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Home News Global Security Western officials warn Moscow to stop destabilizing the Ukraine
Western officials warn Moscow to stop destabilizing the Ukraine PDF Print E-mail
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Global Security

NPSGlobal Foundation, 13 Apr 2014.

Top Western officials Sunday warned Moscow to stop taking actions to destabilize the Ukraine as Ukrainian security forces attempted to recapture a police station from pro-Russian activists in one of over a dozen cities with separatist protests, leaving several people dead and wounded.

Ukrainian interim president Olesandr Turchynov, in a nationwide address by television, accused Russia to be behind the uprisings in over a dozen cities in Eastern Ukraine. He said security forces would launch a full-scale campaign in all the zone Monday if separatists refuse to abandon public buildings.

"The blood of Ukrainian heroes has been shed in a war which the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine," he said, according to Reuters news agency. "The aggressor has not stopped and is continuing to sow disorder in the east of the country."

Ukrainian officials said the outbreak of rebellions in its eastern region, which borders with Russia, was inspired and directed by Moscow. They said an attempt by security forces to recapture state facilities at the city of Slaviansk from armed-militants had led to violent clashes.

The violence threatened to cause a major escalation of the crisis as the Kremlin has previously warned that it would take action to support the Russian speaking population of eastern Ukraine against attacks by Ukrainian security forces.

The European Union’s high representative, Catherine Ashton, urged Moscow to “call back its troops from the Ukainian border and to cease further actions aimed at destabilizing Ukraine.”

"I am gravely concerned about the surge of actions undertaken by armed individuals and separatist groups in various cities of eastern Ukraine, who have seized in the last 24 hours police stations and branches of the Ministry of Interior, and erected check points around the city of Slavyansk,” Ashton said in a special written statement."

U.S. envoy to the United Nations, Samantha Powers, said in an interview with ABC News that the uprisings bore “the tell-tale signs of Moscow’s involvement.”

News reports from Reuters and the BBC said the Kremlin had denied any involvement in the events in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov reported on his Facebook page that one Ukrainian state security officer was killed and five wounded in the “anti-terrorist” operation in the area of Slaviansk, approximately 150 km (90) miles from the Russian border. He said that about 1,000 people were supporting the separatists holding a local police headquarters and manning several barricades around the city.

Reuters reported that the Russian news agency RIA said that one pro-Russian activist had been killed in the city, and two others had been injured.

The BBC reported that actions by pro-Russian forces targeted cities including Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, Yenakiyevo, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Zaporizhya, Makiyivka, Donetsk, Mariupol, Luhansk, Kostriantynivka, Ilovaysk, Horlivka, Dobropillya and Artemivsk. It said that in Mariupol, near the Sea of Azov, pro-Russian demonstrators were erecting barricades around the town council, had occupied the mayor’s office and had taken down the Ukrainian flag from the mast in front of the building.

The uprisings in eastern Ukraine is part of an ongoing crisis unleashed when popular protests forced Ukrainian President Viktor Yanucovych from power, which was left in the hands of a pro-Western interim administration pending May 25th presidential elections.

Shortly after Yanucovych’s ouster, Moscow annexed Crimea from the Ukraine, justifying its action on a hastily scheduled referendum that was held after pro-Russian forces had occupied the region.

In recent weeks Russia has strengthened its military presence along its border with eastern Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia has amassed some 40,000 troops on the border, backed up by tanks, fighters, artillery and attack helicopters.

“If Russia is sincere about a dialogue, the first step should be to pull back the tens of thousands of troops it has deployed on Ukraine's border without any justification,” Rasmussen said. “Otherwise, any talks would not be a dialogue, but diktat.”

The NATO Secretary General said the Kremlin “annexed Crimea at the barrel of a gun, in breach of all its international commitments” and was now involved in a propaganda exercise to accuse NATO for an escalation of tension.

He urged Moscow to “de-escalate,” adding that a failure to do so would cause Russia to face “deeper international isolation” and make the world “more dangerous and unpredictable.”

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