Ukraine announces change in army command, calls for volunteers to help quell uprising
Ukraine announces change in army command amid calls for volunteers to help quell uprising
(about 4 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s interim government appointed a new military commander Tuesday, while other political and military leaders called for volunteers to help restore order ahead of elections that are increasingly threatened by a pro-Russian separatist uprising in the eastern part of the country.
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s interim government took additional steps Tuesday to reassert its control by appointing a new military commander and shoring up security forces, even as some leaders made urgent calls for volunteers to take up arms against pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.
With the nation on alert for more violence, former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko urged the creation of a “volunteer army” because neither Ukraine’s army nor its security services has been effective so far in handling outbreaks of rebellion, the Russian news service Interfax reported Tuesday.
Amid reports of fresh violence, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko urged the creation of a “volunteer army” because neither Ukraine’s army nor its security services have been effective in handling outbreaks of rebellion, the Russian news service Interfax reported Tuesday.
Hers was one of many calls to form combat-ready units of “self-defense” forces ahead of May 25 presidential and mayoral elections. Andriy Tiron, battalion commander of the National Guard, told reporters in Kiev that demonstrators who helped oust the previous pro-Russian government were being urged to volunteer for military duty. But there was confusion about who command them and what their duties would be.
Hers was one of many calls to form combat-ready units of “self-defense” forces ahead of May 25 presidential and mayoral elections. Andriy Tiron, battalion commander of the National Guard, told reporters in Kiev that demonstrators who helped oust the previous pro-Russian government were being urged to volunteer for military duty. But there was confusion about who would command them and what their duties would be.
In a brief statement that appeared only in Ukrainian on his official Web site, the acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Lt. Gen. Anatoly Pushnyakova has been appointed to take command of the army. The statement offered no further details.
In a brief statement that appeared on his official Web site, the acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Lt. Gen. Anatoly Pushnyakov has been appointed to take command of the army. The statement offered no further details. Turchynov also published a decree sacking the top regional administrator in Odessa as violence continued to flare around eastern Ukraine.
The change in command and calls for volunteers came a day after fierce fighting broke out around the eastern city of Slovyansk between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces waging an offensive to take back cities that have slipped from the central government's control. Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s top security official, said Tuesday that an estimated 30 pro-Russia militants were killed and “dozens” injured in the fighting.
Late Tuesday, there were reports of fighting in the eastern coastal town of Mariupol. Interfax, the Russian news service, quoted a representative of the militants as saying that Ukrainian forces had staged an attack. Local media reported cars ablaze and a skirmish underway near Mariupol Airport.
In a statement posted to his Facebook page, Avakov said that in addition to those casualties, four members of Ukraine’s security forces were killed and about 20 wounded as the interim government attempted to take control of the city.
Earlier, in the Luhansk region, about 20 armed militants destroyed a military radar station, according to the Web site of southern Ukraine’s prosecutor general. The report said the militants outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers at the installation and slipped away after the 4 a.m. attack. There was no mention of casualties. In perhaps another sign of the confusion and suspicions of mixed loyalties in parts of Ukraine, the prosecutor said there would be an investigation of the soldiers’ conduct.
Danylo Lubkivsy, deputy minister for foreign affairs, charged Tuesday that Russian “meddling” in Ukraine appeared aimed at disrupting the elections now less than three weeks away. But he said the interim government was just as intent on ensuring that ballots would be cast in all parts of the country. He also reiterated the government’s interest in talking with regional leaders in rebellious areas about more autonomy for those regions.
Armed separatists also seized control of the main government building in the town of Debaltseve, a regional railway hub with a population of 26,000 and two large thermal power plants about 45 miles northeast of Donetsk, according to local media reports.
“However, we will not engage in negotiations with terrorists,” Lubkivsy said at a news conference in Kiev. He also called clashes Friday that left dozens of people dead in the port city of Odessa “an unspeakable tragedy” and blamed the spread of the violence on Russia.
In Odessa, social media appeared to be fanning tensions between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists days after 46 people died in violent clashes in the city. The Kyiv Post said late Monday that the rival groups have been using Vkontakte — the Russian counterpart of Facebook — to rally supporters for demonstrations and counterdemonstrations and to single out individuals for reprisals.
For their part, Russian officials repeated calls Tuesday for further negotiations on preventing violence in eastern Ukraine, but they said that any discussions without pro-Russian separatists at the table would do little to settle the conflict.
Acting interior minister Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s top security official, said Tuesday that an estimated 30 pro-Russian militants were killed and “dozens” were injured in fighting a day earlier around the eastern city of Slovyansk. Four members of Ukraine’s security forces were killed and about 20 were wounded as the interim government attempted to take control of the city.
