back Monday as tensions escalate in eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists seizing another government building and the West preparing fresh sanctions on Russia.
Hennady Kernes, the mayor of Kharkiv, was shot Monday morning and was in surgery “fighting for his life,” according to city officials.
It is not yet clear who was behind the shooting but Kernes was an opponent of the pro-West protests in the capital of Kyiv that ousted pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych in February.
Kernes is believed to be the organizer of activists sent to Kyiv from eastern Ukraine to harass those demonstrators but has had a change of heart recently about the situation, saying he does not support the pro-Russian separatists or the annexation of Ukrainian territory.
Western nations accuse Russia of supporting separatist gunmen and are set to impose fresh sanctions against Russian individuals and companies. High technology exports to Russia’s defense industry will be among the new round of sanctions, President Obama said during a visit to the Philippines earlier Monday.
The commander of the pro-Russia militants in Slovyansk publicly identified himself over the weekend for the first time as Igor Strelkov, whom Ukraine says is a Russian intelligence officer in Ukraine on orders from Moscow to create an uprising against the elected government.
“The unit that I came to Slovyansk with was put together in Crimea. I’m not going to hide that,” Mr. Strelkov told Moscow-based Komsomolskaya Pravda in a video interview. “It was formed by volunteers. I would say half or two-thirds of them are citizens of Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, seven European military observers remain held hostage by armed separatists in eastern Ukraine following the release of one of the men for health reasons. The head of the German-led delegation said he believed the group, captured Friday, is being used as a bargaining chip.
The men, part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, were paraded in front of the reporters Sunday where, under armed guard, they said they had not been mistreated. Western leaders were outraged.
“The public parading of the OSCE observers and Ukrainian security forces as prisoners is revolting and blatantly hurts the dignity of the victims,” said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The remaining captives, from Germany, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Poland remain in the hands of pro-Russia separatists in the city of Slovyansk where militia leaders have indicated they intend to swap them from members of their own movement currently imprisoned by Ukraine.
To date, Ukraine’s interim government has refused to negotiate with the separatists who they accuse of being puppets of Russia trying to destabilize the country.
The separatists in Slovyansk have taken hostages, including journalists and pro-Ukraine activists, as they strengthen their control in the east of the country in defiance of the interim government in Kyiv and its Western supporters.
On Saturday, separatists in the city of Gorlivka – also in the restive Donetsk region – captured three members of Ukraine’s elite Afla team, a special forces unit of from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
The commandos had reportedly been trying to apprehend the suspected murderer of a politician found dead and mutilated last week. But the Alfa team was overwhelmed by separatist gunmen and later paraded bloodied and bandaged in their underwear before pro-Russia TV channels.
“The headquarters of the anti-terrorist operation seeks to release Ukrainian security officers from captivity,” the SBU’s press center said.
So far Kyiv’s efforts to regain control have been ineffective. Kyiv officials claim they killed “up to five” militants last Wednesday but secessionist leaders say claimed the life of just one unarmed civilian, who the self-declared mayor of Slovyansk, Vyachislav Ponomaryov, identified as 22-year-old Alexander V. Lubenets.
He vowed that his armed men – who he insists are a mix of volunteers and locals from neighboring countries including Russia – would continue to resist efforts by the Kyiv government to re-take the town.
“We are on our own land and we are going to protect our land as our ancestors did,” Ponomaryov said. His movement dubbed the Donetsk People’s Republic has occupied about 10 administrative buildings in the region and vow to hold a May 11 referendum over secession leading fears there are plans to try and break off and join Russia.
While not explicitly inviting Russian intervention from the estimated 40,000 troops currently massed on the border, Ponomaryov said that day could come.
“If the Russian government sees the situation getting out of control, I wouldn’t be against having Russian troops here.”
It’s statements like this coupled with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s implicit threat that it could intervene to protect its interests in the region have led officials in Kyiv to accuse Moscow of trying to start a third world war.
But in Slovyansk there are those who say while having armed men occupying buildings is bad the prospect of Kyiv sending troops is worse.
“I don’t like how this separatist movement seizes buildings – they could work in other ways,” Heinrich Jakobi, 75, a retired welder who has lived in Slovyansk for decades, told USA TODAY. “But it’d be even worse for the military to send in their troops.”
His petite wife, a retired accountant also in her 70s, said she thought the Russian threat had been exaggerated.
“There are no Russians here,” she said. “People say that all the time but they’re not and it’s just increasing tensions.”
Her husband repeated that there are no military solutions to the crisis and that the so-called terrorists are actually local citizens.
“I don’t like these separatists but to send in the army against the people would be even worse — that’d be awful,” he said. “It could lead to civil war.”
Earlier Ukrainian security officials sought to assure people they would not assault the town center which has been heavily fortified by militants armed with heavy machine guns, armored personnel carriers and rocket propelled grenades.
“We do not want any casualties. We will not storm the city,” Vasul Krutov, deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), told reporters in Kyiv, Interfax-Ukraine reported. “We realize that there may be a large number of injured people in this case.”
But Ponomaryov, the rebel leader, remained defiant saying his men would hold fast and not fall into any traps.
“They come and then they leave,” Ponomaryov told reporters Thursday. “They’re trying to draw our forces out of the city but we will only engage them here.”
Contributing: Associated Press
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USATODAY.com
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