SLAVYANSK: A deadly gunfight in a town in restive east Ukraine yesterday shattered a fragile Easter truce, with Russia declaring it was “outraged” at the return to violence in the crisis-hit former Soviet republic.
Three pro-Russian militants and one attacker were killed in a firefight at a roadblock close to the separatist-held town of Slavyansk, said a local pro-Kremlin rebel leader, Vyatcheslav Ponomarev.
Vladimir, a masked 20-year-old pro-Russian rebel who was at the barricade, said: “Four cars pulled up to our roadblock around 2200 GMT on Saturday. We wanted to conduct a check, and then they opened fire on us with automatic weapons.” He said there were around 20 attackers, and confirmed the three rebel deaths, but was not sure of casualties on the other side. Witnesses saw the bodies of two dead militants laid out in a truck near the scene.
The identity of the assailants, who escaped before militant reinforcements arrived, was not known. The Ukrainian interior ministry confirmed there was an “armed clash” but gave a toll of one dead and three injured. It said police were investigating.
The gunfight broke days of relative calm. Western-backed authorities in Kiev had announced they were suspending military operations to oust the rebels over Easter, which ends today. The last deadly clash was last Thursday, when three pro-Russian militants were killed by Ukrainian soldiers when they tried to attack a military base in the southeast port city of Mariupol.
Russia’s foreign ministry quickly seized upon the latest violence, saying in a statement that Moscow was “outraged at this provocation by the fighters”.
It urged Kiev to abide by an accord signed in Geneva on Thursday by Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union calling for “illegal armed groups” to lay down their weapons and end the occupation of public sites.
Moscow blamed yesterday’s deaths of those it called “innocent civilians” on the Right Sector, an extreme-right group that was at the vanguard of protests that ousted Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych in February. Locals, it said, had found the attackers’ cars containing weapons, satellite maps and Right Sector business cards.
But a Right Sector spokesman in Kiev dismissed the charge as “propaganda” and “lies”. “This is a clear provocation by the Kremlin,” spokesman Artyom Skoropadsky said.The deputy head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Viktoria Syumar, also claimed Moscow was orchestrating the violence to try to portray Kiev as having lost control of the east.
Even Easter, she said on her Facebook page, “does not stop Russian propaganda from carrying out an information war”.
The stalled implementation of the Geneva agreement threatened to deepen the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.
With pro-Kremlin rebels refusing to comply with its terms, Washington has been ratcheting up pressure on Moscow, which it sees as pulling the strings in the Ukrainian insurgency.
US President Barack Obama has threatened to impose more sanctions on Moscow if no de-escalation occurs. He also is preparing to send ground troops to Ukraine’s neighbour Poland, according to a report in The Washington Post newspaper.
Russia already has tens of thousands of troops massed on Ukraine’s eastern border in what Nato fears is a state of readiness to invade. In the midst of the Cold War-style tensions, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is tasked with monitoring the Geneva accord, said it was sending a high-ranking team to east Ukraine on Sunday.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged all parties to abide by the Geneva agreement, warning in an interview with newspaper Bild am Sonntag “there won’t be many more chances for a peaceful solution.” AFP
