Russia warned yesterday that Europe’s peace was at risk over the escalating crisis in Ukraine, where deadly fighting raged around a flashpoint eastern city and the interim Ukrainian president warned of “war.”
European leaders fearing that an all-out civil war was breaking out on their eastern flank have launched a desperate new peace bid, trying to force Ukraine and Russia to find a negotiated solution before it is too late.
Fierce exchanges of fire were taking place to the east and south of the town of Slavyansk, the epicenter of the armed insurgency, as Ukrainian troops corralled pro-Russian gunmen toward the center for what could be a devastating showdown.
“They are waging a war on us, on our own territory,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told reporters as he oversaw the offensive in the combat zone. “My mission is to eliminate the terrorists.”
The advance on Slavyansk was part of a wider military operation in the east to root out the insurgents, who are holding more than a dozen towns and who have declared two autonomous territories around them.
Russia, which denies any hand in the eastern or southern violence, warned in a foreign ministry report yesterday that the unrest in Ukraine was now “fraught with such destructive consequences for Europe’s peace, stability and democratic development that it is absolutely necessary to prevent it.”
The report accused Ukrainian “ultra-nationalists” — who Moscow claims controls Kiev’s government — of rights violations on a “mass” scale.
Earlier yesterday, Ukraine’s interim president declared that Russian meddling had brought war to his country, and warned that pro-Russian provocateurs might stage violence in Kiev during celebrations on Friday marking the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
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