Ukraine prepares armed response as city seized by pro-Russia forces
Pro-Russian activists carrying automatic weapons seized government
buildings in Slaviansk, a town about 150 km (90 miles) from the Russian border,
and set up barricades on the outskirts of the city.
In Kramatorsk, some
80 km (50 miles) to the north, gunmen seized the police station after a shootout
with police, a Reuters witness said.
Government buildings in several
other towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions were attacked in what Washington
said were moves reminiscent of the events that preceded Russia’s annexation of
Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
“We are very concerned by the concerted
campaign we see under way in eastern Ukraine today by pro-Russian separatists,
apparently with support from Russia, who are inciting violence and sabotage and
seeking to undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian state,” said Laura Lucas
Magnuson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.
“We
saw similar so-called protest activities in Crimea before Russia’s purported
annexation,” she said in a statement, adding: “We call on President (Vladimir)
Putin and his government to cease all efforts to destabilize Ukraine, and we
caution against further military intervention.”
Vice President Joe Biden
will travel to Kyiv on April 22 to show support for Ukraine’s government, the
White House said on Saturday. He will be the most senior US official to visit
the country since the crisis began there.
The West accuses Russia of
destabilising the region as a pretext to potentially sending in troops to
protect the local Russian-speaking population, as it did in Crimea. NATO says
Russian armed forces are massing on Ukraine’s eastern border, while Moscow says
they are on normal manoeuvres.
Any escalation would increase the risk of
a “gas war” that could disrupt energy supplies across Europe.
‘Display
of aggression’
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov called the
attacks in the east “a display of external aggression from
Russia.”
“Units of the interior and defence ministries are implementing
an operational response plan,” he added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov said Ukraine was “demonstrating its inability to take responsibility for
the fate of the country” and warned that any use of force against Russian
speakers “would undermine the potential for cooperation” including talks due to
be held on Thursday among Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European
Union.
In a phone call with Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry
“made clear that if Russia did not take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine
and move its troops back from Ukraine’s border, there would be additional
consequences,” a senior State Department official said.
The official did
not state what the consequences would be.
The United States and EU have
slapped sanctions on Russian officials and leading business figures in response
to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. The Canadian government said on Saturday it
imposed sanctions on two more individuals and a Crimean oil and gas company in
response to the crisis.
Moscow has scoffed at the Western
measures.
In Slaviansk, at least 20 men with pistols and automatic
weapons took over the police station and a security service headquarters before
spreading out through the city.
Officials said the militants, wearing
mismatched combat fatigues, balaclavas and bulletproof vests, seized hundreds of
pistols from weapons stores in the buildings.
The city’s mayor said she
supported the protesters, and more than a thousand people gathered in front of
the police station, chanting: “Moscow, Crimea, Russia!”.
They cheered as
the Ukrainian flag was replaced with the blue, black and red of the
self-declared Donetsk Republic.
“We want to join Russia. We would be very
grateful if Russia helps us,” said a gunman who gave his name as Alexander,
wearing camouflage fatigues and a black balaclava mask.
“We will stand
until victory. Honestly, it’s not scary for me to die for freedom.”
On a
road into Slaviansk, men with automatic rifles set up a roadblock and checked
vehicles entering the city.
It was unclear if local law enforcement
agencies were taking orders from Kyiv any more after the regional police chief
quit.
Kostyantyn Pozhydayev came out to speak to pro-Russian protesters
at his offices in the regional capital, Donetsk, and told them he was stepping
down “to avoid bloodshed”.
Ukrainian commentator Sergei Leshchenko said
the burst of activity by pro-Russian groups was an attempt by the Kremlin to
secure a strong negotiating position before the international talks about
Ukraine in Geneva next week.
Russia is expected to argue at the talks for
a revamp of Ukraine’s constitution to give a large degree of autonomy to eastern
Ukraine, something Kyiv and its Western backers reject.
“Russia will come
to the talks with the position that ‘Donetsk and several neighbouring regions
are already ours – now let’s talk about federalisation’,” said Leshchenko, a
commentator with the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper.
‘Gas
war’
With the crisis in Ukraine still unresolved, the gas dispute
threatens to affect millions of people across Europe.
A large proportion
of the natural gas that EU states buy from Russia is pumped via Ukrainian
territory, so if Russia makes good on a threat to cut off Ukraine for
non-payment of its bills, customers farther west will have supplies
disrupted.
Russia is demanding Kyiv pay a much higher price for its gas,
and settle unpaid bills. Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom and its Ukrainian
counterpart, Naftogaz, are in talks, but the chances of an agreement are
slim.
“I would say we are coming nearer to a solution of the situation,
but one in the direction that is bad for Ukraine,” Ukrainian Energy Minister
Yuri Prodan said in an interview with the German newspaper
Boersenzeitung.
“We are probably steering towards Russia turning off its
gas provision,” he was quoted as saying.
That raised the spectre of a
repeat of past “gas wars”, when Ukraine’s gas was cut off with a knock-on effect
on supplies to EU states.
The scope for compromise narrowed after the
Naftogaz chief executive told a Ukrainian newspaper that Kyiv was suspending
payments to Gazprom pending a conclusion of talks on a new deal.
Ukraine
has de facto stopped payments already because it failed to make an instalment of
over $500 million due this month to Gazprom.
Moscow says it does not want
to turn off Ukraine’s gas if it can be avoided, and that it will honour all
commitments to supply its EU customers.