Ukraine Bolsters Border With Russia as Death Toll Climbs
Ukraine’s government said it’s
deploying heavy weaponry and armored vehicles to strengthen its
border with Russia and halt an influx of fighters after
skirmishes with separatists claimed another dozen lives.
Authorities in Kyiv are also moving personnel and equipment
to the western border with Transnistria, the breakaway Moldovan
region where hundreds of Russian troops are stationed, State
Border Service chief Mykola Lytvyn told reporters in Kyiv today,
without being more specific.
“A large number of terrorists” were “liquidated” in the
easternmost Luhansk region, parliamentary Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov told lawmakers in Kyiv. The operation around the city
of Slovyansk in neighboring Donestk is “in an active offensive
phase” with “very active exchanges of fire,” Interior
Minister Arsen Avakov said on Facebook.
The bloodshed in the mainly Russian-speaking regions
underscored the tension with Russia as President Barack Obama
began a European tour with talks in Ukraine’s western neighbor
Poland. He’ll meet Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko
tomorrow to discuss the crisis. The U.S. and the European Union
say Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March, is
behind the unrest, a charge President Vladimir Putin denies.
‘Russian Provocation’
“Further Russian provocation will be met with further cost
for Russia,” Obama said at a news conference in Warsaw today
with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski. He called on Putin
to meet Poroshenko and to “engage constructively.”
Obama will cross paths with Putin later in the week in
Paris and during 70th-anniversary commemorations of the allied
landings in northern France during World War II.
Putin said during a meeting today with his human rights
ombudsman, Ella Pamfilova, that he supports the creation of a
“humanitarian corridor” to allow Russian aid to reach people
in Ukraine affected by the fighting.
“I’m just amazed” that the “enlightened western world
suddenly became deaf, dumb and blind all at once” to the
tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, Pamfilova told Putin in Sochi.
The Micex stock index declined 0.3 percent at 5:08 p.m. in
Moscow following a 2.3 percent gain yesterday to its highest
level in three months, after Russia gave Ukraine an extra week
to pay in advance for gas supplies before risking a cutoff that
could also lead to shortages in Europe.
Gas Talks
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said EU-brokered
talks over gas prices with Ukraine in Brussels yesterday were
“constructive.”
Even so, a shutdown in supplies is “still on the agenda,”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told lawmakers in
Kyiv. Talks between Russian gas exporter OAO Gazprom (GAZP) and NAK
Naftogaz Ukrainy, Ukraine’s state-run gas company, were
continuing today in Berlin and the aim is to reach agreement
this week, he said.
Ukraine carries about 15 percent of the natural gas used by
Europe through its Soviet-era pipelines and accuses Russia of
using energy as a political weapon by ramping up prices.
One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and 13 wounded when
separatists attacked their convoy traveling to Slovyansk today,
the spokesman for the anti-separatist operation, Vladyslav
Seleznyov, said by phone.
Luhansk Deaths
At least 12 deaths were reported in Luhansk yesterday after
about 500 insurgents attacked the border-guard headquarters.
Five rebels died in that assault, the border guards said, and a
blast in the center of the city killed seven people, according
to the local health service.
A total of 181 people have been killed since unrest broke
out in eastern Ukraine, Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnitsky said
in Kyiv. The death toll includes 59 servicemen. Another 293
people have been wounded and 220 kidnapped, he said.
In Warsaw, Obama announced a $1 billion fund to bolster
military training and assistance for NATO allies near Russia.
More equipment will be positioned in Europe. The U.S. also will
strengthen partnerships with allies such as Ukraine, Moldova and
Georgia that aren’t part of the alliance, he said.
Russian Threat
“The ability for people to make their own determination
about their country’s future is the cornerstone of the peace and
security that we’ve seen over the last several decades,” Obama
said. “That is threatened by Russian actions in Crimea and now
Russian activity in eastern Ukraine.”
North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers were
set to discuss Ukraine during two days of talks in Brussels that
started today.
“There are still tens of thousands of Russian troops along
the Ukrainian borders and that massive troop presence is not
justified,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told
reporters before the meeting. He called on Russia to “de-escalate the situation, first and foremost by a full
withdrawal.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko
proposed confiscating Russian companies’ assets in Ukraine and
abroad to compensate for losses of about $90 billion resulting
from the annexation of Crimea.
Obama’s trip offers a series of venues for possible talks
on the Ukraine conflict. He’ll meet other Group of Seven leaders
in Brussels starting tomorrow, though they won’t decide on
further steps to sanction Russia during the talks, according to
a German official speaking to reporters today on condition of
anonymity.
The U.S. president will also attend a dinner with Francois Hollande June 5, the same day the French president hosts Putin,
before they travel on to the D-Day commemorations in Normandy on
June 6.
Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Ukraine for
Poroshenko’s inauguration on June 7, the White House said
yesterday.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Volodymyr Verbyany in Kyiv at
vverbyany1@bloomberg.net;
Julianna Goldman in Warsaw at
jgoldman6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
James M. Gomez at
jagomez@bloomberg.net;
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net
Brad Cook, Eddie Buckle