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Russia to Start Drills, Warning Ukraine Over Mobilization Russia to Start Drills, Warning Ukraine Over Mobilization
(about 1 hour later)
MOSCOW — Russia announced on Thursday that it was immediately starting military drills involving its army and air force along the border with Ukraine, harshly criticizing the government there for moving against pro-Russian forces occupying various government buildings in a show of force that left a still-undetermined number of people killed and wounded. SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Defying warnings from Moscow not to confront pro-Russian militants entrenched in towns across eastern Ukraine, government forces on Thursday revived a stalled operation to regain control by force but had little to show for their efforts other than Russian military drills on Ukraine’s border and heightened alarm about Moscow’s next move.
The military maneuvers, along with pointed criticism of the Ukrainian government by President Vladimir V. Putin and other senior officials, was sure to deepen the crisis with the West as Moscow vies with Washington and its European allies over who will influence the future of Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly denied having a hand in the unrest convulsing eastern Ukraine or any intention to invade. But an announcement Thursday by Moscow that it would immediately start military maneuvers along the border with Ukraine, and a threat by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, of unspecified consequences for Ukraine as a result of what he called a “serious crime,” signaled a combustible new phase in a geopolitical battle set off by the overthrow of Ukraine’s government in February.
“If, in fact, the Kiev regime has started to use the armed forces against people inside the country, then, with no doubt, it is a serious crime against their own nation,” Mr. Putin said at a forum for regional reporters and media figures that was broadcast live on Rossiya 24 television. The day’s events also buried already feeble hopes that a deal reached last Thursday in Geneva by diplomats from the European Union, Russia, Ukraine and the United States might calm a crisis that has stirred fears of a wider conflict over control of Ukraine, a nation of 46 million that straddles a volatile fault line between Europe and Russia.
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia again on Thursday night that it would face additional economic sanctions if the Kremlin failed to carry out an agreement that was reached last week in Geneva to ease tensions on Ukraine. In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia on Thursday night that it would face additional economic sanctions if it failed to carry out that agreement. “The window to change course is closing,” he said. Sanctions could be announced as soon as Friday if the Russians do not respond, said one senior administration official who asked not to be identified while discussing internal planning.
“For seven days Russia has refused to take a single concrete step in the right direction,” Mr. Kerry said in an appearance in the State Department briefing room. In his most detailed accusation of Russian interference to date, Mr. Kerry said that American intelligence services had concluded that Russia’s “military intelligence services and special operators are playing an active role in destabilizing eastern Ukraine.” 
“If Russia continues in this direction it will not just be a grave mistake it will be an expensive mistake,” he added. “The window to change course is closing.” “Some of the individual Special Operations personnel who were active on Russia’s behalf in Chechnya, Georgia and Crimea have been photographed in Slovyansk, Donetsk and Luhansk,” Mr. Kerry said. “Some are even bragging about it by themselves on their Russian social media sites.”
President Obama and other Western leaders have repeatedly demanded that Russia pull back its 40,000 troops deployed along the border and exert its influence on pro-Russian militants occupying government buildings in eastern Ukraine to get them to withdraw. Vyachislav Ponomaryov, the de facto mayor of Slovyansk, who was installed by pro-Russian militants, said Tuesday that armed men had come to his town from outside Ukraine but insisted they were friends and volunteers, not Russian Special Forces.
Echoing that, Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Thursday that Russia not only threatens his country militarily but “coordinates and openly supports armed killers-terrorists in eastern Ukraine.” While the United States and its allies cheered the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, who fled Kiev on Feb. 21 and is now sheltering in Russia, Moscow deplored his removal as an armed putsch led by fascists.
He called on Russia to withdraw its forces and to stop interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs. President Obama and other Western leaders have repeatedly demanded that Russia halt all support for the rebels, exert its influence to get them to leave occupied government buildings in Slovyansk and other towns and pull back its 40,000 troops deployed along the border.
But on Thursday, Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that troops in southern and western Russia, the areas surrounding Ukraine, as well as the air force, would begin drills. That would include flights along the border, Mr. Shoigu said at a meeting of Russia’s top military council. The agreement reached last week called for armed pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine to surrender the government buildings. On Thursday Sergei K. Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said drills would begin immediately involving troops in southern and western Russia, the areas surrounding Ukraine. The drills, which would also involve the air force, will include flights along the border, Mr. Shoigu said at a meeting of Russia’s top military council.
“We have to react to such developments,” he said of the Ukrainian attacks. “We have to react to such developments,” he said of the Ukrainian attacks, declaring that Russia had a duty to stop “this military machine.”
Mr. Kerry said that American intelligence agencies had established that Russian intelligence agents and special forces have been actively involved in financing, coordinating and arming pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. However, the most violent Ukrainian operation on Thursday, against checkpoints north of Slovyansk, a small eastern city, raised fresh questions about the competence of Ukraine’s forces and the interim government’s thinking.
