Ukraine crisis nearing point of no return, says UN human rights official
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Pro-Russian supporters queue to enlist as fighters of the so-called ‘People’s Republic of Donetsk’ outside the regional state building in eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on May 18, 2014. (AFP: Alexander Khudoteply)
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An effigy depicting a representative of the Kyiv authorities is hung over a barricade in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on May 13, 2014. (AFP: Vasily Maximov)
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A man holds a cross and a telephone as he stands near a barricade erected by pro-Russian activists during a rally in Donetsk on May 12, 2014. Pro-Moscow rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine called for their region to become part of Russia after declaring victory in a weekend referendum on self-rule. (Reuters: Maxim Zmeyev)
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A Ukrainian flag burns outside the city hall in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, on May 7, 2014. Ukrainian forces seized the rebel-held city hall in the eastern port city of Mariupol overnight, driving out pro-Russian activists, then withdrew, making no attempt to hold onto the building, witnesses said on Wednesday. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)
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People climb a broken armoured vehicle left behind after Ukrainian forces attacked police headquarters in an attempt to drive out pro-Russian militants in Mariupol. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)
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Pro-Russian activists celebrate after they retake the Townhall building in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on May 7, 2014. The Ukrainian national guard had earlier stormed the building, held it briefly, and raised the Ukrainian flag. (AFP: Genya Savilov)
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A man salvages metal from the ruins of the Privat Bank building burned by pro-Russian activists in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on May 7, 2014. (AFP: Genya Savilov)
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Participants of a rally welcome a man (C) who was just released from a city police department and who was earlier arrested in recent street battles between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian supporters in the Black Sea port of Odessa on May 4, 2014. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)
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Ukrainian troops guard a checkpoint near the eastern city of Slaviansk on May 5, 2014. Four Ukrainian troops were killed and 30 wounded in intense fighting around the rebel-held town. (AFP: Sergey Bobok)
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Passersby look at wall of photos of fallen activists in a square in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 4, 2014. (ABC News: Mary Gearin)
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Officials from the OSCE special mission in Ukraine leave the mayor’s office in Slaviansk with a detained international observer. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich )
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Activists play-fight with sticks in a square in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 4, 2014. (ABC News: Mary Gearin)
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OSCE observers disembark from a plane upon their arrival at Boryspil International airport outside Kyiv on May 3, 2014. The group of military observers, seized last week by pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk, has been released. (Reuters: Andrew Kravachenko)
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A woman lays flowers as members of the Ukrainian interior ministry security forces stand guard outside a trade union building in Odessa on May 3, 2014. At least 42 people were killed in street battles between supporters and opponents of Russia in southern Ukraine that ended with pro-Russian protesters trapped in a flaming building, bringing the country closer to war. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)
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A pro-Russia protester sprays champagne after storming the governor’s business premises in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine on May 3, 2014. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)
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A Ukrainian soldier, with armoured personnel carriers behind him, points his weapon at an approaching car at a checkpoint near the town of Slaviansk in eastern Ukraine on May 3, 2014. (Reuters: Baz Ratner)
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A pro-Russian activist aims a pistol at supporters of the Kyiv government during clashes in the streets of Odessa May 2, 2014. Police said a man was shot dead in clashes between a crowd backing Kyiv and pro-Russian activists in the largely Russian-speaking southern port of Odessa, which lies west of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in March. (Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)
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People wait to be rescued on the second storey’s ledge during a fire at the trade union building in Odessa May 2, 2014. At least 38 people were killed in a fire on Friday in the trade union building in the centre of Ukraine’s southern port city of Odessa, regional police said. (Reuters/Yevgeny Volokin)
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Students from the Eastern and Western parts of the country hold the reportedly biggest Ukrainian flag of the world ( 60 m meters length, 40 m in width) during an action in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on May 2, 2014 in support of a “United Ukraine”. (AFP/Yuriy Dyachyshyn)
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Ukrainian forces have reportedly attempted to retake the town of Slaviansk. (Reuters: Baz Ratner)
