Crisis en Crimea entre Ucrania y Rusia

¿Qué pasa en Ucrania y por qué Rusia desplegó sus tropas?

Desde principios del Siglo XX la península de Crimea es disputada entre Rusia y Ucrania. Empezó a formar parte de lo que entonces era el Imperio Ruso en 1783. Tras la revolución rusa de 1917, Ucrania se convirtió en una de las Repúblicas Socialistas que conformaron la Unión Soviética (URSS). En 1954, Stalin decidió expulsar a los tártaros de Crimea por haber colaborado con el nazismo en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Desde entonces, dejó de tener el estatus de república y pasó a formar parte de Ucrania.



Redacción AN
marzo 3, 2014 3:31 pm


Ucrania vive una crisis, que saltó a la vista del mundo desde noviembre 2013, cuando comenzaron protestas en la calle a raíz de que el hoy depuesto presidente, Viktor Yanukóvich, no firmó un acuerdo para que su país se incorpore a la Unión Europea.

Hoy por hoy, las tropas rusas se encuentran en Crimea por órdenes del presidente ruso Vladimir Putin.

La región de Crimea pertenece a Ucrania, pero ahí hay una mayoría de habitantes rusos.

¿Cuáles son los antecedentes históricos?

- Ucrania comenzó a formar parte de la Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas (URSS) en 1922, después de ser derrotada en una guerra contra Polonia.
- En la Segunda Guerra Mundial (1939-1945)  los ucranianos combatieron en contra de los invasores nazis, al mismo tiempo se formaron grupos militares que lucharon contra los rusos. Por ello, para pocos pueblos la Segunda Guerra supuso una prueba más difícil que para el ruso, pues muchos rusos tuvieron que elegir en qué campo combatir.
- Aunque Rusia era atacada por la Alemania nazi, un elevado número de rusos optó por endosarse el uniforme germano para intentar acabar con el comunismo, en vez de enrolarse en un propio Ejército para combatir al atacante.
- Ucrania consiguió su independencia de la URSS en 1991, después de estar limitada casi todo el siglo XX.Con la disolución de la URSS en 1991, y la declaración de la independencia de Ucrania, la península volvió a convertirse en un botín de guerra entre el nuevo estado y Rusia
- Desde entonces la tensión entre Rusia y Ucrania por la región de Crimea han estado presentes, sin embargo Ucrania jamás ha cedido el territorio y hoy en día sigue firme en su postura.
- A partir de su independencia, Ucrania comenzó a voltear más a Occidente, hacia la Unión Europea. Pero persiste una división dentro de la nación, por una parte las generaciones más jóvenes que viven en el oeste del país han buscado el acercamiento con la Unión Europea, pero está el otro lado el del oriente y sur que se encuentra cercano a Rusia y que no ve con desagrado la época en que pertenecieron a la URSS.
- Los rusos cuentan con una larga e importante experiencia en cuanto a intervenciones militares, como en Hugría en 1956 y hasta la más reciente de la que se tiene registro, en Georgia en 2008.

En Crimea, Rusia cuenta con una base militar. Cabe señalar que Ucrania depende de Rusia para el abastecimiento de gas.

Hoy en día las relaciones son cada vez más complicadas; el Ejército ruso se encuentra en Crimea, mientras que el gobierno de Ucrania ha insistido que no cederá. La Organización de las Naciones Unidas, la Unión Europea y Estados Unidos han instado al gobierno ruso para que no viole la soberanía de Ucrania y opte por un diálogo político que ponga fin al conflicto.

El pasado fin de semana, Vladimir Putin solicitó al Consejo de la Federación, la cámara alta del parlamento ruso, que apruebe “el recurso al ejército en Ucrania hasta la normalización de la situación política en ese país”.

“Debido a la situación extraordinaria en Ucrania y de la amenaza que pesa sobre la vida de los ciudadanos rusos, de nuestros compatriotas, de las fuerzas armadas rusas desplegadas en Ucrania”, sostuvo el mandatario a través de un comunicado del servicio de prensa del Kremlin.

(Con información de El País y BBC Mundo)

Ukraine helicopters shot down in Slovyansk
Security service says one pilot killed and another captured after forces launch operation against separatist stronghold.
Last updated: 02 May 2014 15:55


Pro-Russian forces in Slovyansk have shot down two Ukrainian helicopter gunships after Kiev launched an operation against the separatist stronghold that was condemned by Russia.

Ukraine's Defence Ministry said on Friday "unknown groups" had shot down two Mi-24s, while an Mi-8 transport helicopter was also damaged. The SBU security service earlier said one pilot was killed and another captured.

The SBU said man-portable missiles were used against one helicopter - proof that "trained, highly qualified foreign military specialists" were operating in the area "and not local civilians, as the Russian government says, armed only with guns taken from hunting stores".

Ukraine's military said later on Friday that they had arrested four separatists suspected of involvement in the downing of helicopter at a checkpoint outside Slovyansk shortly after a dawn attack.

Arsen Avakov, Ukrainian interior minister, said on his Facebook page that troops had taken control of nine checkpoints around Slovyansk despite heavy resistance. He blamed "terrorists" for the army's losses.

Vyacheslav Ponomarev, Slovyansk's separatist-appointed mayor, was quoted by Russia's Interfax agency as saying one pilot was taken hostage.

Russian TV, available in Donetsk and parts of eastern Ukraine, broadcast footage of the captured pilot, who was injured.

Russia has warned Ukraine it must not launch attacks on Ukrainian civilians, who it says have legitimate concerns. Kiev says the separatists are being boosted by Russian soldiers.

Slovyansk has become a separatist stronghold, and there have been regular clashes between pro-Russians and Ukrainian troops. Last week, Ukraine sent troops to dismantle several roadblocks but withdrew forces soon after.

Slovyansk's separatists have held seven European inspectors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe for a week. They had been sent as part of a deal world powers struck in Geneva to ease tensions in Ukraine.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Friday said the "punitive operation" in Slovyansk had destroyed any hope of keeping the deal alive.

Russia had sent an envoy to southeast Ukraine to negotiate the realease of the monitors, Peskov said.
Source:
Agencies
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Ukraine forces move on rebels in Kramatorsk
Interior minister says the government will not stop its campaign, a day after deadly riots and battles killed 40 people.
Last updated: 03 May 2014 08:38

Ukraine continued to press military operations against pro-Russian separatists, a day after at least 40 people died in clashes and battles in the bloodiest day so far of the crisis.

Ukrainian troops moved towards the rebel-held town of Kramatorsk on Saturday, with the government vowing it would not stop its operations to dislodge separatists. Russian media cited hospital sources as saying fighting overnight had killed one person wounded nine others.

The interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said troops had seized control of rebel-held areas in Kramatorsk but gave no information on possible casualties.

"The active phase of the operation continued at dawn," Avakov wrote on his Facebook page. "We are not stopping."

"Overnight, forces participating in the anti-terrorist operation in Kramatorsk took control of the TV tower that was previously held by the terrorists," added the minister.

Kramatorsk is near the rebel stronghold of Sloyansk, where rebels shot down two Ukrainian attack helicopters on Friday, killing two airmen and capturing a third.

That toll, however, was eclipsed by the deaths of dozens of people in a fire and street-fighting between pro and anti-Russian groups in Odessa, on Ukraine's Black Sea coast.

Regional police in Odessa put the death toll at 37, most of whom were killed when the trade union building in the city was set on fire. It said 200 people had been wounded. Local authorities had previously said 43 people had died.

The violence broke out on Friday afternoon, when the two sides confronted each other, to outnumbered police who were unable to control crowds throwing stones, bottles and stun grenades.

Later on Friday, a fire was started by unidentified men in the government building where separatists were sheltering.

Up to 130 people were arrested on Saturday for their part in the violence, police said.


In Slovyansk, pro-Russian separatists released European military observers who were captured a week ago, Russia's RIA news agency quoted a Russian envoy as saying.

"They have freed all ... who were on my list," Vladimir Lukin was quoted as saying.

The seven observers, including five of their Ukrainian assistants, were held for more than a week in the town.

Vyacheslav Ponomarev, leader of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, confirmed the release of the observers.

Meanwhile the US president Barack Obama and German chancellor Angela Merkel warned Russia it would face additional sanctions if Moscow disrupted Ukraine's plan to hold elections on May 25.

Russia has an estimated 40,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and Kiev has reintroduced conscription and put its armed force on full combat alert, fearing an imminent invasion.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Ukraine's east sees deadliest day of uprising
At least 40 people die in Odessa and seven more in Slovyansk, as pro-Russian uprising rages against government in Kiev.
Last updated: 03 May 2014 04:28

Ukraine's defence ministry said it arrested four men suspected of shooting down the helicopters [EPA]

The unrest in Ukraine has culminated in the worst violence since the toppling of pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich from the presidency in February.

More than 40 people were killed in Odessa on Friday, most caught in a trade union building set on fire after pro-Russian separatists and "Unified Ukraine" demonstrators clashed in the southern port city.

The violence broke out on Friday afternoon, when the two sides confronted each other, to outnumbered police who were unable to control crowds throwing stones, bottles and stun grenades.

Later on Friday, a fire was started by unidentified men in the government building where separatists were sheltering.

Interfax Ukraine news agency said 10 fire engines were brought on the scene to put out the flames and activists from both sides tried to rescue people trapped in the burning building.

Police said 30 people choked to death on smoke and eight others jumped out of windows of the burning building.

Military assault

Earlier on Friday, Ukraine's military had attempted an assault against pro-Russian armed men in the eastern city of Slovyansk that ended with two of the military helicopters being shot down by the rebels.

