Ukraine's interim President Oleksandr Turchynov canceled his trip to Lithuania to lead the nation's campaigan against pro-Russian separatist movements that flared in Donetsk and Luhansk on April 6.
Some 200 pro-Russian separatists took over the government’s oblast building in Donetsk earlier today and issued an ultimatum to the council to convene for an emergency session by midnight and approve a date for an independence referendum in the oblast, Ukraine’s most populous with 10 percent of the nation’s population of 45 million people.
A total of 2,000 people rallied in central Donetsk on Sunday in total, according to local media.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Luhansk Oblast, pro-Russian separatists took over the local Security Services of Ukraine building.
On top of Donetsk and Luhansk, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in several eastern and southern Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv and Odessa.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, on his Facebook page, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych of “instigating and paying for the new wave of separatist riots.”
“There aren’t many people, but the aggression is over the top. In Donetsk, to the crowd of those who stormed the building a lot of women and children were brought in,” Avakov wrote. “They’re provoking a bloody conflict with victims.”
Avakov said that the order given to the police is to return the situation to normal “with no bloodshed.” He said those who instigated the disturbances will nevertheless bear legal responsibility for their actions.
“A cruel approach will be used to everyone who directly conducts attacks on state buildings, on law enforcers and other civilians,” he wrote.
Turchynov’s press service, in a statement, said he called an emergency meeting of law enforcement agencies in his office and took “personal control” over the situation.
“This seems to be a repeat of the Crimean scenario,” said Oleksandt Lytvynenko, deputy head of the National Security Council Secretary, who was appointed two days ago. He said the council is “designing solutions right now as we speak.”
In Crimea last month, separatists — backed by a heavy Russian military presence — took over the local parliament, held an illegal vote to re-elect leadership of the peninsula and then held a referendum on March 16 to join Russia. Despite Russia’s vote to accept Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as two new federal subjects, neither the referendum, nor Russia’s vote is recognized by the international community, effectively throwing Crimean into international isolation.
Separatists in Donetsk now want to follow Crimea’s path to Russia.
“For four weeks we have been trying to get a similar session, but failed. Now we’re giving an ultimatum – by midnight the deputies have to convene in the session hall. If they fail, tomorrow (April 7), at 12 o’clock we will give a people’s mandate, and the regional council will be disbanded, every town will delegate its representative and this will be the new legitimate organ, which will work instead,” one of the leaders of separatists was quoted by the local media as saying.
This is the third successful takeover of Donetsk regional administration by force in the past two months. But the activists insisted that the building was not taken over by force, and that there is police presence on every floor. In the meantime, the regional prosecutor’s office announced it had started a criminal case against initiators of mass disturbances.
However, EuroMaidanPR, the official press center of the EuroMaidan Revolution, reported that “a group of 200 masked men appeared in Donetsk and used stun grenades against the police before penetrating the regional parliament, removing the flags of Ukraine, announcing the dissolution of local parliament and called for help from Russia. The name of the group, never heard before, is ‘Russian Sector.’ Everything was well planned in advance, food, water and barricades immediately delivered to the building. They called the public to enter the building, using public adress loudspeakers, but the public does not follow. These events can be considered to be related to the seizure of 300 automatic weapons yesterday by the SBU, the arrest of 15 persons and the plan for an action on April 10. It seems the group decided to act more quickly before the investigation leads to more arrests. The move resembles the attack of the parliament of Crimea by 50 heavily armed men and its dissolution (on Feb. 27), except that they are deprived of their weapons by the SBU’s successful action yesterday.”
EuroMaidanPr also reported that journalists were forced to leave the area except a group of Russian journalists that arrived with the masked men and that Russia 24 is broadcasting propaganda and false information, including that the square is full of protesters and that NATO and the American Central Intelligence Agency have tried but failed to suppress the popular movement.
In neighboring Luhansk Oblast, the local Security Services of Ukraine branch was taken over, and the separatists attempted to access SBU’s servers, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Luhansk Governor Mykhailo Bolotskyh and head of the regional branch of the Interior Ministry, Volodymyr Huslavski, were reported as going into the building to negotiate.
Six separatists, who had been previously detained by Ukraine’s security forces, were released to meet part of the separatists’ demands, Interfax-Ukraine reported. The agency also said the separatists agreed to stop further action as a result. Two people were injured in the Luhansk clash, including a 21-year-old law police officer and a woman.
Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected]