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Russian demonstrators with a flag that reads “we trust Putin” at an International Labour Day march in Moscow’s Red Square. (AFP: Yuri Kadobnov)
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Police officers in Donetsk, Ukraine, huddle for safety under their riot shields while surrendering to pro-Russian activists who overran the prosecutor’s office which they were guarding, May 1, 2014. (Getty Images: Scott Olson)
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A pro-Russian armed man stands guard outside the regional government headquarters in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, April 30, 2014. (Reuters: Vasily Fedosenko )
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A pro-Russian activist throws flowers from a window of the regional government headquarters in Luhansk after separatists seized the complex. (AFP: Alex Inoy)
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Pro-Russian activists seized the regional government headquarters in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine on April 29. (Reuters: Vasily Fedosenko)
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An armed man in military fatigues stands guard outside a regional administration building seized by the separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk on April 23, 2014. (AFP: Kirill Kudryavtsev)
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Pro-Russian armed men hold their weapons in front of the seized town administration building in Kostyantynivka. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)
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Vyacheslav Ponomaryov (second right), separatist de facto mayor of Slaviansk, and detained international observers take part in a meeting with journalists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk April 27, 2014. -
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A man stands in front of a barricade near the secret service building in Lugansk, eastern Ukraine on April 22, 2014. (AFP: Sergei Supinsky)
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Armed pro-Russian men walk past activists hanging a Donetsk Republic flag outside the mayor’s office in Slaviansk, Ukraine, on April 21, 2014. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)
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A Ukrainian soldier aims his weapon at pro-Russia protesters gathered in front of a Ukrainian airbase in Kramatorsk, April 15, 2014, after Ukrainian armed forces launched a ‘special operation’ against the protesters. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)
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A local stands by a barricade in in Slaviansk, eastern Ukraine on April 20, 2014. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)
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The self-styled mayor of Luhansk region, Valery Bolotov, speaks during a rally in front of the seized office of the SBU state security service in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine April 25, 2014. (Reuters: Vasily Fedosenko)
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A pro-Russian armed man lets a local boy hold a machine gun outside the mayor’s office in Slaviansk, eastern Ukraine on April 20, 2014. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)
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A local walks past a burnt-out car at a barricade in in Slaviansk, eastern Ukraine on April 20, 2014. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)
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A Ukrainian orthodox priest throws holy water on believers in the disputed eastern city of Slaviansk on Good Friday, April 19, 2014. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)
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Soldiers, believed to be Russian, stand outside a Ukrainian military post as Ukrainian servicemen look on from behind a gate in the Crimean city of Kerch, on March 4, 2014. (Reuters: Thomas Peter)
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Armed men in military fatigues block access to a Ukrainian border guards base not far from the village of Perevalne near Simferopol on March 2, 2014. About 1,000 armed men surrounded the base of the 36th detached brigade of the Ukrainian Navy’s coastal guards today in a tense standoff in the flashpoint Crimea peninsula. (AFP: Genya Savilov)
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A pro-European protester swings a metal chain during clashes with riot policemen in Kyiv on January 22, 2014. The European Union threatened on Wednesday to take action against Ukraine over its handling of anti-government protests after three people died during violent clashes in Kyiv. (Reuters: Gleb Garanich)
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An aerial view shows Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, crowded by supporters of EU integration during a rally in central Kyiv, December 8, 2013. (Reuters: Vasily Fedosenko)
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One of the masked men who call themselves members of Ukraine’s disbanded elite Berkut riot police force aims his rifle at a checkpoint under Russian national and naval flags on a highway that connects the Black Sea Crimea peninsula to mainland Ukraine on February 28, 2014. (AFP: Viktor Drachev)
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Clouds of smoke rise as protesters clash with police in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on January 19, 2014. Thousands of people protested across the city in defiance of strict controls on public demontsrations. (AFP: Anatoliy Stepanov)
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Anti-government protesters clash with the police in the centre of Ukrainian capital Kyiv on January 25, 2014. (AFP: Sergei Supinsky)
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Riot officers from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry brave frigid conditions to block a street in Kyiv during a mass protest in support of a move towards the EU on December 9, 2013. (Reuters: Valentyn Ogirenko)
