Unlike in Crimea, pro-Russian uprisings in eastern Ukraine shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone in Kyiv. But once again, it appears that Ukraine's interim and overwhelmed government on April 6 has been caught flat-footed.
On April 6, pro-Russian activists stormed oblast administration buildings and state security offices in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk in coordinated attacks that Russian news media are calling the “Russian Spring.”
Pro-Russian separatists, allegedly acting in concert with the Kremlin, seized government buildings and called for referendums on
joining the Russian Federation in a matter of weeks.
Meanwhile, the borders in eastern and southern Ukraine remain leaky. The government in Kyiv is refusing to put up border controls between Russian-annexed Crimea and the mainland, and struggling to close borders in the east. Moreover, Ukrainian arms manufacturers are still selling weapons to Russia’s military, a policy that could prove suicidal to the nation.
A small group of armed men who took over the Donetsk government center proclaimed the formation of a “People’s Republic of Donetsk” and called on their leader, Russian President Vladimir
Putin, to send peacekeepers to the Donetsk Oblast to calm tensions and prepare
for a referendum to be held.
The separatists want a referendum to be held
no later than May 11, two days after Victory Day, the celebration of the Soviet
victory in World War II and one of the most important Russian patriotic
holidays.
Speaking to reporters at the Ukraine Crisis
Media Center on April 7, interim Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriy Deshchytsia
said that Ukraine should tighten control on its eastern border to
prevent Russian provocateurs from infiltrating Ukrainian territory. He said
that “Russian political tourists” had carried out recent provocations.
These remarks, more than anything, show the unpreparedness of the Ukrainian government – coming more than month after Russia’s Feb. 27 military invasion of Crimea.
Deshchytsia said that because Kyiv still considers the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea to be part of independent Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has not established customs or border
control between Crimea and the mainland. He said that doing so would legitimize the
referendum held in Crimea on March 16 that made Crimea a territory of the
Russian Federation, even though the lack of border controls could make it easy for Russia to transport weapons, troops and even pro-Russian terrorists to the mainland.
“We do consider Crimea an integral part of Ukraine, so we
do not impose any customs control. But of course, there are police that are
controlling…people traveling to Ukraine from Crimea,” Deshchytsia said.
Deshchytsia also acknowledged that Ukrainian arms
manufacturers will continue selling weapons to Russia, despite the obvious threat such deals might pose to Ukraine’s national security
“The contracts (between Russian and
Ukrainian enterprises) are in force.” He said that the Ukrainian government is “in favor of bilateral
cooperation with Russia,” Deshchytsia, as long as such cooperation is mutually beneficial. He said that if
Russian and Ukrainian companies “consider the contracts valid,
they should reconsider extending them.”
Thousands of Russian troops remain stationed along the
Ukrainian border. Deshchytsia said that Russian forces had pulled back to 20-30
kilometers from the border, but that “this is nothing. I can tell you that
their focus is still there.”
Although the recent uprisings again caught the Ukrainian government off guard, Deshchytsia noted that Kyiv’s
response to any further Russian violation of Ukrainian sovereignty would be
“much tougher.” He added that the Ukrainian government
would send high-ranking officials to the eastern regions to help alleviate tensions. Until
the recent separatist uprisings, no top officials had made official trips to eastern
Ukraine.
Deshchytsia said that First Deputy Prime
Minister Vitaly Yarema, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, head of the Security Services of Ukraine Valentyn Nalivaichenko and Secretary of the
National Security and Defense Council Andriy Parubiy are already traveling to eastern cities.
Presidential candidate and former Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko left for Donetsk on April 7.
Deshchytsia said that the government would begin by
launching an “information campaign in the east and south of Ukraine to inform
people living there about the benefits of cooperation with the European
Union…and to show that NATO is not only a military bloc, it is first of all a
political bloc. Ukrainian enterprises that…cooperate with the EU and NATO
would benefit.”
The effectiveness of this diplomatic
response is debatable, to say the least.
The Ukrainian military is no match for a large-scale Russian military invasion and, although Czech President
Milos Zeman has raised the possibility of sending NATO troops to Ukraine if Russia invades the mainland, the probability of Western military support to
Ukraine remains low.
Kyiv Post staff writer Isaac Webb can be reached at [email protected]or on Twitter @isaacdwebb