The incident left at least three pro-Moscow rebels, two Ukrainian military servicemen and two civilians dead, according to information provided by Ukraine's defence ministry and the rebel spokeswoman.

Ukraine's defence ministry later said it had arrested four men suspected of shooting down the helicopters.

Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the self-proclaimed mayor of Slovyansk, urged all men in the pro-Russian stronghold to join efforts to repel the assault by Ukrainian security forces.

Events in Slovyansk prompted Russia to call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Friday.

Additional sanctions

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Russia it would face additional sanctions against key sectors of its economy if Moscow disrupted Ukraine's plan to hold elections on May 25.

The two leaders made the threat when they addressed a joint news conference at the White House, after Oval Office talks were dominated by the situation in Ukraine.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Ukraine facing 'war' against rebels in east
Security service says uprising not short term, adding that Odessa riots were provoked by agents inside Transnistria.
Last updated: 03 May 2014 13:47

Ukraine's security services have said the country is fighting a war against separatists in the east of the country, and blamed agents in the breakaway Moldovan region for provoking deadly rioting in the southern town of Odessa.

Vasyl Krutov, the head of Ukraine's the "anti-terrorist centre", said on Saturday that clases in the east against pro-Russian rebels "were not just some kind of short-lived uprising, it is in fact a war".

A spokeswoman for the SBU also blamed rioting in Odessa on Friday, in which 40 people were killed, on "foreign interference" from agents in the autonomous, pro-Russian Moldovan region of Transnistria.

She said former top officials, once part of the former president, Viktor Yanukovich, had financed "saboteurs" to foment the unrest, blaming Serhiy Arbuzov and Oleksander Klymenko, who were now "hiding in a neighbouring country".

Ukraine forces continued to press their offensive in the east, taking control of areas around the town of Kramatorsk. "We are not stopping," said the interior minister, Arsen Avakov.

A spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, spokesman countered that both the Ukrainian authorities and their backers in the West were directly responsible for bloodshed in Odessa

"Kiev and its Western sponsors are practically provoking the bloodshed and bear direct responsibility for it," RIA Novosti quoted Dmitry Peskov as saying on Saturday.

Dozens of people died in a fire and others were shot in fighting between pro- and anti-Russian groups on the streets of the Black Sea port on Friday.

In the east, Ukrainian forces launched an operation, condemned by Russia as "punitive", to dislodge separatists from the town of Slovyansk.

Asked how Russia will respond, Peskov said that he was unable to say what actions Russia would take.

"I cannot answer this question, this element is absolutely new to us," he said in comments quoted by Interfax.

Peskov said the violence made the Kiev authorities' plan to hold a presidential election on May 25 "absurd".

"It is obvious that in conditions of military action, a punitive operation and mass killings, it is, at the very least,
absurd to talk about elections," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

Kiev accuses Moscow of backing pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies invovlement with the rebels.

"Russia, or anyone else, or even any country, haseffectively lost influence over these people because it will beimpossible to persuade them to disarm against the background of a direct threat to their lives," Peskov was quoted as saying.


He called for dialogue with European partners to help resolve the crisis.

"We understand that without dialogue with our European partners a resolution is practically impossible. But we cannot seek dialogue alone," Peskov said.

Meanwhile, in Slovyansk pro-Russian separatists released European military observers who were captured a week ago, Russia's RIA news agency quoted a Russian envoy as saying.

The seven observers, including five of their Ukrainian assistants, were held for more than a week in the town.

Vyacheslav Ponomarev, leader of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, confirmed the release of the observers.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Tense standoff continues in eastern Ukraine
Pro-Russian activists in the village of Yasnohirka blame Kiev and its western backers for recent violence.
Kristina Jovanovski Last updated: 03 May 2014 15:07

Ukrainian troops have confronted pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine [Kristina Jovanovski/Al Jazeera]

Kramatorsk, Ukraine - Ukraine is pushing ahead in its operation against rebels, a day after the crisis in the east spread south to Odessa, where dozens have died.

In the eastern city of Sloviansk, a tug-of-war between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists who took hold of the town continued on Saturday with an offensive against the rebels.

At least 40 people were killed in clashes and battles in eastern Ukraine on Friday, making it one of the bloodiest days in the crisis so far.

Ukraine's ongoing political turmoil began in November, when then-President Viktor Yanukovich abandoned a trade deal with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Moscow. Weeks of protests toppled Yanukovich in February, but many in eastern Ukraine were unhappy with the move and sought closer ties with Russia.

This week's events in Slovyansk prompted Russia to call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

Arseiny Yatseniuk, Ukraine's interim prime minister, warned on Thursday that the country had entered its "most dangerous ten days" since winning independence in 1991, as violence between pro-Russian forces and backers of the Kiev government escalated.

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, blamed authorities in Kiev and their western backers for "provoking the bloodshed" saying they bear "direct responsibility" for Friday's carnage.

'Getting worse and worse'

In the village of Yasnohirka, about 15 kilometres from Sloviansk, an epicentre of recent conflict, separatists surrounded a Ukrainian military unit on Friday.


Some of the separatists, who seemed unarmed, shouted at the soldiers. The standoff was tense at times, but both groups remained peaceful.

Local activist and factory worker Anatoliy Petrovich, 53, said the group stopped dozens of soldiers, believed to have been coming from Sloviansk, early in the morning. He said a corridor would be created so they could leave the eastern region but not go anywhere else within it.

Protesters may start shooting if the Ukrainian state does not remove its troops, Petrovich said. "The fact that they use [the] military against civilians, this may result in civil war… it's getting worse and worse."

Three-quarters of the men in his village are ready to actively fight Ukrainian forces, he said.

Petrovich did not identify himself as Russian. Most people in the village do not want to join Russia, he said, but if the fight goes on they may not have a better option.

Ukrainian soldiers at the scene did not seem intimidated by angry local residents. "No, I'm not afraid… this is my people," said 21-year-old Vlad.

One soldier, after posing for a photo with local protesters, asked to see his image, then raised his thumb and said "good".

Rebels have been standing guard at checkpoints across eastern Ukraine, including on roads leading from the capital of the Donetsk region to Sloviansk. Rebels have been ordering cars to park and people to get out of their vehicles while they are searched.

Some journalists reported being detained by separatists. This has been a common occurrence since pro-Russia groups began a campaign for separation from Ukraine in the southeastern peninsula of Crimea. The region was annexed by Russia after a disputed referendum last month in what forces loyal to Kiev believe to be the beginning of a larger campaign aimed at splitting the country.

The village of Yasnohirka lies between Sloviansk and the town of Kramatorsk, where, on Saturday, the government deployed troops in an effort to reclaim the area.

'People's Republic'

On Friday, Al Jazeera visited Kramatorsk's occupied city hall where a barricade stood flying three flags of the "People's Republic of Donetsk", the self-proclaimed separatist group.

One poster outside the hall parodied "Uncle Sam" with words reading: "Shut up and enjoy democracy."

Inside, most people were dressed in civilian clothes, while a handful of men in army camouflage carried rifles.

Their local leader, Ivan, is a tall, slim man in his twenties who used to work as a security guard at a local factory. The black combat boots and rifle slung over his right arm signals his newly gained authority.

This is as bad as it's going to get because [the] Ukrainian military is fighting against the Ukrainian people.

Igor, pro-Russia activist

A short drive from city hall, rebels were blocking both entrances to an airfield used by the Ukrainian army for its operation against separatists.

About ten men, including one with a rifle, stood at the rear entrance to the airfield. At first, one of the men called a superior to check if Al Jazeera would be able to pass - but then said they could only negotiate with Russian media.

Two men at the blockade's front entrance wore army fatigues with pro-Russian ribbons and carried rifles while standing guard alongside three men in civilian clothes.

One was local factory worker Igor. "I don't want more re-enforcements to come here, especially the Americans. I want independence," the 39-year-old told Al Jazeera.

Igor said that Ukraine's industrial eastern region would be fine if it gained autonomy because its economy remains strong and self-sustaining.

The area has been giving money away from their local budget to the west, he complained, urging authorities to keep the funds in the east.

Igor criticised Kiev for not recognising that officials there have come to power through what he called a coup, and said the government never bothered to ask all the country's people if they wanted to join the European Union or NATO.

Igor identified himself as Ukrainian and said all the people in his movement were similarly Ukrainian, although many supporters of the rebels identify themselves as part of the Russian minority.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that, since the toppling of the pro-Moscow government in Kiev, fascists had taken over and members of the Russian minority were being oppressed.

Western countries argue that Putin is behind the movement that has seen citizens in the east occupy public buildings and create barricades. The Russian leader denies such charges.

Igor said Russia was not helping him or his fellow separatists - but welcomed Russian support and intervention. "I don't see any benefit to joining the EU, either economically or politically."

While Igor does not support the interim government, he also criticised ousted Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovich for fleeing.

"He should have stayed, he should have defended what we do."

When asked if he was afraid of an impending war, he said the situation looked grim. "This is as bad as it's going to get because [the] Ukrainian military is fighting against the Ukrainian people."
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
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Ukraine sacks Odessa police chief
Prime minister announces police chief's removal as country mourns the victims of Friday's violence in port city.
Last updated: 04 May 2014 13:21


The police chief in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, where unrest left more than 50 people dead, has been sacked, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said.

Yatsenyuk made the announcement of Pyotr Lutsyuk's dismissal on Sunday hours hours after the country's interim president declared two days of mourning.

He said an investigation into the unrest would be carried out.

