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Protesters in Ukraine’s East Call On Putin to Send Troops Protesters in Ukraine’s East Call On Putin to Send Troops
(about 7 hours later)
MOSCOW — Several hundred pro-Russian demonstrators who have seized government buildings in the city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, urged President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday to send troops to the region as a peacekeeping force, and they demanded a referendum on seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia. MOSCOW — Under the watchful eye of Russian state television, several hundred pro-Russian demonstrators in the city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, declared on Monday that they were forming an independent republic and urged President Vladimir V. Putin to send troops to the region as a peacekeeping force, even though there are no obvious threats to peace in the area.
The renewed unrest in eastern Ukraine, which flared on Sunday with coordinated demonstrations by thousands of pro-Russian protesters in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk, reignited fears in Kiev and the West about Russian military action a little more than a month after Russian forces occupied Crimea. The Kremlin annexed Crimea after a referendum there last month. The actions in Donetsk and three other cities in eastern Ukraine, which included a demand for a referendum on seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia, seemed an effort by the activists to mimic some of the events that preceded Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea. But there were no immediate indications that the Kremlin was receptive to the pleas.
The events in the east were unfolding just hours after a Ukrainian military officer was shot and killed in Crimea in a confrontation with Russian troops. Secretary of State John Kerry told the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in a phone call on Monday that there would be “further costs” if Russia took additional steps to destabilize Ukraine, the State Department said.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Vladislav Seleznev, said the officer, Maj. Stanislav Karchevskiy, was killed in a military dormitory where he lived with his wife and two children, next to the Novofedorivka air base in western Crimea. Mr. Kerry said in the call that the United States was monitoring with growing concern the pro-Russia protests in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Mariupol, and did not believe they were a “spontaneous set of events,” said Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman.
By about noon, the police in Donetsk said they were negotiating with representatives of about 150 protesters who had been occupying the regional administration building after breaking through a police cordon on Sunday. “He noted in particular the recent arrests of Russian intelligence operatives working in Ukraine,” Ms. Psaki added.
The demonstrators said that they had formed a new legislature and would move ahead with plans to hold a referendum on May 11, two weeks before the provisional Ukrainian government in Kiev is set to hold a national presidential election. The Obama administration has warned Russia that it is prepared to impose new sanctions if Russia intervenes militarily or covertly to undermine the new Ukrainian government, a point Mr. Kerry repeated on Monday.
Several organizers of the protest in Donetsk spoke inside the regional administration building, where Russian television channels were broadcasting the events live. “He made clear that any further Russian effort to destabilize Ukraine will incur further costs for Russia,” Ms. Psaki said without providing details. The United States, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union are planning to meet jointly in the next 10 days to discuss the situation in Ukraine, Ms. Psaki said.
NATO’s top commander, Gen. Philip M. Breedlove said last week that the approximately 40,000 Russian troops near the Ukrainian border are capable of intervening in eastern Ukraine on 12 hours’ notice and could accomplish their military objectives in three to five days.
In Kiev on Monday morning, the acting prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, said Russia was carrying out a campaign “to destabilize the situation, a plan to ensure that foreign troops could cross the border and capture the territory of the country.” He added, “We will not allow this.”
Speaking at the start of a government meeting, Mr. Yatsenyuk said: “There is a script being written in the Russian Federation, for which there is only one purpose: the dismemberment and destruction of Ukraine and the transformation of Ukraine into the territory of slavery under the dictates of Russia.”
Russian officials, including the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, have said that they have no intention of taking military action in eastern Ukraine, and in a statement on Monday afternoon, the Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated its call for federalizing Ukraine, a move that would substantially weaken the government in Kiev.
“As the Russian side has noted repeatedly, it is difficult to count on a long-term stabilization of Ukraine without a real constitutional reform within the framework of which, through federalization, the interests of all regions would be ensured, its nonaligned status maintained and the special role of the Russian language reinforced,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry also denied any role in the unrest, even though the demonstrations on Sunday evening in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lugansk seemed coordinated and bore the hallmarks of similar protests last month that were organized with support from Moscow.
“Stop poking at Russia, blaming it for all the troubles of today’s Ukraine, the ministry said. “The Ukrainian people want to hear from Kiev, a clear answer to all the questions. It’s time to listen to these legitimate demands.”
The unrest in eastern Ukraine seemed to heighten fears in Kiev and the West about possible Russian military action a little more than a month after Russian forces occupied Crimea. The Kremlin annexed Crimea after a referendum there last month.
In Germany, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that the government was extremely concerned about the events in eastern Ukraine and called for calm.In Germany, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that the government was extremely concerned about the events in eastern Ukraine and called for calm.
“The latest developments in Donetsk and in Kharkiv are something which we are all very worried about in the German government,” the spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said at a news conference. “The latest developments in Donetsk and in Kharkiv are something which we are all very worried about in the German government,” the spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said at a news conference. “We must urgently renew our appeal to all those in positions of responsibility to help stabilize the region and avoid such escalation.”
“We must urgently renew our appeal to all those in positions of responsibility to help stabilize the region and avoid such escalation,” he said. Even as the Kremlin denied any role, government-controlled television stations in Russia gave live coverage to the events in Donetsk on Monday, including the reading of a sort of declaration of independence of the “sovereign state of the Donetsk People’s Republic” by a pro-Russian demonstrator inside the regional administration building. Protesters occupied the building on Sunday.
