Ukraine Resumes Effort to Oust Separatists Amid Russian Warnings
Ukraine restarted an offensive
against separatists in eastern cities, prompting Russia to call
the move a crime and warn that it would protect its citizens in
Ukrainian territory.
Operations to clear militants from Kramatorsk, Slovyansk
and other cities were under way yesterday, Ukraine’s First
Deputy Prime Minister Vitali Yarema said. Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday his country would respond
if its “legitimate interests” are “attacked directly.”
“Russian citizens being attacked is an attack against the
Russian Federation,” Lavrov said in an interview with the
state-run television broadcaster RT. “If we are attacked, we
would certainly respond.”
Tensions between the two sides risk derailing an accord to
disarm rebels signed last week in Geneva by Ukraine, Russia, the
European Union and the U.S., as Ukrainian and Russian officials
accuse each other of violating the agreement. Amid the crisis,
the U.S. began deploying hundreds of troops for exercises in
four countries bordering Russia, days after NATO increased the
defense of member states in eastern Europe.
The U.S. said it hasn’t seen any indication Russia is
carrying out the April 17 accord and reiterated that failure to
do so would trigger penalties on top of the visa bans and asset
freezes already in place. It joined the EU in imposing sanctions
as Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine last month.
IMF Loan
“I don’t want to put a deadline on it, but we’re talking
days,” Daniel Baer, the U.S. representative to the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said yesterday in
Brussels. Russia’s non-compliance is “regrettable, particularly
given that Russia committed to this plan” just a few days ago.
Russian and Ukrainian assets suffered yesterday. Russia
failed to sell local-currency bonds due August 2023 at an
auction and the Micex Index (INDEXCF) lost 0.5 percent. Ukrainian bonds
tumbled, lifting yields on the government’s dollar-denominated
notes due 2023 by 0.08 percentage point to 10.05 percent, the
highest in a month, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Since Russia’s intervention in Crimea started on March 1,
the Micex has lost 8.1 percent, while the Market Vectors Russia
exchange-traded fund has slipped 6.2 percent.
Ukraine’s shrinking economy may get a boost from an
International Monetary Fund loan. The Washington-based lender’s
staff endorsed a $17 billion bailout that may get board approval
next week, according to government officials who’ve seen the
recommendations and spoke on condition of anonymity.
‘All Means’
In Ukraine, the town of Sviatogirsk was freed yesterday
without casualties as part of the government’s “anti-terrorist” operation, the Interior Ministry said in a statement
on its website. Ukraine’s SBU State Security Service pledged to
use “all means” to restore order in the east.
As many as 1,300 separatists are involved in securing
control over government buildings in the Donetsk region,
according to the SBU. Twenty-one Russian agents, including three
intelligence officers, have been arrested or detained, SBU chief
Valentyn Nalyvaychenko said during an online discussion
sponsored by the Washington-based Atlantic Council.
The Ukrainian effort to uproot pro-Russian separatists from
eastern cities was put on hold over the Easter holiday. With the
Geneva deal near collapse, acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov urged security forces on April 22 to move against the
militants after the discovery of two bodies near Slovyansk,
saying “terrorists” backed by Russia had “crossed the line.”
Distorted Interpretation
The government in Kyiv accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of instigating turmoil to possibly lay the groundwork for
an invasion. The separatists who took over buildings in eastern
Ukrainian cities say they’re not subject to the Geneva accord.
Ukraine hasn’t fulfilled a single clause of the April 17
pact, Lavrov told RT, accusing the U.S of “running the show.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Ukraine and the U.S. have a
distorted interpretation of the Geneva accord and are ignoring
provocations by right-wing extremists. The government in Kyiv
should pull its military back from Ukraine’s southeast, the
ministry said.
Lavrov called Turchynov’s order for the operation in
Ukraine’s eastern region “criminal.”
Putin has parliamentary approval to deploy troops in
Ukraine to protect Russian speakers and those of Russian
heritage. He has about 40,000 troops massed on the border with
Ukraine, according to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
U.S. Troops
There are signs Ukraine is implementing the Geneva pact,
according to Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign-policy chief
Catherine Ashton. The bloc is calling on Russia “to use its
leverage to ensure an immediate end to what is going on in
eastern Ukraine,” he told reporters in Brussels yesterday.
A week after NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
said the alliance will upgrade contingency plans, hold more
military drills in eastern Europe and step up air and naval
policing on its flanks, the U.S. began sending airborne infantry
to four member nations bordering Russia.
A contingent of 150 troops from the U.S. Army’s 173rd
Airborne Brigade Combat Team arrived in Poland yesterday for a
month of training, according to Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon
spokesman. Similar-sized units will be sent to Lithuania,
Latvia, and Estonia by next week, Warren said.
NATO jets have succeeded in stopping Russian incursions
into the Baltic region, Douglas Lute, the U.S. ambassador to
NATO, told a German Marshall Fund conference yesterday in
Brussels.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Daryna Krasnolutska in Kyiv at
dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net;
Daria Marchak in Kyiv at
dmarchak@bloomberg.net;
Volodymyr Verbyany in Kyiv at
vverbyany1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net;
James M. Gomez at
jagomez@bloomberg.net
Michael Shepard, Don Frederick