In a statement announcing national mourning, interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said: "The day of May 2 was a tragic day for Ukraine. I have signed a decree for two days of mourning in Ukraine for the heroes who died in the course of the anti-terrorist operation and also for those who died in the tragic events in Odessa."

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull, reporting from Odessa, said that a large crowd had gathered outside a police station in the city.

"It appears as though they are demanding the release of a number of people arrested on Friday. It is an extremely angry crowd.

"There is a contingent of police outside, and the crowd are chanting fascists, fascists, fascists."

At least 42 people lost their lives in Odessa on Friday after fighting between pro-Russian and pro-Ukraine armed groups climaxed in an inferno that trapped dozens as both sides hurled petrol bombs.

Nine more people, including four servicemen, died in fighting on the same day as the Ukrainian army intensified what the government calls an "anti-terrorist" operation around the rebel-held town of Slovyansk.

The Kremlin and Ukraine traded accusations over the violence, with Kiev saying the Odessa violence had been "coordinated by sabotage groups from Russia".

Moscow said it was "outraged" as the scenic port city became a new front in an escalating months-long crisis that has sparked fears of a Russian invasion.

Our correspondent in Odessa said the people there did not accept Kiev's version of events, and that the mourning period and firing of Lutsyuk would not reduce the tension in the city.

"People walking around the building that was on fire on Friday are dazed and shocked by what happened," he said. "They reject the idea of Russian involvement and place the blame on the government in Kiev."

Meanwhile, European military observers held for more than a week by pro-Russian separatists arrived in Germany a day after they were released in Slovyansk.

Observers freed

The seven observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - along with five of their Ukrainian assistants - were freed on Saturday.

They were deployed following a pact struck between Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and the US in mid-April aimed to resolve the crisis, which began with Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"We are deeply relieved that the members of the kidnapped OSCE team have landed unharmed here in Germany, in Berlin," Ursula von der Leyen, Germany's defence minister, said in Berlin.

"I would like to express my deep gratitude and my respect for the infinitely good cooperation we saw."

Nicolai Wammen, Denmark's defence minister, said they would continue to support the OSCE mission.

"It is important that they can work and conduct their important business in Ukraine and that this event will not make that more difficult in the future," he said.

The mission's prospects became clouded a week after their deployment when they were detained by armed men in Slovyansk, the crucible of unrest in eastern Ukraine.

Odessa detainees freed after violent protest
Pro-Russian activists freed after crowd storms Ukraine police station two days after deadly violence hit the port city.
Last updated: 04 May 2014 22:34

Hundreds of pro-Russian activists have attacked a police station in Ukraine's southern port city of Odessa, forcing open its gate and smashing windows.

Calling for the release of several people who were arrested during deadly clashes in the city on Friday, hundreds surrounded the building on Sunday, chanting "fascists" at the police contingent placed outside the station.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull, reporting from outside the police station, said some of the prisoners were later freed while several others remained in custody. It is thought that about 70 people were released.

"Police did nothing to stop them from leaving," he said. "The question now is why? It seems the police acquiesced because of the intense violence Odessa has witnessed."

Shortly before the attack, the Ukraine flag on top of the police station had been replaced with the city's flag.

"It was a large, angry crowd. Many believe the police could have done more to stop the violence on Friday, but did nothing," our correspondent said.

The attack came hours after the Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced that the police chief in Odessa had been sacked for the violence two days ago that left dozens dead.

Yatsenyuk made the announcement of Pyotr Lutsyuk's dismissal on Sunday hours hours after the country's interim president declared two days of mourning.

He said an investigation into the unrest would be carried out.

In a statement announcing national mourning, interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said: "The day of May 2 was a tragic day for Ukraine. I have signed a decree for two days of mourning in Ukraine for the heroes who died in the course of the anti-terrorist operation and also for those who died in the tragic events in Odessa."

At least 42 people lost their lives in Odessa on Friday after fighting between pro-Russian and pro-Ukraine armed groups climaxed in an inferno that trapped dozens as both sides hurled petrol bombs.

Nine more people, including four servicemen, died in fighting on the same day as the Ukrainian army intensified what the government calls an "anti-terrorist" operation around the rebel-held town of Slovyansk.

The Kremlin and Ukraine traded accusations over the violence, with Kiev saying the Odessa violence had been "coordinated by sabotage groups from Russia".

Moscow said it was "outraged" as the scenic port city became a new front in an escalating months-long crisis that has sparked fears of a Russian invasion.

Our correspondent in Odessa said the people there did not accept Kiev's version of events, and that the mourning period and firing of Lutsyuk would not reduce the tension in the city.

"People walking around the building that was on fire on Friday are dazed and shocked by what happened," he said. "They reject the idea of Russian involvement and place the blame on the government in Kiev."

Meanwhile, European military observers held for more than a week by pro-Russian separatists arrived in Germany a day after they were released in Slovyansk.

Observers freed

The seven observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - along with five of their Ukrainian assistants - were freed on Saturday.

They were deployed following a pact struck between Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and the US in mid-April aimed to resolve the crisis, which began with Russia's annexation of Crimea.

"We are deeply relieved that the members of the kidnapped OSCE team have landed unharmed here in Germany, in Berlin," Ursula von der Leyen, Germany's defence minister, said in Berlin.

"I would like to express my deep gratitude and my respect for the infinitely good cooperation we saw."

Nicolai Wammen, Denmark's defence minister, said they would continue to support the OSCE mission.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Crisis se encamina a una guerra civil en Ucrania
Berlín afirma que la disputa está a unos pasos de una confrontación militar; Kiev prolonga la ofensiva contra los bastiones prorrusos y rechaza referéndum



KIEV, 7 de mayo.- Mientras que las autoridades ucranianas confirmaron que los enfrentamientos del lunes entre pro rusos y ucranianos dejaron 30 muertos, la comunidad internacional hizo un llamado a evitar una guerra civil desplegando nuevos esfuerzos diplomáticos.

El presidente francés, François Hollande, advirtió ayer que si no se celebra la elección presidencial prevista el 25 de mayo en Ucrania, el país se va a ver sumido en el “caos”, con “un riesgo de guerra civil”.

Para alejar ese peligro, unos treinta cancilleres, entre ellos el ruso, Serguei Lavrov, y el ucraniano, Andrei Deshchitsa, estuvieron en Viena con motivo de una reunión del Consejo de Europa.

El ministro británico, William Hague, afirmó que “la gran mayoría de países” reunidos en Viena creen que la presidencial ucraniana debe poder celebrarse el 25 de mayo.

Rusia parece querer impedir y perturbar esas elecciones. Es un error”, añadió Hague, que más tarde se reunió en Kiev con los dirigentes interinos.

En Slaviansk, epicentro de la batalla entre los separatistas pro rusos y las fuerzas regulares ucranianas, se escucharon varias ráfagas, y los rebeldes parecían reforzar sus defensas.

Los medios locales denunciaron además que están empezando a faltar alimentos y bienes básicos.

El lunes hubo combates con armas pesadas en la periferia de esta ciudad de unos cien mil habitantes controlada por los pro rusos. En ellos murieron cuatro militares ucranianos, y otros 20 resultaron heridos. El ejército perdió además su tercer helicóptero desde el inicio de la ofensiva en Slaviansk.

Del lado pro ruso, “más de 30 terroristas murieron y decenas más resultaron heridos”, según el ministro ucraniano del Interior, Arsen Avakon.
La OSCE intensifica esfuerzos

La Organización para la Seguridad y la Cooperación en Europa (OSCE) llamó a un “alto al fuego” en Ucrania.

“Necesitamos un alto al fuego para las elecciones”, declaró el presidente de la OSCE, Didier Burkhalter, en Viena, donde se congregaron unos 30 cancilleres.

El jefe de la diplomacia ucraniana aprovechó esa reunión para lanzar en Viena un pedido de ayuda a la comunidad internacional para la organización “libre y democrática” de esa elección presidencial, cuya celebración está amenazada por la violencia, que se cobra cada día nuevas vidas.

“Hemos pedido a todos los socios el envío de observadores internacionales a Ucrania para vigilar las elecciones” y “de hacer todo lo posible para eliminar las amenazas y las provocaciones exteriores apoyadas por Rusia en Ucrania”, declaró.

La crítica situación en Ucrania y la presencia del presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin, el 9 de mayo en Crimea, serán abordados hoy por el Bundestag ante la agudización del actual conflicto.

Por su parte, el Ministro alemán de Asuntos Exteriores, Frank Walter Steinmeier, advirtió que la escalada de la violencia en Ucrania corre el riesgo de que se produzca un abierto conflicto armado.

El jefe de la diplomacia alemana expresó que el conflicto en Ucrania “se ha agudizado con rapidez” y que es necesario evitar caer en una nueva Guerra Fría.

“Estamos convencidos de que existe una salida a la crisis (en Ucrania) y la única manera de hallarla es mediante el diálogo nacional”, afirmó Serguei Lavrov.
EU advierte sobre referendos

El gobierno del presidente Barack Obama tachó de ilegal el referendo planeado para este fin de semana por insurgentes pro rusos que presionan por la autonomía e independencia en partes del oriente de Ucrania.

El secretario de Estado estadunidense, John Kerry, afirmó ayer que el referendo planeado para el domingo no es legítimo y que Occidente no lo reconocerá.

El mes pasado Moscú apoyó un referendo independentista en la península de Crimea, que llevó a su anexión a Rusia. Líderes del movimiento contra el gobierno ucraniano dicen que planean celebrar un referendo sobre la autonomía en las regiones de Donetsk y Lugansk, aunque no se han observado preparativos.

