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件名：Pro-Russian gunmen seize more buildings in east Ukraine
日時：2014/04/12
媒体：AFP
引用：http://www.afp.com/en/node/2281848
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by ras rus
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AFP TEXT STORY:
Pro-Russian gunmen seize more buildings in east Ukraine
/ Slavyansk (Ukraine) - 12 April 2014 13:48 - AFP (Fran BLANDY) / WRAP - UPDATE
UPDATES with new building occupation, city mayor quote, Ukraine interior ministry statement
Kalashnikov-wielding gunmen on Saturday seized a police station and a security building in Ukraine's restive eastern industrial heartland amid spreading protests to press for the heavily Russified region to join Kremlin rule.
The coordinated attacks and a failed assault on the prosecutor's office in the local capital Donetsk underscored the volatility of the crisis ahead of peace talks between EU and US diplomats and their Moscow and Kiev counterparts in Geneva on Thursday.
Ukraine's interim leaders have been facing unceasing pressure from Russia since their February ouster of an unpopular Kremlin-backed president and decision to seek closer ties with the West.
Moscow has massed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's eastern border after annexing its Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and nearly doubled the rates it charges Kiev for gas.
Russia is now ready to demand prepayment from the cash-strapped government for future gas deliveries or halt supplies -- a cutoff that would impact at least 18 EU countries and add further urgency to the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.
But the raids more immediately highlight how little sway Kiev's untested leaders have over pro-Russians who have since April 6 controlled the Donetsk government seat and a state security building in the nearby eastern city of Lugansk.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visited the region on Friday in a failed bid to pacify protesters with a vague promise of more sweeping regional rights.
- 'Armed terrorists' -
The morning raid on the police station and a subsequent attack of the regional security service centre happened in Slavyansk -- a riverside town of 100,000 about 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of the regional capital Donetsk.
Ukraine's interior ministry said the first assault was led by 20 "armed men in camouflage fatigues" whose main purpose was to get a hold of 20 machineguns and 400 Makarov guns stored in the police headquarters "and to distribute them to protesters".
"Our response will be very severe," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his Facebook page.
It was not immediately clear how the local police responded or whether the gunmen had taken any hostages.
But Avakov said that Ukrainian special forces had been dispatched to the scene.
"There is zero tolerance for armed terrorists," he said.
An AFP reporter saw the Slavyansk police station being surrounded by armed men in masks and camouflage who had set up a barricade of old tyres and dumpsters in front of the police headquarters.
The gunmen aggressively shoved aside Western reporters and only allowed Russian-speaking media anywhere near the building.
"The entire city... will defend the guys who seized this building," Slavyansk Mayor Neli Shlepa told Russia's Life News television outside the police headquarters.
The interior ministry said some of the same gunmen had later occupied the city's state security service building.
"The protest participants are continuing to arm themselves with weapons seized from the police," the interior ministry said in a statement.
- Kiev blames Russian agents -
Ukraine's interior minister said that a separate group of assailants had also unsuccessfully tried to seize the Donetsk prosecutor's office
"They have all been expelled. The building has been cleared of unauthorised personnel," Avakov wrote.
"Another self-declared defence minister has been arrested," he added.
An AFP reporter saw a heavy police presence around the prosecutor's office and the building under apparent government control.
The Donetsk adminstration centre is now being held by gunmen who have proclaimed the creation of their own "people's republic" and called on President Vladimir Putin to send Russian troops into eastern Ukraine.
The interior minister had on Wednesday issued a veiled 48-hour ultimatum for the Donetsk separatists to lay down their arms or face the possible of use of force.
But no action followed and Russia warned on Friday that any use of force wound result in Moscow boycotting the Geneva talks.
Ukraine's embattled premier promised during an unannounced visit to Donetsk on Friday to grant more powers to the country's regions and protect the east's right to use the Russian language.
Kiev has previously said it was ready to back a partial devolution while stopping well short of creating the federation sought by Russia.
But his mediation failed, in part because the Donetsk and Lugansk gunmen also want to stage independence referendums coinciding with snap presidential polls Ukraine will stage on May 25.
Ukraine's new authorities reject that condition because a similar vote last month in Crimea led to the Black Sea peninsula's annexation by Russia.
Both Western leaders and Kiev have accused the Kremlin of orchestrating the unrest in order to justify a possible future invasion of eastern Ukraine -- a charge Moscow flatly denies.
Kiev said that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov by telephone on Saturday to "stop the provocative activities of Russian special services in the eastern regions of Ukraine."
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//memo
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