Pro-Russian militants yesterday unleashed fresh violence in restive east Ukraine, storming yet another public building and further fueling fears that the ex-Soviet republic could disintegrate.
The violence in the city of Donetsk confirmed the separatists’ expanding grip in Ukraine’s east — where they hold more than a dozen towns and cities — as Kiev admitted it was powerless to halt their advance.
Meanwhile, Germany asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to help free an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) team of international inspectors held by rebels, while Kiev ordered a Russian diplomat out of the country for espionage.
Photo: Reuters
In Donetsk, a pro-Kremlin rally degenerated into a savage attack against a public building being defended by outnumbered riot police.
A mob of about 300 militants hurling rocks attacked the city’s prosecutor’s office, leaving at least four police officers wounded in the clashes with militants.
In Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Russia annexed in March, about 60,000 people marched in the main city of Simferopol to hail Putin bringing them under Moscow’s governance, a reporter said. Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev are reportedly to make a triumphant visit to the territory late next week.
In the eastern Ukrainian town of Slavyansk, near Donetsk, a near weeklong stalemate over the fate of seven detained OSCE military inspectors dragged on.
Rebels in the town have been saying for three days that the team, grabbed last week, were about to be freed after negotiations involving a prisoner swap.
However, the militants yesterday said instead they had exchanged two of three Ukrainian commandos captured separately for some of their colleagues taken prisoner by Kiev, according to the Interfax news agency. There was no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian authorities, and the condition of all three of the men was unknown. The last time they were seen, on Russian state television, they were savagely beaten, cuffed to chairs with their bloodied eyes bound by tape and stripped to their underwear.
In her phone call to Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked for help to have the OSCE members released.
“The chancellor reminded President Putin of Russia’s responsibilities as an OSCE member and called on him to use his influence,” Merkel’s spokesman said.
The Kremlin said both leaders emphasized the “mediating potential of the OSCE” in calming the crisis in Ukraine.
Putin reiterated his call for Kiev to end its military operation trying to halt the pro-Russian rebels grabbing more towns.
Meanwhile, the IMF has thrown a US$17-billion lifeline to Ukraine, US$3.2 billion of which is available immediately. That money could be used to pay US$3.5 billion in Russian gas debt that Putin has warned could lead to him turning off the taps in a move that would also affect several European countries.
Talks were due to take place today in Warsaw between the EU, Russia and Kiev over the gas dispute.
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