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Version 5 Version 6
Ukrainian Troops Move to Reassert Control in East U.S. and NATO Warn Russia to Stay Out of Ukraine
(about 4 hours later)
MOSCOW — Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops expelled pro-Russian demonstrators from a regional administration building in Kharkiv early on Tuesday, as the provisional government in Kiev moved to quell unrest in eastern Ukraine that the United States and its Western allies fear might lead to a Russian military invasion. DONETSK, Ukraine — As the government in Kiev moved to reassert control over pro-Russian protesters across eastern Ukraine, the United States and NATO issued stern warnings to Moscow about further intervention in the country’s affairs, amid deepening fears of an eventual Russian incursion.
Secretary of State John Kerry accused the Kremlin of fomenting the unrest, calling the protests the work of saboteurs whose machinations were as “ham-handed as they are transparent.” Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he added that “what we see from Russia is an illegal and illegitimate effort to destabilize a sovereign state and create a contrived crisis with paid operatives across an international boundary.”
The secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said Russia would be making a “historic mistake” by going into Ukraine, and he urged the Kremlin to “step back.” At a news conference in Paris, he said any such actions “would have grave consequences for our relationship with Russia and would further isolate Russia internationally.”
In Moscow, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, denied on Tuesday the accusations of Russian meddling in Ukraine. He said Russia would seek multinational talks on the Ukrainian political crisis that could involve the United States, the European Union and “all the political forces in Ukraine,” which should include representatives of the southeastern region.
But none of that was soothing nerves rattled by days of protests here, orchestrated or otherwise. As pro-Russian demonstrators were expelled from a government building in the eastern city of Kharkiv and the government determined to end the protests across the south and east, separatist protesters here in the east’s biggest urban center reinforced barricades outside the occupied regional administration building and vowed to stand firm, setting up a possibly violent showdown over control of the city.
The successful operation in Kharkiv was announced by Ukraine’s acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, who had traveled to the city to supervise the action. He wrote on Facebook that the building was retaken “without firing a shot, grenades, or other special weapons,” and that the troops were part of a broader redeployment in the region to contain unrest that Ukraine has accused Russia of orchestrating.The successful operation in Kharkiv was announced by Ukraine’s acting interior minister, Arsen Avakov, who had traveled to the city to supervise the action. He wrote on Facebook that the building was retaken “without firing a shot, grenades, or other special weapons,” and that the troops were part of a broader redeployment in the region to contain unrest that Ukraine has accused Russia of orchestrating.
Pro-Russian demonstrators seized government buildings Sunday evening in several eastern cities, including Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lugansk, posing a thorny challenge for the authorities in Kiev. Russian armed forces are deployed along the border nearby, and the Kremlin has warned that it is prepared to intervene again in Ukraine to protect the many ethnic Russians who live there, as it has in Crimea in the south.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a stern statement in response to the use of the Interior Ministry troops, accusing the Ukrainian government of embedding nationalist militants from the group Right Sector as well as private American mercenaries from a company called Greystone in its forces in the east. The Russian statement said the American contractors were being disguised as members of a Ukrainian military unit called Falcon.The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a stern statement in response to the use of the Interior Ministry troops, accusing the Ukrainian government of embedding nationalist militants from the group Right Sector as well as private American mercenaries from a company called Greystone in its forces in the east. The Russian statement said the American contractors were being disguised as members of a Ukrainian military unit called Falcon.
Academi, a private American security company affiliated with Greystone that was once known as Blackwater and became notorious for its military contracting work in Iraq, issued a statement in mid-March saying its employees were not working in Ukraine, after similar allegations surfaced in the Russian news media. The company did not immediately respond to the Foreign Ministry’s statement on Tuesday. Academi, a private American security company affiliated with Greystone, issued a statement in mid-March saying its employees were not working in Ukraine, after similar allegations surfaced in the Russian news media. The company did not immediately respond to the Foreign Ministry’s statement on Tuesday.
The ministry, which has repeatedly denounced the government in Kiev as the illegitimate product of a coup, warned against the use of military force in eastern Ukraine. “We call immediately for the halt of any military preparations, which risk the outbreak of civil war,” it said in its statement.The ministry, which has repeatedly denounced the government in Kiev as the illegitimate product of a coup, warned against the use of military force in eastern Ukraine. “We call immediately for the halt of any military preparations, which risk the outbreak of civil war,” it said in its statement.
In Moscow, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Tuesday that Russia would seek multinational talks on the Ukrainian political crisis that could involve the United States, the European Union and “all the political forces in Ukraine,” which should include representatives of the southeastern region around Donetsk and Lugansk. Pro-Russian demonstrators seized government buildings Sunday evening in several eastern cities, including Kharkiv, Donetsk and Lugansk, posing a thorny challenge for the authorities in Kiev, who wrested power from the former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, using similar tactics. Russian armed forces are deployed along the border nearby, and the Kremlin has warned that it is prepared to intervene again in Ukraine to protect the many ethnic Russians who live there, as it had in Crimea in the south.
“The result, of course, should be constitutional reform,” Mr. Lavrov told reporters after a meeting with the foreign minister of Angola. Provoking such an attack is evidently the fervent wish of the pro-Russian activists here, who on Monday declared the formation of an independent People’s Republic of Donetsk and waved Russian flags and the black, red and blue standard of their newly declared state, which even Moscow has shown no inclination to recognize.
