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Ukraine Forces and Pro-Russian Militants Battle Over Local Police Station Ukraine Forces and Pro-Russian Militants Battle Over Local Police Station
(about 5 hours later)
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian special forces moved in Sunday to confront a separatist revolt in eastern Ukraine, engaging in gunfights with armed pro-Russian militants who had stormed a Ukrainian police station here. At least one officer died in the operation and several others were injured, along with four local residents, Ukrainian officials said. SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The Ukrainian government on Sunday for the first time sent in its security services to confront armed pro-Russian militants in the country’s east, defying warnings from Russia as commandos engaged in gunfights with men who had set up roadblocks and stormed a Ukrainian police station in Slovyansk, Ukrainian officials said.
The police station was one of several security centers in the eastern region of Donetsk seized on Saturday by unidentified masked gunmen in a series of coordinated raids that Ukrainian authorities denounced as Russian “aggression.” At least one officer was killed in the operation, and several were injured, as were four locals, the officials said. Russian news media and residents here disputed that account, saying the Ukrainian forces had only briefly engaged one checkpoint.
By Sunday afternoon, however, the Ukrainian government’s push to reassert its authority in a vitally important industrial and coal-mining region appeared to have made little headway. Pro-Russian protesters appeared to control not only the police station, but also the entire city of Slovyansk, having set up checkpoints at major streets leading into town. In either case, the central government in Kiev has turned to force to try to restore its authority in the east, a course of action that the Russian government has repeatedly warned against. With tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along Ukraine’s eastern border near Donetsk, Western leaders have worried that Moscow might use unrest in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking areas as a pretext for an invasion — even though the violence had been solely caused by the pro-Russian side.
Roman Svitan, a security adviser to the Ukrainian authorities in Donetsk, said the government’s “anti-terrorist operation” had been started early Sunday by Alfa, a special services unit of Ukraine’s State Security Service. He gave an upbeat assessment of its progress, claiming that Ukrainian forces had evicted gunmen from the Slovyansk Police Headquarters. He said the expelled gunmen were mostly local pro-Russian extremists but also included Russian operatives. Both governments intensified their statements on Sunday. Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksandr V. Turchinov, issued another ultimatum, saying separatists should vacate occupied buildings by Monday or face a “large-scale antiterrorist operation” that will include the Ukrainian military. And Russia claimed that the Ukrainian government was cracking down at the behest of American and European officials.
But local residents and men standing by barricades in Slovyansk denied that Ukrainian forces had recaptured the occupied police building or had even entered the town on Sunday. They said one local man was in a hospital with a wound from a shooting on a highway outside of town. Russian television quoted locals as saying that the Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector had attacked protesters. The police station contested by Ukrainian forces was one of several security centers in the eastern region of Donetsk seized on Saturday by masked gunmen in coordinated raids that the Ukrainian authorities denounced as Russian “aggression.”
Russian news media also disputed the Ukrainian government’s account of events, describing the raids on government buildings in Slovyansk and elsewhere on Saturday as the work of local self-defense units opposed to the “fascist” government that took power in Kiev after the Feb 21 flight of President Viktor F. Yanukovych. By Sunday afternoon, the government’s push to reassert its authority in a vitally important industrial and coal-mining region appeared to have made little headway. Pro-Russian protesters appeared to control not only the police station but the entire city of Slovyansk, having set up checkpoints at major streets leading into town.
Russian television quoted Slovyansk residents as saying that a local had been killed on the outskirts of Slovyansk during what they called an attack on pro-Russian protesters by armed militants of Right Sector. The protesters blocked a major highway in the east, and flags of Russia and their newly declared and unrecognized People’s Republic of Donetsk flew over administrative buildings in several other midsize towns. These included Mariupol, where protesters seized another building Sunday.
The current round of unrest in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine’s most populous region and a vitally important industrial and coal-mining center, began last Sunday in the regional capital when pro-Russian activists seized government headquarters and declared an independent state, the People’s Republic of Donetsk. Roman Svitan, a security adviser to the Ukrainian authorities in Donetsk, said the operation on Sunday was carried out by Alfa, a special services unit of Ukraine’s State Security Service. He gave an upbeat assessment of its progress, saying Ukrainian forces had evicted gunmen from the Slovyansk Police Headquarters, though protesters there said nothing of the sort had happened.
Ukrainian authorities vowed on Wednesday to end the occupation — by force if necessary — by Friday, but they later backed away from that threat in the hope that government promises of more local autonomy for Ukraine’s Russian-speaking regions might resolve the standoff. Mr. Svitan said that most of the expelled gunmen were local pro-Russian extremists but that they had also included Russian operatives.