“Rechazamos absolutamente este esfuerzo ilegal por dividir aún más a Ucrania”, dijo Kerry tras una reunión en el Departamento de Estado con Catherine Ashton, jefa de política exterior de la Unión Europea. “Eso creará más problemas en los esfuerzos por bajar de tono la situación”.

“Esto es exactamente lo mismo que sucedió en Crimea y ninguna nación civilizada reconocerá los resultados de algo tan falso”, agregó.

Aunque Rusia controla de facto Crimea, pocas naciones han reconocido ese control. Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea han impuesto sanciones a Rusia por la anexión y por las acciones desestabilizadoras persistentes en el este de Ucrania, donde los habitantes de etnia rusa son mayoría.

La canciller de Alemania, Angela Merkel, declaró que la Unión Europea debe mantenerse unida en la búsqueda de una solución al conflicto de Ucrania y que nuevas sanciones contra Rusia no son un fin en sí mismo.

La jefa del gobierno alemán dijo lo anterior durante un breve encuentro con la prensa al recibir al presidente de Chipre, Nikos Anastasiadis, en sus oficinas en Berlín.

En tanto, el canciller ruso, Serguei Lavrov, afirmó que su país está dispuesto, bajo ciertas condiciones, a participar en una nueva Conferencia de Ginebra sobre Ucrania, cuyo gobierno provisional ha puesto obstáculos en el camino.

Atenúa Putin crisis en Ucrania con retiro de tropas y llamado a separatistas

El presidente ruso anuncia el retiro de sus tropas de la frontera con Ucrania y llama a los prorrusos a postergar la votación sobre secesión

07/05/2014 12:25 Redacción / Fotos: Reuters y AP

Putin prometió que crearía las condiciones para el diálogo entre las autoridades ucranianas en Kiev y los separatistas.

DONETSK/MOSCU, 7 de mayo.- El presidente de Rusia, Vladimir Putin, pidió el miércoles a los separatistas prorrusos en Ucrania que pospongan una votación sobre una secesión, cinco días antes de que se realice.

Se trata de la primera señal que ha dado el líder del Kremlin de que no apoyaría la votación prevista para el domingo por los rebeldes que buscan la independencia de dos provincias con 6.5 millones de habitantes y que representan un tercio de la producción industrial de Ucrania.

En lo que parece un avance en la peor crisis entre Oriente y Occidente desde la Guerra Fría, Putin también anunció que Moscú estaba retirando sus tropas de la frontera con Ucrania.

Rusia ha desplegado decenas de miles de soldados en la frontera, proclamando su derecho a invadir Ucrania si se amenazaba a los hablantes rusos en el país vecino.

Instamos a los representantes del sudeste ucraniano, los partidarios de la federalización del país, a posponer el referendo planeado para el 11 de mayo", dijo Putin.

El mandatario ruso indicó que crearía las condiciones para el diálogo entre las autoridades ucranianas en Kiev y los separatistas, algunos de los cuales quieren una mayor autonomía mientras otros directamente reclaman una secesión.

Siempre se nos dice que nuestras fuerzas en la frontera con Ucrania son una preocupación. Las hemos retirado. Hoy (miércoles) no están en la frontera ucraniana, están en lugares en los que realizan sus tareas regulares sobre terrenos de entrenamiento", manifestó.

En tanto, un responsable militar de la OTAN dijo el miércoles que no tenían indicios de que Rusia haya retirado sus fuerzas de las cercanías a la frontera de Ucrania.

No tenemos indicios de cambios en la posición de las fuerzas militares a lo largo de la frontera ucraniana", dijo el responsable a Reuters.

Putin se pronunció en Moscú luego de dialogar con el jefe de la Organización para la Seguridad y la Cooperación en Europa (OSCE), quien dijo por su parte que el organismo propondría una 'hoja de ruta' pronto para solucionar la crisis ucraniana.

Un líder de los separatistas prorrusos en la región de Donetsk, en el este de Ucrania, dijo que evaluarían el pedido de Putin de posponer su referéndum en un encuentro de su autoproclamada Asamblea Popular el jueves.

Tenemos el máximo respeto por el presidente Putin. Si él lo considera necesario, nosotros por supuesto lo debatiremos", dijo Denis Pushilin en Donetsk, una ciudad de 1 millón de habitantes que los rebeldes han proclamado capital de la independiente 'República Popular de Donetsk'.

Las acciones rusas subieron luego de las declaraciones de Putin, al considerarse que podrían reducir las probabilidades de nuevas sanciones perjudiciales contra Moscú.
Temores, sanciones

El Gobierno de Ucrania y sus aliados occidentales han buscado insistentemente detener el referéndum, ya que temen que pueda conducir a otra anexión territorial por parte de Rusia, como sucedió con Crimea en marzo, pero a mayor escala.

El secretario de Estado estadunidense, John Kerry, ha calificado a la votación de "forzada y espuria".

Las tropas del Gobierno de Kiev han lanzando una campaña militar esta semana para recuperar el territorio en manos de los separatistas.

En la madrugada del miércoles, los militares capturaron brevemente el puerto de Mariupol, en el este del país, pero rápidamente abandonaron el operativo, dejando la ciudad nuevamente en manos de los separatistas.

Una semana de violencia en el este y en la ciudad sureña de Odesa, donde murieron más de 40 personas en enfrentamientos que terminaron con manifestantes prorrusos atrapados en un edificio en llamas, ha endurecido las posiciones y expandido el descontento social.

Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea, que hasta el momento han impuesto sólo sanciones limitadas contra individuos y pequeñas empresas de Rusia, han amenazado con ampliar el castigo a la industria rusa si Moscú toma más medidas para interferir en Ucrania.

El referéndum planeado para el próximo domingo es considerado un posible disparador de esas sanciones.

Rusia ha negado las acusaciones de Occidente de estar orquestando la rebelión en el este de Ucrania, donde las fuerzas de Kiev han sido incapaces de recuperar el control.

La posibilidad de más sanciones contra Moscú ya ha perjudicado a la economía rusa de manera indirecta, al desalentar a los inversores y forzar al banco central a elevar las tasas de interés para proteger al rublo.

jrr

Ukraine economy choked by political unrest
Workers and business owners in Ukraine feel the heat of recent turmoil as prices rise and capital flight intensifies.
Kristina Jovanovski Last updated: 06 May 2014 14:32


Pro-Ukraine demonstrators say that Russia's current stance is hurting Ukraine's economy [EPA]

Odessa, Ukraine - For 25-year-old Alona, living in crisis-hit eastern Ukraine means she is already worried about clashes on the streets and where she might be living in the future if Russia invades. Now, she has another concern: job security.

"Our company asked us [to take] unpaid vacations and if we request these unpaid vacations we can save our [jobs]," she told Al Jazeera.

Alona works as an HR manager at a consultancy firm which she says has experienced a 30 percent drop in demand for some of its services since the crisis started. She fears this drop will only continue because one of the first things clients cut are their advisory services.

Alona also says imported products have become more expensive as the Ukrainian currency continues to slide. It lost two-fifths of its value since the start of the year. She says a dress that cost about $30 in February now costs $40.

Her father is a taxi driver and her mother is unemployed, meaning it is especially important for the family to safeguard what money they do have. "In this situation, banks aren't safe," Alona says. "We have less deposits at the bank because we keep our money at home now."

Ukraine's crisis started in November with mass demonstrations against President Viktor Yanukovich's decision to give up a European Union trade deal in favour of closer ties with Moscow. Yanukovich was overthrown and an interim government established, but the instability spread to the southeastern peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia.

Now, eastern Ukraine is in turmoil as pro-Russian protesters demand independence. Violence has spread to the south in Odessa where at least 42 people died in clashes on Friday, increasing fears of a civil war.

Still open for buisness?

Alexander Varichenko, 39, is a manager at a Donetsk-based international steel company with a quarter of its business coming from Russian clients. He thought that would safeguard the business from rising tension between Ukraine and Russia, but he was wrong.

Varichenko says that since November, customs officials have held up trucks at the border for much longer than normal, imposing new costs on businesses. "They fulfil [the] Russian government's order and that is a kind of way to punish Ukraine," he says. "Maybe there will be a decrease in clients because they aren't sure their goods will be delivered."

The company is also under pressure since Russia increased prices for its gas supply. Varichenko is now considering whether the firm should increase prices or lower production. "If Russia won't leave Ukraine alone… the situation will become worse and worse," he says.

While the country's economy has been weak since Ukraine's independence, recent instability has exacerbated the situation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Ukraine would need more funding if the east was annexed after the organisation already agreed to a $17bn bailout.

Adrian Karatnycky, a senior fellow at The Atlantic Council, who advises investors in Ukraine, says fears of a Russian invasion or continued instability will frighten investors. If, however, the country goes ahead with a presidential election on May 25, that could signal some level of stability, he says.

Putin's strategy
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he would not recognise the legitimacy of a new Ukrainian president should one be elected on May 25 [AFP]

If such an election were to take place, Russian President Vladimir Putin says he would not recognise it.

Putin also faces economic turmoil at home. Russia's currency has fallen by 10 percent this year. At the end of April, the IMF said Russia's economy would grow by just 0.2 percent this year, cut from an earlier forecast of 1.3 percent.

The organisation says that sanctions implemented by Europe and the United States over the conflict has scared off investors, causing capital flight.

Karatnycky says that while a global economic crisis is not guaranteed, Russia has more to lose than the West, but other countries would still be affected by sanctions and turmoil. "It could have a knock on effect… it [could] be a recession in the West," the analyst says.