While the demonstrators in Donetsk announced that a ballot referendum on secession from Ukraine would be held no later than May 11 , there did not appear to be the same overwhelming support for such a move as there was in Crimea last month.
The regional prosecutor, Mykola Frantovkskiy, issued a statement calling the demonstrators’ actions illegal and saying that law enforcement officials had identified the criminal “separatists” and that “all necessary measures will be taken to apprehend the violators.”
The Donetsk City Council called on the protesters to end their occupation of government buildings and engage in negotiations. “All conflicts should be resolved legally,” the council said in a statement.
Aleksei Pushkov, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia’s lower house of Parliament, told reporters in Strasbourg, France, that the events in eastern Ukraine showed that the opinions of Russian-speakers in Ukraine cannot be ignored.
“Stability will not be achieved in Ukraine without heeding the wishes of the people who live in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, primarily, Russian-speaking people,” Mr. Pushkov said in France, where he was attending a session the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, according to the Interfax news service.
The events in the east unfolded just hours after a Ukrainian military officer was shot and killed in Crimea in a confrontation with Russian troops.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Vladislav Seleznev, said the officer, Maj. Stanislav Karchevskiy, was killed in a military dormitory where he lived with his wife and two children, next to the Novofedorivka air base in western Crimea.
The death of the Ukrainian officer was a rare instance of deadly violence as Ukrainian forces continue their withdrawal from the peninsula after its annexation by Russia.The death of the Ukrainian officer was a rare instance of deadly violence as Ukrainian forces continue their withdrawal from the peninsula after its annexation by Russia.
Mr. Seleznev, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said that the Ukrainian soldier had been collecting his belongings in preparation to leave Crimea when an argument broke out with Russian service members, Reuters reported Monday.Mr. Seleznev, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said that the Ukrainian soldier had been collecting his belongings in preparation to leave Crimea when an argument broke out with Russian service members, Reuters reported Monday.
Mr. Seleznev said that the altercation involved several Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and that there were no other injuries. He said a Russian soldier armed with an automatic weapon entered the dormitory and shot Major Karchevskiy, who was unarmed.Mr. Seleznev said that the altercation involved several Ukrainian and Russian soldiers and that there were no other injuries. He said a Russian soldier armed with an automatic weapon entered the dormitory and shot Major Karchevskiy, who was unarmed.
Ukraine’s provisional government in Kiev has ordered its forces to withdraw from Crimea, but an unknown number of military personnel remain on the peninsula as part of the transition, in which some military equipment is being returned to mainland Ukraine.Ukraine’s provisional government in Kiev has ordered its forces to withdraw from Crimea, but an unknown number of military personnel remain on the peninsula as part of the transition, in which some military equipment is being returned to mainland Ukraine.
Mr. Seleznev said that a second Ukrainian officer, Capt. Artem Yarmolenko, was detained by Russian forces for questioning and possibly taken to Sevastopol, where the Russian military has its headquarters in Crimea.Mr. Seleznev said that a second Ukrainian officer, Capt. Artem Yarmolenko, was detained by Russian forces for questioning and possibly taken to Sevastopol, where the Russian military has its headquarters in Crimea.
The shooting at Novofedorivka further heightened tensions as the government in Kiev and its Western supporters, including the United States, remain anxious about the possibility of a Russian military incursion into eastern Ukraine, where there has been continuing public unrest. With tensions intensifying in the east, the former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, who is running for president in elections next month, traveled to the region.
On Sunday, in what appeared to be coordinated efforts, groups of pro-Russian demonstrators seized government buildings in several large cities in eastern Ukraine, including Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk. Similar actions have occurred in the largely Russian-speaking region, where some residents are demanding to follow Crimea in seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia. Ms. Tymoshenko said she was committed to strengthening the autonomy of Ukraine’s regions, especially by letting them control their finances but said she opposed federalization.
Ukrainian and Western leaders have said that they fear the protests could be used as a pretext for Russian military action. Last month, the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament, granted Mr. Putin the authority to use military force if necessary to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine. She also said that she did not believe most people in Donetsk supported the protesters. “I got the impression that all of this aggression lives on its own island, separate from the life of Donetsk,” she said. “It does not at all correspond with the opinions or wishes of the people in Donetsk.”
In Kiev on Monday morning, the acting prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, said Russia was carrying out a plan “to destabilize the situation, a plan to ensure that foreign troops could cross the border and capture the territory of the country.” He added, “We will not allow this.”
Speaking at the start of a government meeting, Mr. Yatsenyuk said: “There is a script being written in the Russian Federation, for which there is only one purpose: the dismemberment and destruction of Ukraine and the transformation of Ukraine into the territory of slavery under the dictates of Russia.”
With tensions intensifying, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, who is running for president in elections next month, said Monday that she would travel to the region. Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, said on Sunday evening that he had canceled an official visit to Lithuania so he could monitor the situation.
Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s acting interior minister, said in a statement from Kharkiv on Monday that Mr. Putin was responsible for fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Avakov reported that the local police had expelled pro-Russian protesters from the regional administration headquarters there.
In Luhansk, Ukrainian news agencies reported that several hundred protesters had occupied the local headquarters of the Ukrainian Security Service and were still there as of Monday morning.