The confrontations on Sunday, however, indicated that the central government in Kiev had now decided to try to restore its authority in the east by force, a course of action that Moscow has repeatedly warned against. With tens of thousands of Russian troops massed along Ukraine’s eastern border near Donetsk, the West worries that Moscow might use unrest in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking areas as a pretext for a military invasion. Residents and men standing by barricades in Slovyansk denied that Ukrainian forces had even entered the town on Sunday. They said one local man who had been out fishing was in a hospital with a wound from a shooting on a highway outside of town. Russian television and some locals said the Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector had attacked protesters at a checkpoint, injuring the fisherman.
The demands of pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine keep shifting between outright secession and greater autonomy within Ukraine. But calls for unity with Russia now seem to predominate, heightening concerns in the West that Moscow is orchestrating the disorder in preparation for a push across the border. Moscow has repeatedly denied having any plans to invade Ukraine. Requests to speak to a leader of the armed men produced a man wearing a ski mask who introduced himself as Aleksandr and described himself as a deputy commander of the city of Slovyansk after its merger with the People’s Republic of Donetsk.
Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, called an emergency meeting late Saturday of the country’s national security council to discuss the escalating crisis in country’s eastern portion. Fears that the government is losing control have been fueled by the militants’ seizure of a large number of weapons over the past week. About 300 automatic rifles were taken from the Donetsk offices of the state security service after they were taken over briefly by pro-Russian protesters last weekend. And, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 400 Makarov handguns and 20 automatic weapons were looted on Saturday from the police station in Slovyansk. He said Ukrainian armored personnel carriers had opened fire on a barrier made from a pile of tires on the edge of town but had wounded only the fisherman before driving away. “Our guys took cover, and the shooting stopped,” he said.
“The goal of the takeover was the guns,” the ministry said. Ukrainian helicopters buzzed the town around noon, but no soldiers were seen. At one barrier, pro-Russian protesters felled trees across a road into town, guarded by men in ski masks carrying military rifles.
In Washington, the White House expressed concern on Saturday at “the concerted campaign we see underway in eastern Ukraine today by pro-Russian separatists, apparently with support from Russia,” and warned Moscow not to intervene. It said Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. would travel to Kiev this week, in a show of the United States’ support and to consult with government officials. Russia’s Foreign Ministry issued a blistering denouncement of the Ukrainian government. In a statement on the ministry’s Facebook page, the Russian government accused the Kiev authorities of threatening violence “against anyone who does not agree with the nationalist-radicals, chauvinistic and anti-Semitic actions” in Kiev that, it said, were being carried out “with direct support from the United States and Europe.”
During a call with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on Saturday afternoon, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed strong concern that the day’s attacks by armed militants in eastern Ukraine had been orchestrated and synchronized, similar to previous attacks in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, a senior State Department official said. Militants were equipped with specialized Russian weapons and the same uniforms as those worn by the Russian forces that invaded Crimea. One protester who gave his name only as Ivan said the town had revolted because the new government in Kiev disregarded weeks of what he called peaceful protests demanding a referendum to secure greater local autonomy and establish Russian as a second official language. The authorities in Kiev offered both last week, but the effort did little to resolve the standoff.
The secretary of state made clear that if Russia did not take steps to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine and move its troops back from Ukraine’s border, there would be additional consequences. The current unrest in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine’s most populous region, began April 6 in the regional capital when pro-Russian activists seized government headquarters and declared a the People’s Republic of Donetsk.
In Moscow, Mr. Lavrov warned that any use of force against the pro-Russian activists would undermine talks meant to resolve the crisis and scheduled for April 17 in Geneva. The talks are to involve Russia, the European Union and the United States. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 400 Makarov handguns and 20 automatic weapons were looted on Saturday from the police station in Slovyansk. “The goal of the takeover was the guns,” the ministry said.
By early evening Sunday, the city was gripped by fear after two unexplained shootings of cars, and as men with guns set up improvised checkpoints. The men asserted they were locals, and nothing suggested otherwise: Some wore mismatched camouflage, but most were out in jeans and ski jackets. Some appeared to be drunk.
One of the cars that were shot, a silver Renault, had veered into a curb after it was struck, with three bullet holes on the driver’s side. Older women who had gathered nearby looked on in shock at this scene of mayhem and violence. They said the occupants had tumbled out and tried to run, but were then shot on the sidewalk. One person died and two were injured, these witnesses said.
In the other shooting, a bullet hit a taxicab, but nobody was hurt. The Ukrainian police said at least two people had been wounded in shootings in the city.