“Getting together again in the same format, with the opposition to the current Ukrainian regime being absent at the table of negotiations, is unlikely to add anything,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “It is possible of course, but we shall be going in circles,” he told reporters after a meeting at the Council of Europe in Vienna, Interfax reported.
A Ukrainian diplomat charged Tuesday that Russian “meddling” in Ukraine appeared aimed at disrupting the elections, which are less than three weeks away. But Danylo Lubkivsy, deputy minister for foreign affairs, said the interim government remained intent on ensuring that ballots would be cast in all parts of the country. He also reiterated the government’s interest in talking with regional leaders in rebellious areas about more autonomy for those regions.
“However, we will not engage in negotiations with terrorists,” Lubkivsy said at a news conference in Kiev. He also called the deadly clashes in the port city of Odessa “an unspeakable tragedy” and blamed the spread of the violence
on Russia
.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday called for a second round of talks in Geneva. Russian officials also called for further talks but said pro-Russian separatists should be at the table.
“Getting together again in the same format, with the opposition to the current Ukrainian regime being absent at the table of negotiations, is unlikely to add anything,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “It is possible, of course, but we shall be going in circles,” he told reporters at the Council of Europe in Vienna, Interfax reported.
Lavrov said Ukraine’s plan to hold elections on May 25 was “highly unusual” amid a military operation aimed at regaining control over the east.
Lavrov said Ukraine’s plan to hold elections on May 25 was “highly unusual” amid a military operation aimed at regaining control over the east.
The chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is expected to visit Moscow on Wednesday in an attempt to foster more negotiations. Russian officials have said that they would like the OSCE to be the intermediary for any discussion about Ukraine’s future.
The chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is expected to visit Moscow on Wednesday in an attempt to foster more negotiations. Russian officials have said they would like the OSCE to be the intermediary for any discussion about Ukraine’s future.
The governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Serhiy Taruta, acknowledged that “a threat exists to holding the presidential elections” in the region. However, he told he Ukrainian News Web site, “we believe that we will hold the election; we have everything we need to do so.”
Meanwhile, a pro-Ukrainian activist, Nikolay Yakubovich, who was taken hostage by separatists on Thursday and tortured, was exchanged for an unspecified number of separatist prisoners on Tuesday, according to local media.
Meanwhile, armed separatists seized control of the main government building in the town of Debaltseve, an important regional railway hub with a population of 26,000 and two large thermal power plants about 45 miles northeast of Donetsk, according to local media reports.
Human Rights Watch said the fate of at least two dozen other people taken captive by pro-Russian separatists remained unknown.
In Donetsk itself, dealers have removed new cars from showrooms after several cars were stolen by armed men in balaclavas on Monday, underlining the continuing breakdown in law and order since pro-Russian separatists seized control of the city last month.
Denyer reported from Slovyansk. Birnbaum reported from Moscow. Alex Ryabchyn in Donetsk and Anna Nemtsova in Odessa contributed to this report.
A pro-Ukrainian activist, Nikolay Yakubovich, who was taken hostage by separatists on May 1 and tortured, was exchanged for an unspecified number of separatist prisoners on Tuesday, according to local media.
Human Rights Watch said the fate of at least two dozen other people taken captive by pro-Russian separatists remained unknown. The group said Ukrainian hostages should not be forgotten following the release of OSCE military observers Saturday after Russian and European envoys traveled to Slovyansk.
“Russian authorities and the Europeans who managed to get the OSCE observers out should pursue the release of the other illegally held captives with the same vigor,” Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch wrote in a report.
In Slovyansk, pro-Russian insurgents shot down a Ukrainian military helicopter Monday — the fourth such shoot-down in recent days — as heavy fighting re-erupted around the key rebel stronghold.
The Ukrainian government also moved to regain control of the key Black Sea port of Odessa, dispatching a special police unit to that city after deadly clashes there between rival mobs supporting Ukraine and Russia.
The fighting near Slovyansk lasted several hours. In a visit to a checkpoint near the fighting, Avakov acknowledged that after years of neglect, his country’s military is weak and lacks basic supplies.
“Understand the real situation,” Avakov said, wearing combat fatigues and a black bulletproof vest. “Our army has been destroyed methodically for the past few years. We don’t have a normal army. We don’t have the appropriate special forces. What is happening now is a combat shakedown, the first in the past few years. We are figuring out who is who, who imitates and who is really not afraid.”
The military’s struggle to retake rebel-held cities in the east is mirrored by the police force’s inability to maintain law and order, an impotence that pro-Russian militants are fully exploiting.
Monday’s clashes came just as normal life was beginning to return to Slovyansk, a city of about 125,000 people, with pedestrians strolling across the central Lenin Square and light traffic wending its way through heavily barricaded, potholed streets lined with trees and decrepit Soviet-era apartment blocks.