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A scarecrow-like mock protester is pictured on a barricade between protestors and government forces on February 21, 2014 in Kyiv, as EU envoys held crisis talks with Ukraine’s embattled president. (AFP: Bulent Kilic)
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Ukrainian pro-Europe protesters rally in Kyiv’s Independence Square on Sunday, December 14, 2013. (Reuters: Vasily Fedosenko)
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An Orthodox priest tries to stop protesters clashing with police in the centre of Kyiv in Ukraine on January 22, 2014. (AFP: Sergei Supinsky)
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A protester wearing a gas mask stands amid burnt tyres and rubbish following clashes between protesters and police in Kyiv, Ukraine on January 23, 2014. (AFP: Volodymyr Shuvayev)
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Ukrainian boxer Vladimir Klitschko (L) and Australia’s Alex Leapai (R) face each other during a press conference on February 11, 2014 in Oberhausen, western Germany. Klitschko will defend his world heavyweight title against Alex Leapai in Oberhausen, Germany on April 26, 2014. (AFP: Bernd Thissen)
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Anti-government protesters attend a rally at Independence Square in Kyiv February 16, 2014. Scores of Ukrainian anti-government protesters ended a two-month-old occupation of city hall in the capital Kyiv on Sunday to meet a government amnesty offer. (REUTERS: Gleb Garanich)
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Anti-government protesters use fireworks during clashes with riot police at the Independence Square in Kyiv on February 18, 2014. (Reuters: Vasily Fedosenko )
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Riot police have petrol bombes hurled at them during clashes with anti-government protesters in Kyiv February 18, 2014. (Reuters: Vlad Sodel)
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A man looks on after being injured in clashes between anti-government protesters and Interior Ministry members in Kyiv on February 18, 2014. (Reuters: Konstantin Grishin )
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Interior ministry members stand in formation in front of anti-government protesters during a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine, in the early hours of February 19, 2014. (Reuters: Viktor Gurniak)
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Anti-government protesters use a sling as they fire objects at Interior Ministry members and riot police in Kyiv on February 19, 2014. ( Reuters: Vasily Fedosenko )
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Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko addresses anti-government protesters gathered at Independence Square in Kyiv on February 22, 2014. (Reuters: Yannis Behrakis)
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People place flowers at a makeshift memorial as they gather to commemorate the victims of the recent clashes in central Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 23, 2014. (Reuters: Mykhailo Markiv)
Gallery:
Ukraine crisis photos: editor’s choice
A senior United Nations official says the crisis in Ukraine is edging towards “the point of no return”.
UN assistant secretary general for human rights Ivan Simonovic says the crisis has worrying echoes of the 1990s war in his native Croatia.
Speaking to the BBC from the eastern city of Donetsk, Mr Simonovic said the chances of preventing full-scale civil war were diminishing.
“The window of opportunity is certainly slowly closing,” he said.
In eastern Ukraine, clashes between government forces and separatist militants have continued.
Violence between the two sides has left dozens of people dead in recent weeks, ahead of elections for a new Ukrainian president due on May 25.
Separatists appeal for fighters to join them
The warning came on the same day rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine launched an appeal for more fighters to join their insurgency against Kyiv’s rule, saying even women were welcome.
“We have achieved victories and more are to come,” boasted Denis Pushilin, a leader of the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk, at a rally in the main city in Ukraine’s eastern industrial belt.
But he added: “We need strong men to protect our republic because civil war is raging in our region. Many men are falling every day, so we need more.”
He gave no specific figures on the number of casualties among rebel ranks, although fighting is reported almost every night around insurgent flashpoints such as Slaviansk.
The United Nations said in a report on Friday that 127 people had been killed in fighting in the east since the pro-Russian separatists took up arms against the central government in Kyiv in early April.
Mr Pushilin was addressing a crowd of a few hundred people gathered around a huge granite statue of Lenin in the centre of the city of 1 million.
Pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk and the neighbouring region of Lugansk declared their own sovereign republics after claiming victory in independence referendums on May 11 that were denounced as illegal in Kyiv and the West.
The separatists in Donetsk have since set up their own parliament and a government headed by a shadowy Russian “consultant” called Aleksandr Borodai, and appealed to join the Russian Federation.
Donetsk’s self-proclaimed defence minister Igor Strelkov, one of the top rebel commanders in the flashpoint city of Slaviansk, also took the unusual step of issuing a recruitment call in a video posted on YouTube.
“If men are not willing then we have no other option than to call up women and take them into the militias,” he said.
“I would have expected there would have been at least 1,000 men willing to risk their lives not just in their home towns but on the frontlines,” he added, complaining that many came simply to demand weapons for protection at home.
ABC/AFP
Topics:
unrest-conflict-and-war,
ukraine
First posted