Ukraine on Monday scrambled to reassert authority over three of the largest cities in the Russian-speaking east of the country, and accused Moscow of backing thousands of pro-Russian separatists who have seized government buildings there.
Addressing his cabinet on Monday morning, Arseniy Yatseniuk, Ukraine’s pro-western prime minister, said “a radical circle of people – with a specific Russian accent and co-ordinating their activity with special forces of a foreign country – yesterday seized government buildings” in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lugansk “with the aim to destabilise the situation in the country.”
Just weeks after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, Mr Yatseniuk described the protests as an “anti-Ukrainian operation” designed to establish a pretext to justify a Russian military incursion into eastern Ukraine. Mr Yatseniuk said Moscow had maintained a military presence near to the three cities.