“The world knows that peaceful protesters don’t come armed with grenade launchers,” said Mr. Kerry, who did not take questions. With armored vehicles and helicopter support, Ukrainian troops attacked crudely built checkpoints on a narrow access road. After a brief round of fighting, the forces — which the government said were a mix of regular infantry and Interior Ministry troops — withdrew, leaving rubble and burning tires behind.
The United States reached an agreement last week with Russia, Ukraine and the European Union that called for armed pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine to surrender the government buildings they have occupied. It also specified other steps to defuse the crisis. The Ukrainian news media reported late Thursday that the government had decided to suspend its fitful “antiterrorist operation” against the separatists, with The Kyiv Post quoting an unidentified official as saying this was because the risk of Russia’s invading had “grown sharply.” The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, according to local news media, demanded that Russia explain the purpose of its military exercises within 48 hours.
“All illegal armed groups must be disarmed,” the joint statement said. “All illegally seized buildings must be returned to legitimate owners; all illegally occupied streets, squares and other public places in Ukrainian cities and towns must be vacated.” Russia’s seizing of Crimea has for weeks fueled debate about whether Russian forces might again take advantage of the weakness of Ukraine’s military and roll across the border to seize more territory. Western diplomats and other analysts speculated until recently that Mr. Putin had perhaps not decided.
Ukraine, Mr. Kerry said, has been taking steps to carry out the agreement. But a series of harsh warnings from Moscow over the past week against the use of force by Ukraine to dislodge separatist militants has added to worries that Russia may be preparing the ground for a military intervention to “protect” ethnic Russians and Russian speakers it says are in danger.
When the agreement was announced in Geneva on April 17, Mr. Kerry stressed that Russia would face sanctions if it did not move to carry out the accord in the "next days." Mr. Kerry delivered a similar warning to Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia in a Tuesday phone call. Mr. Putin drew a direct parallel between events in Crimea and eastern Ukraine on Thursday and spoke of the value of swift action.
An American journalist who was detained in Slovyansk, Ukraine, earlier this week was released on Thursday, his employer VICE News reported. The reporter, Simon Ostrovsky, was seized by the pro-Russian militants in control of the government there, apparently because they disagreed with the tenor of his reporting. “What we can see in Ukraine’s east, undoubtedly, would have happened in Crimea, had we not taken certain timely measures to protect the interests of the people in Crimea,” he said.
The announcement about the Russian military drills came hours after Ukrainian forces began to move into eastern cities that have been controlled by militants for weeks. With relations between Moscow and the West at their most distrustful and tense since the height of the Cold War, Russia’s defense minister, Mr. Shoigu cited not only the unrest in Ukraine in his announcement of military drills but also NATO’s planned exercises in Poland and the Baltic States.
Ukrainian forces were reported to have engaged pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country in what appeared to be a limited action. There were no confirmed reports of casualties, but the Ukrainian government said five separatists had been killed. Several people claiming to have witnessed the fighting put the number at one to three. Ukrainian officials teetered between declarations of determination to purge rebels from the east and alarm that Moscow might try to protect its separatist proxies with a military push across the border.
Appearing at a news conference late Thursday, the self-appointed mayor of Slovyansk said that one pro-Russian separatist had been killed, and one wounded. The Ukrainian forces appeared largely unscathed. Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, accusing Moscow of coordinating and supporting “armed killer-terrorists” responsible for attacks since April 6 on government premises in at least 10 towns, said in a statement that “we will not yield to the threat of terrorism and will continue to take measures to protect the life of our citizens.”
The Ukrainian interim authorities also said Thursday that “civilian activists” had regained control of City Hall in the southeastern city of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, forcing pro-Russian protesters to leave without bloodshed. There was no independent corroboration of the account, published by Arsen B. Avakov, the interior minister, on Facebook. News reports offered a different version of the events, saying that the building had been stormed by masked men who used baseball bats to beat the occupiers. The Ukrainian authorities said that up to five pro-Russian activists had been killed in fighting near Slovyansk. Mr. Ponomaryov, however, said that one pro-Russian separatist had been killed and one wounded. He identified the dead man as Aleksandr V. Lubenets, in his early 20s, and said the Ukrainian assault had involved as many as 150 troops and had been stopped in part by a minefield that separatists had laid.
In announcing the military drills, Mr. Shoigu complained about NATO exercises in Poland and the Baltics, where American troops have deployed as part of alliance maneuvers called in reaction to earlier Russian threats to intervene militarily in Ukraine. That account of the assault could not be independently verified, and one separatist who claimed to have participated in the fighting said he saw three of his colleagues killed. But whatever the number of dead, it was clear after the shooting stopped that the Ukrainian operation had achieved little tactical effect.
“The starting gun on the use of weapons against their own civilians has already been fired,” Mr. Shoigu said, according to the Interfax news service. “If today this military machine is not stopped, it will lead to a large number of the dead and wounded.” It did not change the disposition of forces, and rather than show the Ukrainian government’s strength, it appeared to have fanned local tensions and invited the ominous Kremlin reaction — further exposing the government’s precarious position.
