THE DOMINION POST
By Conor Humphfries and Thomas Grove
04/14/2014
''This is in addition to the 25,000 Russian troops based illegally in Crimea,'' Lyall Grant added in his speech during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Ukraine.
Ukraine has given pro-Russian separatists a Monday morning deadline to disarm or face a ''full-scale anti-terrorist operation'' by its armed forces, raising the risk of a military confrontation with Moscow.
Angered by the death of a state security officer and the wounding of two comrades near the flashpoint eastern city of Slaviansk, acting president Oleksander Turchinov gave rebels occupying state buildings until 9am today (NZT 6pm) to lay down their weapons.
The deadline passed with no signs of the rebels complying, a Reuters witness said.
A Reuters correspondent said a Russian flag still flew over police headquarters as of 9 a.m. local time on Monday, one of two buildings taken over by the separatists, while masked men continued to man barricades of sandbags in front of it.
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''The National Security and Defence Council has decided to launch a full-scale anti-terrorist operation involving the armed forces of Ukraine,'' Turchinov said in an address to the nation.
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Fascist CIA blowhard Oleksander Turchinov risks WWIII |
''We will not allow Russia to repeat the Crimean scenario in the eastern regions of Ukraine,'' Turchinov said.
Russia's foreign ministry called the planned military operation a ''criminal order'' and said the West should bring its allies in Ukraine's government under control.
''It is now the West's responsibility to prevent civil war in Ukraine,'' the ministry said in a statement.
TOP LEVEL DIPLOMACY
A United Nations Security Council diplomat said that the council would meet today (NZT 1am Tuesday) in New York at Russia's request. Another diplomat said negotiations were under way on Ukraine's participation.
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''The president has made clear that, depending on Russian behaviour, sectoral sanctions in energy, banking, mining could be on the table, and there's a lot in between,'' she added.
With East-West relations in crisis, Nato described the appearance in eastern Ukraine of men with specialised Russian weapons and identical uniforms without insignia - as previously worn by Moscow's troops when they seized Crimea - as a ''grave development''.
Ukraine has repeatedly said the rebellions were inspired and directed by the Kremlin. But action to dislodge the armed militants risked tipping the stand-off into a new, dangerous phase as Moscow has warned it would protect the region's Russian-speakers if they came under attack.
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''There were dead and wounded on both sides,'' he wrote on his Facebook page.
The Russian news agency RIA reported that one pro-Moscow activist was killed in Slaviansk in clashes with forces loyal to the Kiev government.
''On our side, another two were injured,'' RIA quoted pro-Russian militant Nikolai Solntsev as adding.
Russian TV broadcast grainy footage of what it said was the body of the militant.
The images, which Reuters could not verify independently, showed a man in black clothes, slumped against the door of a car, with a pool of blood between his legs. A rifle lay next to him.
'UNDERMINING ELECTIONS'
The separatists were holed up in the local headquarters of the police and of the state security service, while others have erected road blocks around Slaviansk, which was about 150km from the Russian border.
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An eyewitness in Slaviansk said a gunman walked up to a car in the city center and fired four or five shots into it. Video footage from the scene later showed a man being pulled out of the car, either seriously wounded or dead. It was not clear what links the shooting had with the unrest in the town.
Kiev accuses the Kremlin of trying to undermine the legitimacy of presidential elections on May 25 that aim to set Ukraine back onto a normal path after months of turmoil.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Kiev 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 between Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union.
WELL ORGANIZED ATTACKERS
Relations between Russia and the West were at their worst since the Cold War due to the crisis that began when Moscow-backed Yanukovich was pushed out by popular protests in February.
Moscow then annexed Crimea from Ukraine, saying the Russian population there was under threat. Some Western governments believed the Kremlin was preparing a similar scenario for eastern Ukraine, something Moscow has strenuously denied.
The attackers were a well-organized unit of over 20 men, wearing matching military fatigues and carrying automatic weapons, who had arrived by bus. Video footage showed the men taking orders from a commander. Their identity was unclear.
Their level of discipline and equipment was in contrast to the groups who have occupied buildings so far in Ukraine. They have been mostly civilians formed into informal militias with mismatched uniforms.
Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has expressed concern about similarities in some of the rebels' appearance to that of the Russian troops who seized control in Crimea.
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Nato has effectively ruled out military action over Ukraine, which lay outside the Western alliance. However, Washington and Nato leaders have made clear they would defend all 28 member states, including former Soviet republics in the Baltic that were seen as the most vulnerable to Russian pressure.
Nato allies have beefed up their air and sea firepower in eastern Europe. The alliance has also cut off cooperation with Russia and stepped up work with Ukraine, including advising its military on reforms and promising to increase joint exercises.
With EU foreign ministers due to discuss the crisis in Luxembourg on Monday, Britain called on Moscow to disown the rebels.
''Assumptions that Russia is complicit are inevitable as long as Moscow does not publicly distance itself from these latest lawless actions,'' a Foreign Office spokesman said.