This month, Russia threatened to decrease its supplies of natural gas to Ukraine after claiming the country owed billions in unpaid bills. Russia provides one-third of the European Union's gas imports.

If the gas supply was disrupted, Karatnycky says countries could quickly address the situation by using alternative energy. "All of this is really very abstract because we don't know how bad it's going to get," he says. "We don't know how deep the disruption will be to the economy."

While the conflict has increased concerns over Ukraine's economy, it has been plagued by deeply-rooted problems for years. At the beginning of April, The Kyiv Post reported that the black market economy accounted for almost 20 percent of the country's GDP, citing government figures.

Overcoming corruption

Widespread corruption has limited Ukraine's economic growth and the country could not adapt to capitalism as well as countries like Poland which had similar economic traits yet grew at a much quicker pace following the collapse of communism, according to Karatnycky.

In 2013 Transparency International ranked Ukraine 144 out of 175 countries and territories in the corruption perceptions index, putting it below Russia. "The impact of corruption on Ukraine [and] its economy is just devastating because corruption is everywhere," says Transparency International's Andrei Maursov. "The loss to the economy is just immense".

Last month, US Vice President Joe Biden said Ukraine had to "fight the cancer of corruption".

Maursov credited the movement that toppled Yanukovich with highlighting the level of corruption in the country. After the former president fled, images of his luxurious house shocked and angered many who wondered how the leader could have accumulated such wealth.

Maursov says, "Here we have a joke that even the princes of Saudi Arabia would envy Yanukovich."

Belarus.


Volha Charnysh

April 28, 2014
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As the Ukraine crisis unfolds, analogies with Kyiv have spilled over into Belarusian politics. Initially, the Belarusian opposition crossed its fingers for a Maidan-like mobilization to emerge in Minsk. Many hoped that Belarus would be next in line to topple an authoritarian leader and integrate into Europe. Later, when the situation in Ukraine took a more dangerous turn, hope was replaced by a fear that Belarus would be the next victim of Russian annexation.

Neither of these predictions takes into account the differences between Belarus and Ukraine.

Though it took the Belarusian leadership unawares, the Ukrainian crisis may well turn out in Belarus’s favor. Minsk is already benefiting from renewed attention from the EU, as Brussels vowed not to let the Maidan aftermath affect its relationship with Belarus. Calls for boycotting the Ice Hockey World Championship, to be staged in Belarus in May, have been overshadowed by the need to engage what is left of Russia’s “front yard”. Meanwhile, Belarus’ bargaining position vis-à-vis Russia could improve as the Kremlin faces international isolation. Not least, the Ukrainian troubles have produced a “rally ‘round the flag” effect in Belarus. Polls actually indicate an improvement of President Alexander Lukaschenko’s confidence rating.

Balancing the EU and Russia

Lukaschenko has shown an uncanny ability to balance between the West and Russia in the past. He engaged with the West on issues that did not endanger his power, such as border security, while avoiding cooperation in potentially destabilizing domains. Between 2007 and 2013, the EU paid €200 million in technical assistance to Belarus, which the regime gladly accepted without making any concerted effort at political reform.

Now Putin, not Lukashanka, is the West’s bête noire. At a March 10 conference in Minsk, the EU vowed not to let events in Ukraine undermine its rapport with Belarus. The two sides are moving forward on talks over visa facilitation and readmission agreements. These modest steps will likely mature into broader consultations, such as talks on the modernization of the Belarusian economy.

At the same time, Lukaschenko has maintained a close relationship with Russia, benefitting from his larger neighbor’s subsidies while ensuring that his government maintains controlling stakes in key Belarusian enterprises. Contrary to popular belief, the events in Ukraine have enlarged, not diminished, Minsk’s room for maneuver. On the one hand, Lukaschenko criticizes Russia’s invasion as “bad precedent” and opposes the federalization of Ukraine. On the other hand, Belarus has joined eleven states that voted against the resolution on the territorial integrity of Ukraine at the UN General Assembly and accepted the status quo in Crimea.

International opprobrium of Russia’s actions in Ukraine could also strengthen Minsk’s bargaining position vis-à-vis Moscow. In particular, Moscow’s isolation has increased the importance of forging Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), with or without Ukraine. As the founding EEU treaty is being drafted, Belarus is keen on abolishing oil exemptions, which would amount to an additional $3-4 billion in revenues at Russia’s expense. While this demand seemed untenable before, current Russian behavior suggests the Kremlin is willing to make new concessions to fulfill its Eurasian “dream.”

Rally ‘Round the Flag

Besides the diplomatic benefits, events in Ukraine have also produced a “rally ‘round the flag” effect in Belarus. Belarusians were initially worried about the chaos in Kyiv and the blood spilled in Maidan; then they were alarmed over the Crimea scenario; now they are watching in awe as eastern Ukraine descends into chaos. As a popular Belarusian saying goes, domestic problems are trifling, “as long as there is no war.” According to surveys conducted by the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS), a trusted, nongovernmental source of public opinion data, Belarusians’ confidence in Lukaschenko has risen by 8 percent since December 2013. Now 45.9 percent of respondents express confidence in the leader.

Already at the very beginning of the Ukraine crisis, Lukaschenko sought to draw favorable comparisons between Belarus and Ukraine. For example, he blamed the Ukrainian upheaval on corruption and proceeded to initiate a series of high-profile arrests on corruption charges in Belarus. He has continued with this same strategy since. If in the past his references to the threat of NATO were not particularly credible, now he can point to a genuine crisis right across the border.

On April 22, Lukaschenko began his annual address to the nation by emphasizing the need for unity in a time of crisis. He warned that internal disagreements are dangerous because there are always actors interested in exploiting these cleavages. This is not a new theme in his rhetoric, but now the dangers are far more real and are having the desired effect. It would be a mistake to interpret Lukaschenko’s rhetoric as genuine concern over Russia’s intentions. Instead, Lukaschenko is using the Ukraine crisis to portray himself as a guarantor of Belarusian stability and sovereignty and to divert attention from domestic problems.

In the meantime, Belarus is getting ready to host the Ice Hockey World Championship. According to the latest estimates, nearly 70,000 tourists from over fifty countries are headed to Minsk. Against the backdrop of the Ukrainian chaos, Belarus will seem an open, stable and effective post-Soviet state, if only for a few weeks during the games, until the human rights concerns return to the Western agenda.

Renewed attention to Minsk could be an opportunity for the West to abandon the black-and-white approach to understanding policy making in Minsk. Instead of lumping Belarus with other pariah states and treating it as an absolute dictatorship, Western analysts should be attentive to the actual processes of opinion formation and decision making in the country.

Volha Charnysh is a Kennan Research Scholar at the Wilson Center

Las tropas rusas se alejan de Ucrania; la OTAN no ve señales de retirada

El presidente Vladimir Putin afirma que ordenó la retirada de sus fuerzas en la frontera con Ucrania, pero la OTAN aún no percibe movimiento

Por Matthew Chance y Ed Payne
Lunes, 19 de mayo de 2014 a las 08:05


(CNN) — El presidente de Rusia está diciendo, una vez más, que ha ordenado el retiro de tropas rusas de la frontera con Ucrania. Pero la OTAN dice que no ve ninguna señal de que eso esté sucediendo.

La decisión del presidente Vladimir Putin de movilizar unos 40,000 soldados a lo largo de la frontera de Ucrania ha planteado por semanas temores de una invasión a Ucrania antes de las elecciones presidenciales del domingo.

El vocero Dmitry Peskov dijo el lunes, sin embargo, que las tropas estaban en un ejercicio de rutina que ahora ha llegado a su fin. La retirada ha comenzado, pero podría tomar algún tiempo para completarse, dijo Peskov.

Pero un vocero de la OTAN dijo este lunes que el despliegue militar no ha tenido cambios sustanciales en la frontera.

El anuncio se produce casi dos semanas después de que Putin dijo que las tropas rusas se habían alejado de la frontera con Ucrania y se limitaba a la realización de "ejercicios regulares en los campos de prueba".

En ese momento, los funcionarios de la OTAN y de países de Occidente dijeron que no vieron ninguna señal de la retirada de tropas.

Estados Unidos, que junto con otros países ha sancionado a Rusia por su anexión de Crimea, ha amenazado con un castigo adicional a Rusia si no saca a sus tropas de la frontera.

Los funcionarios rusos han dicho que se reservan el derecho de proteger los intereses de los ciudadanos rusos y los hablantes de lengua rusa en el oeste de Ucrania, que apoyan a Moscú.

Y las tensiones en esa región siguen estando elevadas, con los constantes informes de violencia y abusos a los derechos humanos.

En uno de los últimos incidentes, los separatistas rusos se enfrentaron con guardias fronterizos ucranianos el sábado, después de que un líder separatista fue detenido en un retén.

Valeriy Bolotov, el autoproclamado gobernador de una "república popular" de Lugansk, fue detenido por las fuerzas de seguridad en Dovzhanskiy. Los atacantes lo liberaron después de un tiroteo, pero tras ser herido fue a Rusia para recibir tratamiento médico, dijo el vocero independentista Vasiliy Nikitin.

El fin de semana, el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores ruso acusó a las tropas ucranianas de atacar a sus propios ciudadanos y se preguntó si las elecciones previstas el domingo se podrían celebrar en medio del caos.

"Tal acción punitiva contra sus propios ciudadanos demuestra la hipocresía de las autoridades de Kiev", dijo el comunicado, en referencia a un pacto internacional acordado el mes pasado que llamó a poner fin a la violencia.

