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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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15Apr14
Ukraine says it is launching counteroffensive; troops said to surround Slovyansk
The Ukrainian government announced the start of a staged counteroffensive Tuesday to reclaim control of the eastern part of the country, as Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that Ukraine was descending into civil war.
Facing mounting pressure to act following the takeover of official buildings by pro-Russian separatists in at least nine cities in the restive east, acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov said that a counterterrorism operation began in the northern Donetsk region early Tuesday.
Eyewitnesses said Ukrainian troops, backed by armored personnel carriers and two helicopters, were surrounding the city of Slovyansk, where pro-Russian activists have erected roadblocks and have effectively exercised control since Saturday.
Speaking in parliament later Tuesday, Turchynov said Ukrainian forces had successfully repelled an assault by pro-Russian militiamen at a military airfield in Kramatorsk, a city of about 200,000 people 10 miles south of Slovyansk. But there were reports of an ongoing clash in the area, and it remained unclear whether the Ukrainian military was still engaging Russian loyalists there.
Confirming the start of an operation in the region, Turchynov said: "Soon there will be no terrorists left in Donetsk or any other region [in Ukraine]. They will sit in prison, their proper place."
According to Russian state television, between four and 11 people were killed when Ukrainian troops stormed the Kramatorsk airfield and opened fire on "self-defense fighters" guarding it.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a pro-Russian militiaman as saying that although Ukrainian troops seized the airfield, they had not taken Kramatorsk. "We have, in fact, been pushed out of the airport, but the town is under our control," the unidentified militiaman told the agency. "We won't let anyone in."
Another pro-Russian militant claimed that fighters from Ukraine's ultra-nationalist Right Sector movement and foreign mercenaries were involved in storming the airfield, Interfax reported.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian officials reported a buildup of their forces not far from Izyum, a city near the border of Kharkiv and Donetsk provinces in the east. Izyum is 32 miles northwest of Slovyansk, which Ukrainian forces failed to retake from well-armed pro-Russian activists on Sunday.
An Izyum official involved in the mobilization and who asked not to be named said the city was being used as a fueling and feeding station for Ukrainian troops, who began arriving over the weekend and were taking up positions outside the city's limits.
Nevertheless, the government in Kiev remained in a tight spot.
Ultimatums issued by the government to pro-Russian activists to surrender have been ignored, and the limited operation in the seized town of Slovyansk ended after a Ukrainian security officer was killed.
In the meantime, alarm has surged over what appears to be a stealth operation by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine's east to repeat the seizure last month of Crimea, which then seceded from Ukraine and joined the Russian Federation.
There is deep uncertainty over the technical ability of Ukraine's underfunded and demoralized military to respond to pro-Russian forces, some of whom are heavily armed. At the same time, the government was balancing calls for action against the possibility that too strong a response could prompt Russian troops stationed just across the border to intervene more directly.
"A counterterrorism operation was launched in the north of Donetsk region," Turchynov told parliament on Tuesday. "But it will go on gradually, responsibly and prudently. Once again I emphasize that these actions are meant for the protection of Ukrainian citizens, stopping terror, criminality and attempts to break our country into pieces."
In Donetsk, Mayor Alexander Lukyanchenko pleaded with pro-Russian activists not to make good on a threat to storm the city council offices Tuesday. "If the city authorities are paralyzed, it would be to the detriment of all inhabitants of the city," he told a news conference.
Underscoring the pressure from Russia, Medvedev on Tuesday slammed the interim government in Kiev, saying it has fallen into a trap of its own making.
"The country is on the brink of a civil war. It's very sad," Medvedev said on his Facebook page. He blamed the unrest on the new authorities in Kiev, who he charged had seized power "illegally" in a revolution in February and unleashed a wave of violence that they were now unable to control.
"The illegal rulers are trying to restore the order they cynically trampled on when they participated in an armed uprising," he wrote. "They are falling into their own trap."
Defiant pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine pushed the country to the brink of war or dissolution Monday, expanding their hold while the acting president failed to make headway in trying to end the crisis.
In a nation of 44 million, it became clear that a few hundred men, operating on the eastern fringes of the country with guns and unmarked uniforms, have brought Ukraine to a deeply dangerous juncture.
After an ultimatum to the militants was ignored, Turchynov first vowed to rout them by force, then held out the offer of a referendum to decide Ukraine's fate, then proposed a peacekeeping intervention by the United Nations.
Nothing Turchynov said moved the pro-Russian forces, who seized another police station in another small town, Horlivka.
Medvedev said he was sorry for the people of Ukraine who had become "hostages of untalented politicians whom they did not elect and irresponsible radicals who had replaced the police and army."
Claiming that "every cloud has a silver lining," Medvedev said that many Ukrainians had lost faith in the interim government and realized that the only way to create a "fair society" was with a legal mandate where people were able to decide their own future.
That goal should be achieved "without imposters, nationalists or bandits and without tanks, APCs or secret visits by the director of the CIA," he said.
Russia's Foreign Ministry warned Kiev against launching an offensive in southeastern Ukraine, an action it said would derail four-party international talks in Geneva aimed at resolving the crisis.
Officials from the United States, European Union, Russia and Ukraine are expected to meet in Geneva on Thursday to seek a diplomatic resolution of the crisis.
"If force is used in southeastern Ukraine, the chances of holding the Geneva meeting would be undermined," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry and European leaders are promising more sanctions, on top of those imposed on Russia over its role in Crimea. The State Department circulated a document assailing what it called "Russian Fiction: The Sequel. Ten More False Claims about Ukraine."
In seeking to contradict assertions from Moscow, the American document says, among other things, that Russian agents are active in eastern Ukraine; that separatists there do not enjoy broad popular support; that Russian-speakers are not under threat; and the new government in Kiev is not led by right-wing nationalists and fascists.
The mood was tense in Donetsk, a city of nearly 1 million, where many residents stayed inside after dark Monday. Pro-Russian activists took over the regional administrative offices last week, and bands of masked men, including several carrying steel pipes, patrolled the barricaded entrances to the monolithic structure in the center of town.
Turchynov and other Ukrainian officials are sure that Russia is guiding the militants, who have taken over one government building after another. Russia adamantly denies it, and Lavrov said Monday it is the West's responsibility to rein in the government in Kiev so that there are no violent attacks on the militants.
The crisis, which began to the south, in Crimea, is now focused on militants who say they represent the "People's Republic of Donetsk." It has brought relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point at least since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
"There can't really be any real doubt that this is something that has been planned and brought about by Russia," the British foreign secretary, William Hague, said as he arrived in Luxembourg to meet with his European counterparts.
"I don't think denials of Russian involvement have a shred of credibility," Hague said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been watching the crisis with "great concern" and has received "many appeals, addressed personally to Putin, asking to help in this or that way and asking to intervene in this or that way," a presidential spokesman said.
Officials at the Pentagon on Monday protested what they described as a provocative flyover by a Russian attack aircraft that flew at close range for 90 minutes over a U.S. Navy ship that had been sent into the Black Sea.
[Source: By Anthony Faiola, Isabel Gorst and Will Englund, Washington Post, Donetsk, 15Apr14]
 | This document has been published on 16Apr14 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |