Ukraine vowed yesterday to broaden its operation against pro-Russian rebels as the crisis-hit country observed a second day of mourning after violence that left more than 50 people dead.
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy said the armed forces would expand the “active stage of the operation in other towns where extremists and terrorists are carrying out illegal activities.”
Reporters near the eastern town of Kostyantynivka, where rebels seized the town hall on Monday last week, saw a pro-Russian checkpoint abandoned and smouldering, while barricades were being hastily erected in the center.
Rebels defending the town hall behind makeshift barriers told reporters there had been fighting overnight near the town’s television tower.
In nearby Kramatorsk, pro-Russians were holed up in the town hall and burned-out trolley buses and minivans blocked off streets in the city center.
On Saturday, fierce gun battles erupted around the flashpoint town of Slavyansk as the army stormed rebel-held checkpoints, tightening the noose around what has become the epicenter of pro-Russian fervor.
Central Slayvansk was relatively calm early yesterday, but citizens reported increasing difficulty obtaining basic foodstuffs in the besieged town of 160,000 people.
Meanwhile, seven European inspectors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe arrived home late on Saturday after an eight-day ordeal in rebel captivity, a small chink of light in the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.
Ukrainian Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov declared two days of mourning on Saturday after brutal violence in Odessa claimed 42 lives and at least 10 died in military operations around Slavyansk, the worst bloodshed in months.
The scenic Black Sea port of Odessa was bracing for fresh unrest as supporters of the Western-backed government in Kiev planned a new march amid fears it could be disrupted by pro-Russian militants.
The city was still reeling from horrific violence on Friday when deadly clashes between the two sides culminated in a building fire that left 38 dead, most overcome by fumes, others from jumping from windows in a desperate bid for survival.
Four others died from gunshot wounds as the violence that has gripped the eastern part of Ukraine spread to the south, which had until then had been spared.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visited the town yesterday and told the BBC he would launch a “full, comprehensive and independent investigation” into the bloodshed, blaming “inefficient” local law enforcement officers.
Sporadic fighting was also reported overnight in the eastern city of Lugansk and the port city of Mariupol.
Meanwhile in Crimea, annexed by Russia in March, there were clashes between police and 2,000 pro-Kiev Tatars demonstrating against Russia’s refusal to allow their leader, Mustafa Dzhemilev, into the peninsula.
Ukraine’s violence sparked a new round of accusations and counter-accusations between the US and Moscow as relations between the Cold War foes continued to suffer.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov called his US counterpart John Kerry to demand that Washington use its influence over Kiev to stop what he called Ukraine’s “war against its own people.”
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