El viernes, Naciones Unidas publicó un informe sobre los abusos en el este de Ucrania en el que afirma que hay casos de asesinatos selectivos, torturas, golpizas, secuestros y acoso sexual, así como la intimidación de los medios de comunicación.

Ukraine president warns of 'step into abyss'
As eastern Ukraine regions prepare sovereignty referenda, acting president warns them of social and economic fallout.
Last updated: 10 May 2014 18:28

As two of the most tense regions in eastern Ukraine prepare to vote on declaring sovereignty, the country's acting president has warned them against self-destruction.

Ukrainian acting president Oleksandr Turchynov, in comments posted on the presidential website on Saturday, said the pro-Russian supporters of independence for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions "don't understand that this would be a complete destruction of the economy, social programs and general life for the majority of the population".

"This is a step into the abyss for the regions," Turchynov said.

Sunday's ballots will seek approval for declaring so-called sovereign people's republics in Donetsk and Luhansk, where pro-Russians have seized government buildings and clashed with police and Ukrainian troops.

The referenda, in 53 locations across the regions, are being conducted by the pro-Russian movements and are not regarded as legitimate by Kiev or the West.

Early voting reports
Donetsk to decide on breakup from Ukraine

The elections chief of the independence movement in Donetsk, Roman Lyagin, was quoted by news agencies as saying voting in the city of Mariupol and one other district had begun early because of rising tensions there, but this has not been confirmed by Al Jazeera.

At least seven people died on Friday in clashes in Mariupol. The city remained on edge on Saturday, with barricades of tyres blocking some streets in the city centre.

The hastily arranged referenda are similar to the March referendum in Crimea that approved secession from Ukraine. Crimea was formally annexed by Russia days later.

But organisers of the eastern vote have said that only later will a decision be made on whether they would use their nominal sovereignty to seek full independence, absorption by Russia or to stay part of Ukraine but with expanded power for the regions.

News agency Reuters reported that election officials in the eastern Ukrainian town of Slaviansk were checking voter registration lists and loading boxes full of ballots on Saturday.

"The main problem would be if we are attacked tomorrow, that would be the main problem. Otherwise now we already have ballots. Ballot boxes as you can see are being loaded in (trucks), we have places (to hold the vote)," Slaviansk election official Anatoly Khmelevoy said.

Of course in order to organise everything in a normal way and according to the law local polling stations get three weeks, but we have only three to four days. So, obviously there will be some minor problems, but the will of people to take part in the vote is overwhelming," Khmelevoy said.

Ballot papers have been printed for more than three million eligible participants in the vote. The voting was initially supposed to run between 8am and 10pm (0500-1900 GMT), when counting will begin.

Reuters was also reporting that the list of voters was two years old and there would be no minimum turnout required for the result to stand. Nor have any outside observers been invited to the area which pro-Russian rebels have declared a "People's Republic".

"Do you support the act of self-rule of the People's Republic of Donetsk?" the ballot paper asks, using a vague term which could also mean sovereignty.

Except for a small illustration at either end of the ballot paper, the black-and-white printed page contained no special markings that might prevent it from being duplicated, Reuters said.

Russia warned on poll

Meanwhile, France and Germany warned Russia on Saturday of possibly expanding sanctions if Moscow continued to sow unrest ahead of the official Ukrainian elections later this month, on the eve of the "illegal" referenda.

In a joint statement, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also urged Ukraine's security forces to stop their offensive on rebel-held positions ahead of the planned May 25 presidential election.

"We consider the referendum scheduled for Sunday illegitimate and are focusing on the election on May 25 in the entire Ukraine. If that is not happening that would lead unavoidably to further destabilisation of the country. And then the measure adopted by the European Council comes into play. And we are ready to take further sanctions against Russia," Merkel said.

Paris and Berlin also said that "proportionate" force should be used to protect people and buildings as Kiev battled to wrest back control of rebel-held areas.
Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports from Donetsk

However, they stressed that "the Ukrainian security services should refrain from offensive actions before the election".

Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan, reporting from Donetsk, described the mood around Mariupol as "tense".

"On the view of the security, the chairman said the polling stations were going to be manned and staffed and guarded by volunteers. Now, the volunteers we very often see in the streets here and in Luhansk are armed with pistols and rifles and wear balaclavas," our reporter said.

"It's hardly a reassuring volunteering presence, put it that way."

Europe

Pro-Russian separatists in provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk hold vote that could pave the way for secession.
Last updated: 11 May 2014 13:50


Pro-Russian rebels are holding a "self-rule" vote in eastern Ukraine, a move criticised by the US as "illegal" and which could pull the former Soviet republic apart.

Sunday's poll, carried out as two "referendums" in the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, where armed men hold more than a dozen towns, marks a serious deepening of the political crisis in the country.

Although a "yes" vote would likely only be recognised by Russia, it would greatly undermine a presidential election which Ukraine is to hold in two weeks time.

The US and the European Union see the presidential election as crucial to restoring stability in Ukraine.

In a statement released on Saturday, Jen Psaki, the US State Department spokeswoman, said the referendums were "illegal under Ukrainian law and are an attempt to create further division and disorder".

"If these referenda go forward, they will violate international law and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The United States will not recognise the results of these illegal referenda," she said.

In comments posted on Ukraine's presidential website on Saturday, acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said the vote would lead to "a complete destruction of the economy, social programmes and general life for the majority of the population".

"This is a step into the abyss for the regions," Turchynov said.

Earlier on Saturday, France and Germany jointly threatened "consequences" on Russia if the presidential election is scuppered - echoing US President Barack Obama's warning of automatic sanctions that would slice into whole sectors of Russia's weakening economy.

Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan, reporting from Donetsk, said voters had been asked a "deliberately coy" question about self-rule.

He said "it does not specify what form that rule may or may not take. It is deliberately coy".

Our correspondent also said the people in the east do not like the Kiev government but they do not necessarily want to break away.

A new poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project shows a majority of those living in Ukraine - both in the restive east and more nationalist west - want the country's borders to remain intact, Brennan said.

The self-rule votes and presidential election come amid intensifying violence on the ground in east Ukraine.

Troops have been battling the well-armed rebels, who have barricaded themselves in towns and cities in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Despite rebel claims that the polling will reach 90 percent of the seven million people living in these two provinces, the areas they hold account for less than half that population.

Polling stations opened in schools in rebel-held territories at 8am (05:00 GMT) and will close 12 hours later, according to rebel chiefs in the city of Donetsk.

Reporting from Kiev, Al Jazeera's Kim Vinnell said the Ukrainian government had dismissed the vote as "illegitimate".

However, like in Crimea - which Russia annexed in March after a similar referendum - Ukraine has been powerless to stop preparations.

The government and its Western backers accuse Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, of deploying special forces in east Ukraine, as in Crimea, to see the vote through and to sabotage the May 25 presidential election.

Putin belatedly admitted sending military forces, but not special forces, to Crimea but continues to deny militarily meddling in east Ukraine.

Rebels claim massive turnout in Ukraine vote
Pro-Russian separatists in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk hold vote decried by Kiev as "criminal farce".
Last updated: 11 May 2014 21:19


Pro-Russian rebels have claimed a massive turnout in a vote for self-rule they held in two regions of eastern Ukraine amid fears it could lead to civil war.

Shortly before voting closed on Sunday, at least one person was killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a crowd outside a town hall in the east.

The bloodshed in Krasnoarmeisk occurred hours after dozens of guardsmen shut down one of the town's voting stations.

With voting carried out Donetsk and Lugansk, one separatist leader said on Sunday the region would form its own state bodies and military after the referendum, formalising a split with Kiev that began with the armed takeover of state buildings in a dozen eastern towns last month, Reuters news agency reported.

Another said the vote would not change the region's status, but simply show that the East wanted to decide its own fate, whether in Ukraine, on its own or as part of Russia.

Thousands of people queued in front of a limited number of polling stations in the restive provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk to cast their ballots, AFP journalists in several towns reported on Sunday.

"I want to be independent from everyone," said ex-factory worker Nikolai Cherepin as he voted yes in the town of Mariupol, in Donetsk province. Yugoslavia broke up and they live well now".

Separatist leaders asserted that more than 70 percent of the electorate in the two regions, home to seven million of Ukraine's total population of 46 million, had voted.

However, there was no way to verify that assertion. No independent observers were monitoring the vote, which took place in the absence of any international support, even from Moscow which had called for its postponement.

No violent incidents were reported during polling, but tensions remained high amid an ongoing military operation ordered by Kiev against the rebels.

Early on Sunday, an isolated clash occurred on the outskirts of the flashpoint town of Slovyansk as fighters tried to recapture a TV tower, but polling in the centre was unaffected.

Roman Lyaguin, the head of Donetsk's self-styled electoral commission, told reporters that the voter turnout across the province was 70 percent four hours before polls were to close at 8:00pm local time [17:00 GMT].

Lugansk's rebels put their province's turnout at more than 75 percent. Lyaguin added that results would not be in until Monday, but he appeared confident that the outcome would be in favour of independence.

After the results, he said, "there will likely be a period of negotiation with the authorities in Kiev".

The hastily organised poll fell short of Western balloting norms.

Booths were not set up in every town taking part, and polling staff lacking electoral rolls registered anyone who turned up to vote.

'Null and void'

The authorities in Kiev called the process a "criminal farce" that had no legal or constitutional validity.

It said the vote was "inspired, organised and financed by the Kremlin".

Western nations backing the Ukrainian government also dismissed the regional votes, with French President Francois Hollande calling them "null and void" during a visit to Azerbaijan.

