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Ukraine Rebels Push Toward Strategic Southeast Seaport Ukraine Rebels Push Toward Strategic Southeast Seaport
(about 4 hours later)
NOVOAZOVSK, Ukraine — Backed by Russian troops and weaponry, hundreds of Ukrainian rebel militiamen mobilized on Friday in this southeastern town, vacated by the Ukrainian military two days ago, and began to push toward the strategic seaport of Mariupol 27 miles away. The leader of the rebels called the advance a broad new effort to wrest control of a wide swath of coastal territory from the central government. MOSCOW — As Russian-backed rebels entrenched themselves in a newly captured, strategically located town in southeast Ukraine on Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin bluntly strengthened Moscow’s hard-line position that the government in Kiev must be compelled to negotiate regional autonomy.
The militiamen flew the flag of “Novorossiya,” or New Russia, a reference to Russia’s historical claims over the southeastern area of Ukraine that encompasses the rebellious Donetsk and Luhansk regions under siege by the Ukrainian Army, as well as vast territories elsewhere in southern Ukraine. Abandoning his more frequent conciliatory stance, Mr. Putin issued a rare, open, congratulatory message to the insurgents. They had “achieved a major success in intercepting Kiev’s military operation,” he said on his website.
Their thrust toward Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov, was the most prominent evidence that the insurgency in eastern Ukraine bordering Russia has been given a new infusion of vitality by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Behind the message, and the wider military operation, analysts saw several Kremlin goals. Most important, they said, is that Mr. Putin wants to force terms, first laid down in March, built around political changes in Ukraine that would weaken central government authority and ensure that the country cannot escape Moscow’s orbit — and certainly never join NATO or other important Western alliances. Second, but perhaps more urgent, Russia wanted to take the pressure off the increasingly beleaguered rebel forces in Luhansk and Donetsk, which were at risk of capture by government forces, hence robbing Moscow of important leverage.
It came as Mr. Putin directly addressed the insurgents for the first time on Friday in a message posted on his website titled “The President of Russia Vladimir Putin Addresses the Novorossiya Militia,” pointedly using the reference to an area broader than the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Third, there was the possibility that Russia was trying to establish a land route to Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula seized in March. Analysts noted, though, that such a possibility would mean a notable shift in policy — never easy to assess given the opaque statements from the Kremlin.
The developments offered new insights into the strategy of Mr. Putin, who has supported the rebels in defiance of the United States and its Western allies as part of a broader effort to keep Ukraine within Russia’s sphere of influence. “Russia in the end would like negotiations, but negotiations that would conclude with serious concessions from Ukraine,” said Aleksei V. Makarkin, an analyst at the Center for Political Technologies in Moscow.
The rebel advance along the southeast coast suggested that Mr. Putin may be laying the basis for a more independent eastern Ukraine beyond the borders of Luhansk and Donetsk, or for creating an overland route from Russia to Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed five months ago. Given that Ukraine has shown no willingness to negotiate, the Kremlin raised the pressure by increasing its support for the breakaway republics in southeastern Ukraine, he said.
Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of increasingly brazen military aggression, sending troops, tanks and other weapons across the border to support the rebels. The Kremlin has denied the accusations and asserted that any Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are volunteers on vacation. “Russia is investing very large resources into these republics, resources of various kinds, with the understanding that Ukraine will have to yield and come to an agreement with Russia on Russia’s terms,” Mr. Makarkin said.
A takeover of Mariupol, an industrial city of 450,000, would go a long way toward helping the separatists gain control over land that would connect Russia to Crimea, along a path starting here at this border town. Mr. Putin, in separate remarks at a nationally televised question-and-answer session with student supporters at a resort northeast of Moscow, accused Ukraine of stalling for time, hoping to control the rebels rather than talk to them.
Along a road littered with felled tree limbs from tank battles, pro-Russian soldiers waved journalists past checkpoints and behind their lines here for the first time on Friday, offering a glimpse at the composition of their weaponry and the insignia on uniforms, which were all the flag of Novorossiya. “We need to make the Ukrainian authorities start negotiations of real substance,” he said, with the main priority to guarantee the rights of people in the southeastern Donbass region bordering Russia. “But the problem is that they don’t really want to talk.”
