Ukrainian police swoop to clear pro-Russia protesters
Print Edition
UKRAINIAN police cleared pro-Moscow protesters from a regional administration building in a lightning night-time operation, but others held out in two more eastern cities yesterday in what Kiev says is a Russian-led plan to dismember the country.
Shots were fired, a grenade thrown and 70 people detained as officers ended the occupation in the city of Kharkiv during an 18-minute “anti-terrorism” action, the interior ministry said.
But elsewhere in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking industrial heartland, activists armed with Kalashnikovs and protected by barbed wire barricades vowed there was no going back on their demand — a vote on returning to Moscow rule.
In the city of Luhansk, a man dressed in camouflage told a crowd outside an occupied state security building: “We want a referendum on the status of Luhansk and we want Russian returned as an official language.”
He shouted: “We will not let fascism pass,” and led the crowd in chants of “Russia! Russia!”
Ukraine says the seizure of public buildings in eastern regions on Sunday night is a replay of events in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed last month after a referendum.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed Western accusations that Moscow was destabilizing Ukraine, saying the situation could improve only if Kiev took into account the interests of Russian-speaking regions.
But Britain expressed fears yesterday that Russia wanted to disrupt the run-up to presidential elections next month in Ukraine, which has been ruled by an interim government since the February overthrow of Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.
In Kiev, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov partly pinned responsibility for the Kharkiv occupation on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“All this was inspired and financed by the Putin-Yanukovych group,” he said.
An aide said police went in when the protesters failed to give themselves up and surrender their arms. Officers did not open fire, despite shooting and the grenade attack from the other side, he said. One police officer was badly wounded and others less seriously hurt.
A standoff continued in the mining centre of Donetsk, Yanukovych’s home base, where a group of pro-Russian deputies inside the main regional authority building declared a separatist republic on Monday.
Unlike Kharkiv, there was no sign that further police operations were imminent in the other two cities. Russia has warned Kiev against using force to end the occupations.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
