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Russia issues warning after fatal clashes in Ukraine city of Donetsk Russia issues warning after fatal clashes in Ukraine city of Donetsk
(about 1 hour later)
Russia said on Friday it reserved the right to protect compatriots in eastern Ukraine after clashes in the city of Donetsk in which one person was killed. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine rose higher on Friday as casualties mounted from clashes between pro- and anti-Russian protesters in Donetsk and the Russian foreign ministry suggested it could intervene to protect lives.
Russia's foreign ministry said the violence in the industrial city, where many people speak Russian, showed the Ukrainian authorities had lost control. Donetsk, a largely Russian-speaking city in eastern Ukraine where many residents have close ties to Russia, declared a day of mourning on Friday after one person was killed and more than two dozen injured in a mass fight. The city has been the site of repeated standoffs between pro- and anti-Russian demonstrators.
A 22-year-old man was stabbed to death during clashes between pro-Russian protesters and supporters of the new government in Kiev who denounce the seizure of Ukraine's southern region of Crimea by Russian forces. On Friday, protesters from a pro-Russian demonstration fought with those from a rally "for a united Ukraine", resulting in the death of a 22-year-old man and injuries to a reported 26 people. Other reports said 28 people had been injured and that the young man had been stabbed to death.
"Russia is aware of its responsibility for the lives of compatriots and fellow citizens in Ukraine and reserves the right to take people under its protection," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Ukrainian media said pro-Russian protesters had attacked first, but the foreign ministry and Russian media reported that armed men had attacked peaceful pro-Russian demonstrators. In a statement released in response to the clashes, the foreign ministry said Kiev was not in control of the situation in the country and had failed to guarantee demonstrators' safety.
Implying the pro-Russian protesters were not to blame, the ministry said peaceful protesters had been attacked by rightwing groups armed with pneumatic guns and batons who arrived from other parts of Ukraine. "Radical far-right gangs armed with traumatic firearms and clubs, who began to arrive in the city yesterday from other regions of the country, attacked peaceful protesters who came out on the streets to express their attitude toward the destructive position of the people who call themselves the Ukrainian government," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Witnesses, however, said the pro-Russian demonstrators threw eggs, smoke bombs and other missiles and broke through a police cordon, attacking their opponents with batons. The statement also hinted that Russian forces could intervene in eastern Ukraine to protect Russians there, the same justification used for sending troops to occupy key facilities in Crimea.
The death was the first reported in recent Ukrainian violence outside the capital, Kiev. Police detained four people accused of fomenting the violence. "Russia recognises its responsibility for the lives of countrymen and fellow citizens in Ukraine and reserves the right to take people under its protection," it said.
The rightwing party Svoboda, hostile to Russian policy, said the dead man was one of its local activists. The foreign ministry website was not working on Friday afternoon, but much of the statement was carried by Russian news agencies.
Donetsk, a city of one million people, was calm on Friday morning. The head of Ukraine's security service wrote on his Facebook page on Friday that four people had been detained in connection with the violence in Donetsk and that "these detainments are only the beginning".
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of supporting groups in the Donetsk region which favour Kremlin rule and sending militants across the border. Russian troops and armoured vehicles had massed on the border with eastern Ukraine on Thursday, alarming Kiev, where the acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said in a statement that the Russian forces were "ready to intervene in Ukraine at any time".
The Kremlin says its intervention in favour of ethnic Russians in Crimea was prompted by the removal of the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich in what Moscow describes as a coup staged by right-wing nationalists. The Russian defence ministry admitted in several statements that at least 10,000 troops had gathered in provinces along the border, but said they were there only to participate in intensive exercises. Moscow also ordered six Sukhoi-27 fighter jets and three transport planes into Belarus, located on Ukraine's northern border, to head off what the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said was a potential Nato threat.
The Duma, Russia's parliament, has given Vladimir Putin the right to use the armed forces to protect Russians in Ukraine if necessary. In response to the buildup, the German leader, Angela Merkel, warned Moscow in her strongest language yet that it risked massive political and economic damage if it refused to change course on Ukraine.
The escalation in tensions came as the US secretary of state, John Kerry, met the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in London. Crimean residents will choose on Sunday whether to join Russia or to reinstate the constitution of 1992, under which Crimea enjoyed great autonomy from Kiev.