The military commandant of the town, who offered only his nickname, Svet, said the soldiers here were with the Army of Novorossiya, rather than either of the main separatist groups, the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. Instead, Mr. Putin said, “The Ukrainian Army has surrounded small towns and big cities and is firing directly at residential areas in order to destroy infrastructure and crush the will to resist.”
The political wing of the armed group that opened the new front here, he said, was the Parliament of Novorossiya, formed in June with representatives from Luhansk and Donetsk but open to any of the eight Ukrainian provinces claimed as Novorossiya. Russian troops and weaponry were creating momentum for a counteroffensive along a significant new front that threatened Mariupol, a key southeastern seaport and one of the region’s biggest cities with nearly half a million residents.
“Now we are fighting for all of southeastern Ukraine, for Novorossiya, which was historically a Russian province,” said Svet, interviewed outside an auto repair shop where he had set up a command post. In the town of Novoazovsk, Ukrainian militiamen manned checkpoints. But evidence of a Russian presence was abundant, including unmarked Russian military vehicles with no license plates. A soldier on a truck greeted journalists by shouting in English: “Back in the U.S.S.R.!”
While local pro-Russian militiamen manned checkpoints, evidence of a Russian presence was abundant, including unmarked Russian military vehicles with no license plates, and green plastic wrappers from Russian military rations. A soldier on a tank greeting arriving journalists shouted in English: “Back in the U.S.S.R.!” A cashier at a Novoazovsk grocery store said Russian soldiers had bought sausages and cigarettes. Asked how she knew they were Russian, the cashier, who identified herself as Olga, snapped: “You think I’ve only lived one day?”
A woman cashier at a Novoazovsk grocery store said Russian soldiers had purchased sausages and cigarettes on the first day the town was seized, but had since handed over patrol duties to pro-Russian Ukrainian fighters. Asked how she knew they were Russian soldiers, the woman, who identified herself as Olga, snapped: “You think I’ve only lived one day?” The military commandant of the town, who offered only his nickname, Svet, said the soldiers there were with the Army of Novorossiya, rather than either of the main separatist groups, the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics.
In his statement addressed to the separatists, Mr. Putin asked the fighters of Novorossiya to open a humanitarian corridor to allow a large grouping of Ukrainian soldiers trapped behind the lines of the new advance to retreat to the west. Aleksandr Zakharchenko, a rebel leader who said on Thursday that more than 3,000 Russians, including active soldiers on leave, had fought among the separatists, quickly agreed to Mr. Putin’s proposal. Conditions included the surrender of all heavy armaments and ammunition. The militiamen flew the flag of “Novorossiya” or New Russia, a reference to Russia’s historical claims over the area in southeast Ukraine that encompasses the rebellious Donetsk and Luhansk regions along with much of southern Ukraine.
Mr. Putin and his subordinates have sought to frame the Ukraine insurgency as a struggle by the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine against an oppressive central government that is backed by neo-Nazi and other fascist elements. In remarks to students in Russia on Friday, Mr. Putin said the Ukrainian Army’s shelling of cities in that country’s southeast reminded him of the Nazi siege of Leningrad — one of the darkest and most emotional touchstones of recent Russian history. Mr. Putin said the government in Kiev was trying to destroy the will of the people who resist. In his statement on the Kremlin website, Mr. Putin referred to the “Novorossiya Militia,” pointedly using the reference to the broader area.
Scrambling to counter Russia and align itself even more with the West, the Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, announced on Friday that a bill had been introduced in Parliament to cancel Ukraine’s status as a nonaligned country and to “restore its aspirations to become a NATO member.” “Now we are fighting for all of southeastern Ukraine, for Novorossiya, which was historically a Russian province,” said Svet, interviewed outside an auto repair shop he had set up as a command post. “We plan to take Mariupol.”
“This law also reaffirms the main political goal of Ukraine — to become a member of the European Union,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said on his Facebook page. Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of increasingly brazen military aggression, sending troops, tanks and other weapons across the border to support the Ukraine rebels. The Kremlin has denied the accusations and a top rebel leader asserted that any Russian active duty soldiers fighting in Ukraine are volunteers on vacation.