Britain's Foreign Office issued a statement calling the "illegitimate, so-called referendum" regrettable.

The United States and the European Union see Russian President Vladimir Putin's hand in the unrest that has gripped eastern Ukraine since early April.

They believe he is seeking a repeat of the scenario that led to Russia's annexation of Crimea in March.

Soldiers killed in east Ukraine ambush
Defence Ministry says at least six government troops killed by separatists near city of Krematorsk.
Last updated: 13 May 2014 19:44

The convoy was reportedly attacked by a group of about 30 [EPA]

An ambush by pro-Russian separatists has killed at least six Ukrainian soldiers, the heaviest loss of life for government forces in a single clash since Kiev sent soldiers to put down a rebellion in the country's east.

Ukraine's defence ministry and state security service on Tuesday said the troops were killed and seven others wounded when their armoured column was ambushed near the town of Kramatorsk, one of several hot spots in the largely Russian-speaking east where the army has had scant success against the rebels.

Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan, reporting from Donetsk, the incident occurred at 13:00 local time when a convoy of military units from the Ukrainian army was ambushed by a group of about 30 people the ministry called "terrorists".


The attackers had taken cover among bushes along a river and used automatic weapons and grenade launchers.

According to the ministry, the first shot was fired from a grenade launcher at the convoy and hit an engine of one of the vehicles.The initial attack killed two and injured three, the ministry said.

All the dead and injured have since been evacuated.

Our correspondent said a pro-Russian website had made the claim that 30 soldiers had died in the attack, but this information could not be independently verified.

Krematorsk is in the northern part of the Donetsk region, which on Sunday declared its independence from Ukraine and sought an alliance with Russia following a vote for self-rule in the area.

The attack comes less than two weeks ahead of Ukraine's presidential elections, slated by many as a means of restoring peace, but something that both Donetsk and Lushank, the second area to declare independence, have said will not be held in the regions.

"The timing of this attack is particularly bad," our correspondent said. "When you have incidents such as what happened this afternoon it really does overshadow the efforts of diplomats and politicians.

Another nine Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Kiev launched a so-called "anti-terrorist" operation in the east in mid-April, a defence ministry official said.

The campaign has been directed mainly against rebels in the towns of Slovyansk and Mariupol.

The dead included 5 pilots, Defence Minister Mikhailo Koval said, who apparently died when their helicopters were downed by separatist fire.

Ukraine separatists seek union with Russia
Pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine declare independence and announce interest in annexation by Russia.
Last updated: 13 May 2014 03:32

Separatist leaders said they had received over 80 percent support for self-rule in a referendum on Sunday [Reuters]

Pro-Moscow activists in eastern Ukraine have declared independence and sought to join Russia, undermining upcoming presidential elections and strengthening the Kremlin's hand.

Monday’s declaration added pressure on Kiev to hold talks with the separatists following a referendum on self-rule in the east of the country.

Self-declared separatist leader Denis Pushilin announced at a press conference that the self-styled Donetsk's People's Republic (DPR) is seeking annexation with Russia.

"Based on the will of the DPR and to restore historic justice we ask the Russian Federation to consider the question of entry of the DPR into the Russian Federation," Pushilin said.

However, Russia has signalled that it has no intention of subsuming eastern Ukraine the way it annexed Crimea in March. Instead, Moscow is pushing to include eastern regions in negotiations on Ukraine's future.

The declarations of independence by Donetsk and Luhansk come just 13 days ahead of a Ukraine national presidential election, which both regions say they will not take part in.

Talks with Kiev

Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk pledged on Monday to hold talks with those in Ukraine's east. But he gave no specifics and did not address Sunday's vote or the recent declarations of independence.

"We would like to launch the broad national dialogue with the east, centre, the west, and all of Ukraine," Yatsenyuk told a news conference in Brussels, adding that the agenda should include changes to the constitution to give more power to the regions.

Ukraine's central government and the international community say that the Kremlin has encouraged weeks of unrest in eastern Ukraine in a possible attempt to grab more land, but Russia denies these accusations.

The US said that it does not recognise the “illegal referendum” held over the weekend.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides “to find a way back to the spirit of compromise” exhibited on April 17 in Geneva when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry and diplomats from Ukraine and Europe agreed on tentative steps to halt violence and calm tensions - and to implement the accord.

"There is still time halt the descent of Ukraine into full-blown conflict," Ban said.

But Lavrov said Moscow saw no need for another four-way meeting, saying Ukrainian authorities should focus on a dialogue with the east.

He accused Washington and Kiev of stonewalling the OSCE plan and warned that efforts to defuse the crisis wouldn't succeed without "engaging opponents of the regime in a direct dialogue".

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he is "supportive" of the OSCE's de-escalation roadmap for Ukraine, according to the European security body.

Ukraine separatists declare independence
Leaders of eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions declare independence after claiming victory in Sunday's self-rule vote.
Last updated: 12 May 2014 20:31


Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine have declared independence, undermining an upcoming May 25 presidential election, strengthening the Kremlin's hand and putting pressure on Kiev to hold talks with the self-proclaimed regional leaders.

The declarations of independence by Donetsk and Luhansk come just 13 days ahead of a Ukraine national presidential election, which both regions say they will not take part in.

Separatist leaders said 89 percent of those who cast ballots on Sunday in the Donetsk region and about 96 percent of those who turned out in Luhansk voted for sovereignty.

Voters "have chosen that path that has enabled the formation of an independent state, the Luhansk People's Republic," said self-declared "people's governor" Valery Bolotov at a rally in the city of Luhansk.

The crowd cheered enthusiastically, but Bolotov stopped short of declaring the region's desire to join Russia.

Donetsk, however, did ask to join its neighbour's federation.

"We, the people of the Donetsk People's Republic, based on the results of the May 11, 2014, referendum, declare that henceforth the Donetsk People's Republic will be deemed a sovereign state," Denis Pushilin, co-chairman of the separatist government, said to applause on Monday.

"The people of Donetsk have always been part of the Russian world, regardless of ethnic affiliation. For us, the history of Russia is our history," he said.

Both Donetsk and Luhansk said the Ukraine presidential election on May 25 would not be held in the newly independent regions, a status unacknowledged by Kiev.

'Talks with East'

For its part, Russia signalled it had no intention of subsuming eastern Ukraine the way it annexed Crimea in March.

Instead, Moscow is pushing to include eastern regions in negotiations on Ukraine's future, suggesting that Russia prefers a political, not military, solution to its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War.

Such talks are central to a potential path towards peace outlined on Monday by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The plan laid out by Swiss President Didier Burkhalter calls on all sides to refrain from violence and urges immediate amnesty, talks on decentralisation and the status of the Russian language.

Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk pledged on Monday to hold talks with those in Ukraine's east. But he gave no specifics and did not address Sunday's vote or the declarations of independence by the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"We would like to launch the broad national dialogue with the east, centre, the west, and all of Ukraine," Yatsenyuk told a news conference in Brussels, adding that the agenda should include changes to the constitution to give more power to the regions.

Ukraine regions to boycott presidential vote
Separatist leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk say the May 25 vote will not be held in the two eastern regions.
Last updated: 12 May 2014 15:00


Ukraine's planned presidential election, seen by the EU as vital to restoring order in the country, will not be held in two restive eastern regions, separatist leaders have said.

Separatist leaders on Monday said the May 25 election will not be held in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two regions where a vote for self-rule was held on Sunday. Unverified results of the vote announced by the separatists indicate an overwhelming "yes" vote.

Denis Pushilin, the self-styled governor of the "People's Republic of Donetsk" said the presidential election "will not happen" in the Donetsk region, AFP news agency reported.

A separatist leader from Luhansk also said the presidential vote will not be held in the region.

"As of today, we are now the Republic of Luhansk, which believes it to be inappropriate and perhaps even stupid to hold a presidential election," Russia's RIA news agency quoted him as saying.

Donetsk's self-styled governor also said Donetsk was asking Moscow to consider its absorption into the Russian Federation, Reuters news agency reported.

"We have received sovereignty, the right to decide independently to enter into a confederation or federation with any country," Pushilin said.

Only Russia is likely to recognise the "People's Republic of Donetsk" and the Kremlin has already said it "respects the expression of the people's will" there.

On Monday, however, the Kremlin made it clear that Moscow has no intention of immediately annexing the regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's office urged the Ukrainian government to engage in talks with representatives of eastern Ukraine that could be brokered by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Russian state news agency RIA, meanwhile, reported that Luhansk would be holding a referendum to join Russia following Sunday's vote for self-rule.

"If this decision (to hold a referendum on joining Russia) is taken, then, respectively, the will of the people will be taken into account," RIA cited a spokesman for the pro-Russian separatists as saying.

More sanctions

A referendum organiser was reported as saying that 96.2 percent of voters supported autonomy for Luhansk.

The vote for self-rule has been denounced by Kiev.

Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers held talks over Ukraine, insisting the May 25 presidential election go ahead, as they prepared to announce new sanctions against Russians and Crimeans involved in the crisis.

A further 13 people and two companies were expected to be listed as subject to a European Union asset freeze and visa ban, two EU diplomats told AFP.

The foreign ministers also hinted at further sanctions if the election were to be disrupted, Reuters news agency reported.

"The European Union will pay particular attention to all parties' attitude and behaviour towards the holding of free and fair presidential elections when deciding about possible future measures," they said in a statement after a meeting in Brussels.