Mr. Lavrov said that presidential candidates from Ukraine’s major political parties should be invited to take part, presumably including the Party of Regions of the former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. “We are deeply convinced, and this conviction has not been refuted by anyone so far, that it is impossible to calm down the situation and turn it onto the path of national dialogue if Ukrainian authorities continue ignoring interests of the southeast regions of the country,” Mr. Lavrov said. Between blasts of Soviet martial music dating from World War II, they pleaded with a crowd of predominantly elderly supporters gathered in a square below to resist any move by Ukrainian authorities to retake the building and snuff out their quirky new state. No weapons were visible but a security adviser to the Ukrainian government said around 30 Kalashnikov rifles and a number of grenades had been seized by protesters who briefly took control of the Donetsk headquarters of Ukraine’s state security service. Ukrainian Interior Ministry troops seized back the security agency building late Monday.
Mr. Avakov, the acting Ukrainian interior minister, portrayed the expulsion of the protesters in Kharkiv as a victory. “We, the new team in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, choose to guard the integrity and independence of Ukraine,” he wrote on Facebook. “Glory to Ukraine.” “Comrades, beware of provocateurs and get ready to defend yourselves from the fascists,” a middle-aged man in an orange hard hat screamed through a loud hailer, echoing Russia’s line that Ukraine has fallen to neo-Nazi extremists following the flight of president Viktor F. Yanukovych on February 21.
The seizures of government buildings in the east present a particular public relations challenge for the government, because its supporters used similar tactics in the capital to drive Mr. Yanukovych from office. Bands of pro-Russia youths, however, mimicked the tactics of the pro-Europe protest movement that led to Mr. Yanukovch’s departure. As rumors spread of an impending crackdown, they formed self-defense teams armed with clubs and metal rods, dug up paving stones to hurl at troops in the event of a government attack and piled rubber tires and sand bags around the entrance of the occupied multi-story regional administration building.
The pro-Russian demonstrators appeared to be trying to replicate some of the events that led to the Russian occupation and annexation of Crimea. Activists in Donetsk declared on Monday that they were forming an independent republic and urged President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to send troops to the region; others have called for a secession referendum like the one conducted in Crimea. There were no immediate indication that the Kremlin was receptive to those moves. “This is our land, Russian land,” said Oleg Shifkemenko, waving a flag emblazoned with the word, Rus, an ancient Slavic people celebrated by Russian nationalists. “Russians built the roads here, the railways, the factories. We built everything and it is ours, forever.” Despite his Ukrainian name, he described himself as a “proud Russian.”
The Ukrainian authorities were able to retake control of the headquarters of the security services in Donetsk, but remained in a standoff with the demonstrators occupying the regional administration building. Several thousand people remained on the streets there Tuesday morning. But like many others involved in the unrest, Mr. Shifkemenko expressed uncertainty over whether the objective is to protect the so-called Republic of Donetsk, to merge Donetsk with Russia or to simply gain more autonomy for the region.
Though the protests in eastern Ukraine are widely regarded as political theater that is supported, if not directed, by the Kremlin, and not a genuine groundswell of separatist feeling, they could still advance what analysts say is Russia’s main goal: destabilizing the shaky government in Kiev and keeping it from drifting further into the West’s orbit. Ukrainian security experts said the pro-Russia camp in Donetsk was bitterly divided over its goals and scoffed at its attempt to seize power. “They have no clear idea of what they want. It is a nonsense, a dangerous nonsense,” Nikolai Yakubovich, an adviser to the Interior Ministry in Kiev, said. He said negotiations had started between Donetsk protest leaders and the authorities but had been hampered by in-fighting between rival pro-Russia factions over their aims.
Secretary of State John Kerry told Mr. Lavrov in a phone call on Monday that there would be “further costs” if Russia took additional steps to destabilize Ukraine, the State Department said. Mr. Kerry said in the call that the United States was monitoring events in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Lugansk and Mariupol with growing concern and did not believe they were a “spontaneous set of events,” according to Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman."He noted in particular the recent arrests of Russian intelligence operatives working in Ukraine,” Ms. Psaki said. As part of its efforts to regain control, the government in Kiev flew anti-terrorist forces to Donetsk airport on Tuesday and vowed to prevent eastern Ukraine going the same way as Crimea, where pro-Russia demonstrations paved the way for a formal annexation by Moscow.
The Kremlin has denied any role in the protests in the east. Even so, government-controlled television stations in Russia devoted extensive live coverage to the events in Donetsk on Monday, including the protesters’ declaration of a “sovereign state of the Donetsk People’s Republic.” There were few signs that the declaration was attracting anything like the strong popular support seen in Crimea for separatist moves there last month. Mr. Yakubovich, the government adviser, said authorities would hold off on trying to storm the occupied administration building and focus instead on undermining the resolve of those inside by making clear that they face criminal charges carrying sentences of up to 15 years if they persist in their actions. “We have people working to let them know that this is very serious,” he said.
Unlike the pro-Europe protest movement in Kiev’s Independence Square, the stirrings in Donetsk have so far attracted little support from the middle class and seem dominated by pensioners nostalgic for the Soviet Union and angry, and often drunk, young men.
“They used to sit at home and play games on the computer. But now they are here playing for real,” said a 27-year-old company manager who gave his name only as Oleg. He said he had not supported the protests in Kiev against Mr. Yanukovych but also did not support what he described as the “pointless disorder” now unfolding in Donetsk and other eastern cities.
The lack of widespread public support makes the government’s task easier but any crackdown that results in serious bloodshed would probably widen the appeal of the protesters in a region that is almost entirely Russian-speaking and has little liking for leaders in Kiev, who mostly speak Ukrainian.