The relative calm was shattered at mid-morning by a loud explosion and the sound of sporadic gunfire.
Church bells pealed, and rebel officials scurried home from the fortified city council building. Two armored personnel carriers, captured last month from Ukraine’s military, emerged from the rebels’ nearby headquarters packed with men in camouflage bristling with weapons and apparently heading for the front line.
Barricades of tires, sandbags, trees, concrete blocks and old trucks, almost deserted before the explosion, were quickly defended by jumpy armed men; both the rebels and the Ukrainian army closed roads in and out of the city for several hours.
The Ukrainian military helicopter was shot down by heavy machine-gun fire near Slovyansk about 2:30 p.m. local time, the Defense Ministry announced. The Mi-24 helicopter crashed in a river, and its pilots were rescued by Ukrainian security personnel, the ministry said.
Also Monday, the government of neighboring Moldova, with a large Russian-speaking population, placed its borders on alert, citing the unrest in Ukraine.
The war of words between Russia and Ukraine continued to escalate, as Russia condemned the Ukrainian push against separatists in the east who want to see the region aligned with Moscow.
“The Kiev organizers of terror against their own people should think again and stop the bloodshed, remove troops and finally sit down at the table of negotiations to start normal dialogue on ways to solve the political crisis,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Ukrainian, U.S. and European officials have said that Russia has a hand in the unfolding chaos.
In Kiev, the Ukrainian government announced that it was temporarily closing all checkpoints and border crossings between Ukraine and Crimea — which Russia annexed in March — because of the unrest.
The closures effectively halt travel by boat and airplane from Ukraine to several cities on the Crimean Peninsula, which juts into the Black Sea.
In addition, Ukrainian authorities set up roadblocks around the capital as a preventive measure ahead of an important national holiday, the acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Monday. In a statement on his official Web site, Turchynov said the extra security is a precaution against possible “provocations” by pro-Russian separatists ahead of Victory Day on Friday.
The May 9 holiday marks Nazi Germany’s capitulation to Soviet forces in World War II and has long been celebrated with patriotic fervor by Russians, Ukrainians and other nationalities that formed the old Soviet Union. Ukrainians worry that the holiday could inflame passions among pro-Russian separatists, who have cast themselves as the historic liberators of Ukraine and their opponents in Kiev as “fascists.”
Besides the four Ukrainian troops killed Monday, about 30 were wounded, the government said. Rebel accounts of casualties varied widely from four to 20 dead.
Rebels accused the army of inflicting civilian casualties Monday; the Interior Ministry said rebels had taken shelter in residential areas, using civilians as human shields. It was not possible to independently confirm the assertions.
Avakov, the interior minister, told reporters that the security forces’ advance was being slowed by strict orders not to fire on civilians.
“We are tied down by the civilian population,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency. “Some people support us and some do not. It doesn’t matter. The Ukrainian military cannot shoot civilians.”
Ukraine’s state security office said that rebels fired on a minibus ferrying wounded soldiers out of the combat zone but that the bus was armored and further deaths were avoided.
Slovyansk is encircled by Ukrainian security forces, the Defense Ministry said, although civilian traffic is being allowed to pass army and rebel checkpoints most of the time after searches and questioning.
But just a short drive south, the towns of Kramatorsk and Konstantinovka remain in rebel hands, with barricades flying the black, blue and red separatist flag.
In Odessa, a special police battalion was deployed by the central government to help restore order, Avakov said. The move came a day after pro-Russian militants attacked a police station in Odessa and freed 67 of their allies, who had been detained during violent clashes Friday.
Avakov said the Kiev-1 police battalion had arrived in the country’s third-largest city to calm tensions that spiked when local police were unable — or unwilling — to control pro-Russian mobs. Avakov, in a posting Monday on his Facebook page, said the failure of local police to keep order in Odessa was an “outrage” and possibly criminal.
The special police unit, he said, was recently formed with the assistance of “citizen activists,” presumably to ensure its loyalty to the acting government. Avakov said the entire leadership of the local police force had been dismissed, and he pledged an investigation of their role in the violence.
As questions arose about the effectiveness and loyalty of the police in restive areas of the country, Turchynov, the acting president, said the government was forming special police units and reshuffling the leadership of several local police forces.
On Friday, 46 people died in clashes and a fire in Odessa, marking the worst day of violence in Ukraine since pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia in February.
The spread of the violence to Odessa has raised the stakes dramatically in the crisis, bringing the conflict between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian forces to the country’s most important port.
Denyer reported from Slovyansk. Birnbaum reported from Moscow. Alex Ryabchyn and Anna Nemtsova in Donetsk contributed to this report.
