Pro-Russian activists arrested during clashes in Odessa two days ago have …
- Russian President said he is ‘outraged’ by the violence
- Moscow also demanded presidential elections set for May 25 be postponed
- Government in Kyiv has declared two days of mourning for troops
- Western countries blame Kremlin for inciting the mayhem
23:10 GMT, 3 May 2014
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15:21 GMT, 4 May 2014
Police in Odessa have released pro-Russian activists arrested during clashes two days ago after their headquarters came under attack from protesters.
Thousands of pro-Russian activists this afternoon stormed the police station in the Black Sea port, where dozes of people were killed in riots two days ago.
Protesters forced open the gate to the complex and smashed windows, fighting police in riot gear who seemed reluctant to strike back against their countrymen.
Protesters welcome a man who just released from Odessa’s police headquarters who had been arrested in street battles between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian supporters in the Black Sea port on Friday
Emotional: The men were released after thousands of people descended on the heaquarters and laid siege to it
Pro-Russian protesers storm the police headquarters in Odessa to free fellow activists arrested on Friday
Police try to contain the surging mob with a line of riot shields after protesters gain access to the compound
Mob rule: Protesters forced open the gate to the complex and smashed windows, fighting police in riot gear who seemed reluctant to strike back against their countrymen
The prisoners released this afternoon were those held during fierce clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Kyiv groups which led to 47 deaths on Friday night.
The trouble in hitherto peaceful Odessa, where many citizens speak Russian, comes as forces loyal to the new government in Kyiv carry out a major offensive against separatists who have seized control of towns and cities in the east of the country.
Last night the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ‘outraged’ by the violence in Ukraine and is under huge pressure to send in tanks as the country lurches towards civil war, the Kremlin warned last night.
Amid the deepening violence and bloodshed, Moscow flexed its muscles by demanding that presidential elections scheduled for May 25 be postponed.
The government in Kyiv declared two days of mourning for Ukrainian troops killed in the eastern city of Slaviansk and for victims of protests in Odessa – including pro-Russian activists killed in attacks by Ukrainian extremist groups.
Violent clashes: Pro-Russian protestors attack police in Odessa yesterday
Three men drag a riot policeman to the ground while a fourth tries to pull his baton away as tempers flare in Odessa outside the trade union building where dozens of pro-Russian protesters died in a fire on Friday
A pro-Russian activist argues with policemen guarding the burned-out building after thousands descended on the scene of Friday’s violence to lay flowers and light candles of remembrance
Flower power: A policeman raises his arm to defend himself from a woman battering him with blooms
Western countries blame Moscow for inciting the mayhem now raging across Ukraine, and US President Barack Obama has threatened a new round of sanctions against Russia.
But a senior Russian diplomat, UN envoy Vitaly Churkin, said yesterday that the carnage in Odessa – a Ukrainian city far from the eastern areas held by rebels – was ‘reminiscent of the crimes of the Nazis from whom the Ukrainian ultra-nationalists derive their ideological inspiration’.
Ukrainian security officials accused close aides of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, now exiled in Russia, of financing the violence in Odessa on Friday, which led to the deaths of 46 people in a burning building.
Another 200 were injured in the blaze, which is believed to have been started by petrol bombs thrown by demonstrators.
Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is standing in the presidential election, blamed Russian intelligence agencies for the unrest, and said Mr Putin was trying to destabilise her country.
In Moscow, government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin had received ‘thousands’ of demands to intervene in Ukraine.
‘People are calling in despair, asking for help,’ he said. ‘The overwhelming majority demand Russian help. All these calls are reported to Vladimir Putin.’
Probe: German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen and the freed OSCE observer, Axel Schneider (second from right), talk after his arrival following his release from captivity
Colonel Schneider, left, is embraced by Vacheslav Ponomarev, the pro-Russian self-proclaimed mayor of Slaviansk, after he and 11 other military observers were freed in the city after being held for a week
Demanding the presidential election be shelved, Mr Peskov said that after Kyiv’s ‘criminal confrontation with its own people’, Russians ‘do not understand what kind of elections Kyiv, European countries and Washington are talking about’.
More than 60,000 Russian troops have been moved to the border with Ukraine and the newly annexed Crimea.
After street clashes in Odessa on Friday, a Ukrainian mob overran and set fire to a camp where pro-Moscow supporters had pitched tents, forcing them to take refuge in a trade union building which was then set ablaze. Many of those trapped inside the burning offices were killed by smoke and fumes, according to harrowing accounts yesterday.
Local journalist Oleg Konstantinov, who suffered gunshot wounds in the melee, said: ‘I was hit in the arm, then I started crawling, and then got hit in the back and leg.’