Russia’s seizure of Crimea in March has fueled debate for weeks about whether Russian forces would roll across the land border with Ukraine to seize more territory, with Western diplomats and other analysts speculating that Mr. Putin had not made up his mind. He probably wants to avoid the financial cost and possible casualties involved, they said, as well as significant new Western sanctions. But having cast himself as the protector of Russians in Ukraine, he may well be pushed to move if there are significant casualties there. By midafternoon the separatists still firmly controlled this city, and Mr. Ponomaryov claimed to have 2,500 armed men at his disposal. More successful, according to the Ukrainian authorities, was a parallel operation Thursday in southeastern Mariupol. Ukraine’s interim interior minister said early Thursday that “civilian activists” had regained control of Mariupol’s City Hall and forced pro-Russian protesters to leave without bloodshed.
Analysts believe Moscow wants to hold sway over the future of Ukraine either by a president of its choosing or by forcing through a constitution that would allow for federalization — keeping the eastern regions in Moscow’s orbit, which would help torpedo any attempts from the capital to draw closer to Europe. News reports offered a different version of the events, saying that the building had been stormed by masked men who used baseball bats to beat the occupiers.
At the very least, the military maneuvers announced Thursday, following a similar round after the crisis erupted two months ago, ratchet up the intimidation factor on Ukraine by putting Russian troops visibly on the move. It was unclear from the initial announcement how many soldiers would be involved in the maneuvers. A small contingent of Ukrainian forces also swept into Artemivsk, where one of the world’s largest known depots of infantry arms has been stored in former mine shafts since Soviet times.
For his part, Mr. Putin referred to the interim leadership in Kiev as a “junta” and said Ukraine’s decision to move against pro-Russian separatists was “just a punitive operation” that would have consequences, including on “intergovernmental relations” between Moscow and Kiev. The city was quiet in the evening, and it was not clear what effect the Ukrainian troop movements had had, or who would control the weapons amid the new military developments.
The defense minister made it sound as if Ukraine had deployed significant force, though his account differed from reports from the scene of the fighting. In another development, separatists in Slovyansk released Simon Ostrovsky, an American journalist working for Vice News who had been held since Monday.
“Civilians are being attacked by national guard units as well as by battalions of extremists from Right Sector,” said Mr. Shoigu, according to the government-run RIA Novosti news agency. Russia often blames Right Sector, a right-wing nationalist group that is aggressively anti-Russian, of fomenting violence. “Vice News is delighted to confirm that our colleague and friend Simon Ostrovsky has been safely released and is in good health,” a spokesman for the company said.
He put the number of Ukrainian forces deployed at more than 11,000, with 160 tanks, 230 infantry vehicles and at least 150 artillery pieces.
Within Slovyansk, a separatist stronghold, there were few signs of imminent attack, even as some members of the militia described taking part in clashes with a column of armored government vehicles. Outside of the captured office of the mayor in the center of the city, several militia members in face masks claimed the army had initiated the raid but said the government troops had been beaten off after reinforcements had arrived. That information could not be immediately verified.
One man in camouflage loading supplies from the mayor’s office into a silver sedan said he had taken part in the fighting and had seen three members of his militia killed and three injured. He declined to give more details before speeding off.
The crisis in Ukraine erupted last fall after the government, under the influence of Mr. Putin, pulled back from signing an association agreement with the European Union. Moscow precipitated an international crisis in March when, reacting to the fall of the government in Kiev, it seized Crimea.
Russia maintains that it was forced to intervene in Crimea, and ultimately to annex the peninsula, because of a threat to the safety of Russians living there. No such incidents were confirmed by outside observers, but on Thursday Mr. Putin said, “What we can see in Ukraine’s east, undoubtedly, would have happened in Crimea, had we not taken certain timely measures to protect the interests of the people in Crimea.”
His spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters with the president that the violence in eastern Ukraine called into question the viability of Ukrainian presidential elections called for May 25.
The announcement of the Russian military maneuvers was accompanied by a flurry of other tense diplomatic statements.
Russia’s representative to NATO demanded that the Western alliance pressure the Ukrainian government in Kiev to cease military operations against the pro-Russian separatists in Slovyansk, Mariupol, Donetsk and other cities in eastern Ukraine.
The representative, Aleksandr V. Grushko, said, “NATO should urge the authorities in Kiev to immediately stop the military operation in the southeast of the country and fulfill the Geneva document,” the Russian mission to NATO wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Russia’s representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Andrey Kelin, derided the plans for the presidential election in Ukraine, saying a fair vote could not take place amid chaos.
“This cannot be called a campaign,” Mr. Kelin said, according to Interfax. ‘This is an attempt to hold elections amid chaos and continuing a domestic conflict. We do not see an evident useful result in holding the elections.”