In a new sign of Russia’s economic isolation over the Ukraine crisis, it cost more than 37 rubles to buy a dollar on Friday morning, the weakest exchange rate for the Russian currency since the years of hyperinflation in the 1990s. With NATO and Western governments accusing Russia on Thursday of having well over 1,000 active troops in Ukraine, it seemed unlikely that Mr. Putin’s congratulatory statement to the separatists would assuage anger toward him. A takeover of Mariupol would go a long way toward helping the separatists gain control over land that would connect Russia to Crimea. Russia lacks a land link to the peninsula, and the ferry route farther south has become a major bottleneck.
On Friday, the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, offered the alliance’s support for Kiev and condemned what he called a “serious escalation of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.” He was speaking after ambassadors of the 28-nation alliance met at its headquarters in Brussels, first to discuss the Ukraine crisis among themselves and then to hold talks with representatives of the government in Kiev. But analysts said that would mean occupying a lot of Ukrainian territory where there is little pro-Russian sentiment, possibly forcing a costly, bloody occupation of the type Mr. Putin has thus far sought to avoid. Separatists were chased out of Mariupol earlier this year.
“Despite Moscow’s hollow denials, it is now clear that Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and southeastern Ukraine,” Mr. Rasmussen said in a statement. “This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilize Ukraine as a sovereign nation.” Journalists who visited the city on Friday saw Ukrainian workers digging trenches with backhoes and building defensive positions in anticipation of an assault. Civilian residents, household belongings piled into their cars, were leaving.
NATO leaders are to meet in Wales next week and Mr. Rasmussen said the alliance would assure the Ukrainian president, Petro O. Poroshenko, of NATO’s “unwavering support for Ukraine.” On the other hand, the specter of a wider war might help President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine convince citizens that some compromise with Russia is necessary. It is a step bitterly opposed by many in Ukraine.
Outside Mariupol, yellow construction backhoes dug trenches as the regrouping Ninth Battalion of the Ukrainian Army, recently evicted from Novoazovsk, prepared to defend the city with whatever was at hand. Along with the army soldiers, national guardsmen and volunteers in the Dnepr-1 paramilitary group, who travel in pickup trucks, were at the checkpoints. A few hundred people gathered for a pro-Ukrainian demonstration, holding signs saying “Mariupol is Ukraine.” Civilian residents, household belongings piled into their cars, were leaving. But the initial reaction from Ukraine on Friday was to try to align the country more with the West. The Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, announced a new bill to cancel Ukraine’s status as a nonaligned country and “restore its aspirations to become a NATO member” as well as to join the European Union.
The proposal was considered unlikely to advance, as NATO cannot accept new members with disputed borders.
Analysts suggested that the move was a blunder by the government in Kiev, similar to its attempts to ban Russian as an official language after toppling the elected president in February. Both developments fed Moscow’s fears that the West is manipulating events in Ukraine to create a threat on Russia’s doorstep.
In one conciliatory gesture, Mr. Putin suggested in his statement that the militia groups open a humanitarian corridor to allow surrounded Ukrainian soldiers to escape and to avoid further loss of life. Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the rebel leader who said on Thursday that more than 3,000 Russians, including active soldiers on leave, had fought among the separatists, quickly agreed to Mr. Putin’s proposal. But he said the Ukrainians would have to abandon their weapons.
Ukraine rejected the proposal and said no such corridors had been established. “Combat is going on there with an aim to kill,” said Col. Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman for the Ukrainian national security council. The flurry of heightened military activity and threat of wider violence prompted renewed calls from the West for stronger economic sanctions that put new pressure on the ruble. It cost more than 37 rubles to buy a dollar on Friday, compared to about 32 rubles before the crisis began.
The three rounds of sanctions imposed so far have yet to notably alter Mr. Putin’s conduct in Ukraine, however, despite the economic problems they are causing.
If Mr. Putin does not get what Russia wants via negotiations, he is likely to maintain a low-level conflict in eastern Ukraine for some time, analysts suggested. It is a pattern established in other countries like Georgia and Moldova that have sought close alliances with the West.
“The Ukrainians behaved much tougher than Mr. Putin anticipated, but we know that Putin never retreats,” said Alexander M. Golts, an independent analyst.