Forces: Ukrainian soldiers, supported by armoured personnel carriers, man a checkpoint near the town of Slaviansk
A young lookout holds binoculars at a checkpoint near Slaviansk, where Ukrainian soldiers fought fierce battles with rebels yesterday, punctuated only by a short ceasefire to allow OSCE observers to leave the town
A man shows bullet casings that he says were shot by Ukrainian troops near the town of Slaviansk
A man walks past the charred skeleton of a van outside the hotel Kramatorsk in downtown of Kramatorsk. Local residents say Ukrainian government troops opened fire on a crowd of unarmed protesters
Separatist militias armed with assault rifles, a machine gun and a grenade launcher rest in Kramatorsk
A female doctor who escaped the
burning building said: ‘I nearly suffocated. There was no place to
escape, people were cornered. People close to me were moaning, crying
and calling their relatives, begging them to call the fire brigade.’
Eventually
she and others escaped down a rope from a window, but others fell and
their bodies were later found in the street.
‘For the first time in my
life I want to leave Odessa and Ukraine forever,’ the doctor added.
Fire: A pro-Russian activist burns a Ukrainian national flag as security documents are seized from the Ukrainian regional office of the Security Service in Donetsk
Demonstration: Pro-Russian protesters break up the words ‘Ukrainian the Security Service’ next to the Ukrainian regional office of the Security Service in Donetsk
Mob: A pro Russian woman burns books taken from the Ukrainian regional office in Donetsk
One
positive sign yesterday was the release of seven international military
observers working for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe. The group had been held for a week and were accused of being
Nato spies.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said their release showed the ‘bravery and humanism’ of the defenders of Slaviansk.
The
ministry said people there had shown concern for the security of
foreign citizens, despite their town coming under ‘direct and
unmotivated’ attack.
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Oldncynical,
Newport, United Kingdom,
9 hours ago
This is what happens when you deal with dictatorships, Putin has to only threaten to turn off the gas and western Europe is quaking in fear.
George,
Stansted, United Kingdom,
9 hours ago
The snowball rolling down the hill is gathering momentum. I believe firmly now that it is unstoppable. I have a feeling, deep and horrendous feeling, that when Putin says go, they will go ALL the way. If he lets his forces go, he may not even stop them at the Dnieper river. It may not even be at the border with Poland. If NATO is attacked directly than the Great War (Part 3) is a fact. But Putin should remember one important thing. Whoever has tried, or started a European war, never finishes as the victor. Not in the last 300 years at any rate.
Qasim Cheema,
Sialkot, Pakistan,
9 hours ago
Putin stop this misery just make up some excuse like Ukraine has weapons of mass destruction and invade
DuncanDunnit,
london, United Kingdom,
9 hours ago
I admire Putin for his defence of democracy for the people of Ukraine.
Qasim Cheema,
Sialkot, Pakistan,
9 hours ago
So Ukrainian Supremaicst burn alive more than 40 demonstrators and you show pictures of pro russian burning a book?
Domingo Lindo,
Madrid, Spain,
9 hours ago
Putin knows best.
Father Richard,
London, United Kingdom,
9 hours ago
In 1994 the Chinese, US and Europe made a deal with Ukraine. If they surrendered their nukes they were supposed to protect their sovereignty. The US and Europe have been doing something – what I don’t get – the only reason China has nuclear destroyers is they have the decommissioned ones the Ukraine gave them – why isn’t China holding to its side of the deal? If the Ukraine had kept her nukes, Putin would not be doing this right now!
mindwatcher,
manchester,
9 hours ago
Of course his secret service agitators have nothing to with it. The Little Emperor is going to be forced to intercede with his Spetnas trained troops who just happen to be near the border or working undercover in the Ukraine that’s why they all wear the ubiqitous balaclava and no insignia apart from the fear factor.
Ken,
Melbourne, Australia,
9 hours ago
The Americans (and their lap dogs) have been imposing sanctions on the Russians because they haven’t been able to control what their “pro-democracy” Ukrainian supporters are doing in the east of Ukraine. Now that it’s apparent that the Kyiv government can’t control their own “pro-democracy” Ukrainian supporters in the south of Ukraine isn’t it time to impose sanctions on Ukraine?
Just as with Russian they don’t need to be real sanctions (we have just lent them $17bn after all) but we can still slap them with the same sort of travel bans we’ve given the Russians. It might even make it look as if we’re trying to be fair and consistent (as if).
Canadian Girl,
Ontario, Canada,
9 hours ago
I am so disgusted by the actions of the Russian speaking citizens of Ukraine, because they know right from wrong and are still acting like bullies! How can you turn on your neighbor who you have lived with in peace by being violent? Worst of all pro-russian men are using the “BABUSHKAS” and children as human shields, pathetic COWARDS and SISSY’s! The Ukrainian people have had enough of keeping quiet etc… they are fighting back. they understand that if their military does anything Putin will have his reason to invade. Now putin is not happy because I don’t think he expected them to fight back.
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