Europe
Rebels declare victory in east Ukraine poll
Pro-Russian separatists announce 89 percent of voters in Donetsk favoured self-rule, in referendum rejected by Kiev.
Last updated: 12 May 2014 12:49


Pro-Russian activists have declared a resounding victory in a twin referendum on sovereignty for eastern Ukraine, despite condemnation from the international community and Kiev, who called it a "criminal farce", amid violence.

Roman Lyagin, election chief of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, said on Sunday that at least 89 percent of the Donetsk region's almost three million eligible voters voted in favour of self-rule.

Russian news agencies said more that 75 percent of eligible residents had voted in the referendum.

With no international election monitors in place, it was impossible to verify the separatists' claims, reported the Associated Press news agency. The preliminary vote count was announced just two hours after the polls closed in an election conducted with paper ballots.

A second referendum organised by pro-Russian separatists was also held on Sunday in eastern Ukraine's industrial Luhansk region, with preliminary figures indicating, according to the separatists, more than a 94 percent vote in favour of self-rule.

The turnout was reported to be more than 73 percent. None of these figures can be verified.

Luhansk is also contemplating holding a referendum on joining Russia, state news agency RIA reported on Monday, citing a spokesman for the region's pro-Russian separatists.

"If this decision [to hold a referendum on joining Russia] is taken, then, respectively, the will of the people will be taken into account," RIA cited a spokesman for the pro-Russian separatists as saying.

Andy Hunder, the director of the Ukrainian Institute in London, told Al Jazeera that the figures from the referendum were not representative of the whole eastern region.

"I think in terms of the numbers there's no surprise there - the figure of 89 percent was actually intercepted in calls by the secret service two days ago, and they recommended to use this figure," said Hunder, adding that the biggest issue currently was for the presidential elections to take place, with the support of the Donetsk authorities and oligarchs.

Ukraine's central government and the West had condemned the balloting as a sham and a violation of international law, and they have accused Moscow of orchestrating the unrest in a possible attempt to grab another piece of the country weeks after the annexation of Crimea.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry called the twin referendum a "criminal farce," while the US and other Western governments said they would not recognise the outcome.
Andy Hunder, Director of the Ukrainian Institute London

Fighting flares in east

Although the voting in the two regions with a combined population of 6.5 million appeared mostly peaceful, armed men identified as members of the Ukrainian national guard opened fire on a crowd outside the town hall in Krasnoarmeisk, and an official with the region's separatist leaders said people were killed.

The Associated Press reported that the death toll was unclear. The attack in Krasnoarmeisk, about 30km from the regional capital, Donetsk, came hours after armed men, one of whom said they were from the national guard, put a stop to the voting and took control of town hall.

The results of the two referendums could hasten the breakup of the country and worsen what is already the gravest crisis between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War.

Over the past few weeks, the Ukrainian government and the West have accused Russia of trying to destabilise the country or create a pretext for another invasion. Russia - which annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula just days after voters there approved secession in a March referendum - has rejected the accusations.

Europe
Ukraine agrees to 'decentralisation' talks
Kiev launches dialogue as part of OSCE plan, but its success remains doubtful as separatists are excluded.
Last updated: 14 May 2014 17:09

The Ukrainian government has launched talks on decentralising power as part of a European-backed peace plan, Reuters news agency reported.

Interim President Oleksander Turchynov opened the talks on Wednesday by saying Kiev was ready to listen to pro-Russian rebels in the east but would not bow to blackmail.

The meeting of political leaders government figures and regional officials did not include the pro-Russian separatists who have declared independence in two eastern regions. Without this inclusion, it was unclear what the negotiations might hope to accomplish.

The talks are part of the peace plan drafted by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a trans-Atlantic security and rights group that includes Russia and the United States, but require the attendance of anti-Kiev groups under the proposal.

Interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk thanked the OSCE for its efforts but said Ukraine has its own plan to end the crisis.

In a speech in Brussels on Tuesday, he gave no details of that plan.

Opening the talks on Wednesday, Turchynov said, "Those with weapons in hand who are waging a war against their own country and dictating the will of a neighbouring country will answer before the law. We will not yield to blackmail."

"We are ready to listen to the people of the east but they must not shoot, loot or occupy government buildings."

Many separatists in the east shrugged off the round-table talks as meaningless.

"The government in Kiev does not want to listen to the people of Donetsk," said Denis Patkovski, a member of a pro-Russian armed group in Slovyansk, which has seen some of the most intense fighting in recent weeks.

"They just come here with their guns."

'Civil war'

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pushed for the separatists to be included in the round-table talks during an interview with Bloomberg television.

"We believe that for this national dialogue to succeed it is absolutely necessary to ensure equal participation of all regions of Ukraine," he said.

This included not only separatists in the east and south "but also the regions of the west where we also have some issues related to self-determination of minorities".
Inside Story: Self-rule in Ukraine?

Ukraine and the West have accused Moscow of fomenting the unrest in eastern Ukraine, where armed groups have seized administrative buildings, fought government forces and declared independence for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after a self-rule vote last weekend that Ukraine and Western powers called a "sham".

The self-declared leaders of the regions also said that a planned May 25 presidential election would not happen in the "newly-independent states".

Lavrov on Wednesday said the worsening situation in Ukraine was another impediment to the upcoming election, AFP news agency reported.

"When Ukrainians kill Ukrainians I believe this is as close to a civil war as you can get," he said.

"And if this is conducive to free and fair elections then I don't recognise what free and fair is."

Ukrainian forces have mounted an offensive against the separatists, and dozens have died in the fighting across the east.

Ukraine continues 'anti-terrorism' crackdown
There is growing concern that nationalist armed groups are joining the operation in the country's east.
Last updated: 15 May 2014 16:09


Ukraine's government is continuing what it calls an "anti-terrorism" operation in the country's east.

There is also growing concern that nationalist armed groups, like the Right Sector, are signing up to help them.

The Right Sector was a violent but instrumental part of the protests that ousted Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine's former president, in February.

Al Jazeera's Kim Vinnell reports from Dessna.

Ukraine: A dangerous game
As crucial elections approach, is Ukraine really as divided as people have been told?
People and Power Last updated: 15 May 2014 11:20


For months, the Ukrainian crisis has been deepening, with Moscow-backed separatists responding to Russia’s expansionist ambitions and rhetoric, and Ukrainian nationalists looking to the West for support.

But are the underlying divisions as clear as they’re portrayed? What basis is there for assuming that what must follow is civil war and partition - as some seem to fear?

Journalist and filmmaker Michael Andersen has worked extensively in Ukraine. With national elections set for later this month, People & Power sent him to assess the narrative that has taken the country down such a dangerous path.
Filmmaker's View

By Michael Anderson @MAjourno

When People & Power asked me to take a look at the fault lines running through the current crisis in Ukraine, my first thought was this wasn't a country I recognised - or at least not in the way it was being portrayed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, most Russian commentators, and also quite a few Western media pundits, politicians and other "experts."

That narrative – which said Ukrainians were hell-bent on tearing their country apart - just didn’t ring true. I’ve travelled and worked in Ukraine off and on for 15 years, and it all seemed a little preposterous to me. Nevertheless, in March and April, 2014, as the political situation deteriorated, I tracked back and forth across the country in search of people who could help me make an accurate assessment.

Well, I can only report what I found - and that was an overwhelming majority of ordinary Ukrainians keen to reject the myths of fascism, division and unavoidable civil war that have been vigorously peddled by those with something sinister to gain.

... There is little real basis for a civil war here, and there are no intrinsic or deep rooted social or ethnic tensions that by themselves should trigger the so-called 'Yugoslav scenario' that some are predicting.

Let's look at some of those myths:

The Russian president has stated that "terror, murder and pogroms" are taking place in Ukraine. "The perpetrators", according to President Putin, "are nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russo-phobic, anti-Semites".

It was interesting then that the very first person to catch my eye in March, filming amid the demonstrators on the famous Maidan in Kyiv, was an elderly pensioner wrapped up warm against the cold. She was holding up a handwritten sign which read: "Putin – Do I look like a Nazi to you?"

Of course, such sentiments mean nothing in isolation, but I know that she wasn't (and isn't) alone. Spend any time perusing the thousands of comments and satirical cartoons on social media coming out of Ukraine in the last couple of months and you'll see just how many people have seen through Russian propaganda since this crisis began.

President Putin has also repeatedly sworn or (as some would have it) has threatened, that he will defend the millions of Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine; people who, according to Moscow's line, are in such dreadful peril they have to be rescued by their motherland.

But again that day, scattered around the Maidan, I saw several signs being held up which read: "I am Russian but I don’t need your help."

What has surprised me more is the way President Putin's "division" narrative has been so eagerly embraced by some Western media outlets. An enduring image from this crisis -- found time and again in recent months on TV screens from Los Angeles to Warsaw -- has been a map of Ukraine torn in two, with ethnic Ukrainians in the West, ethnic Russians in the East, a thick black border between the two, a clear implication that a civil war and partition will be the inevitable outcome of longstanding, historically rooted tensions between two bitter antagonists.

Yet I quickly found that this doesn’t marry with what expert analysts on the ground are saying: namely that there is little real basis for a civil war here, and there are no intrinsic or deep rooted social or ethnic tensions that by themselves should trigger the so-called "Yugoslav scenario" that some are predicting.

Professor Nataliya Chernysh is a sociologist who has studied the attitudes and opinions of this country for the past 20 years. According to her nationwide surveys, conducted among Ukrainians from across the political and social spectrum, she has found that "only seven percent support the idea of dividing Ukraine into two different countries… . Ninety-five percent of all respondents answered that they think Ukraine is our motherland."

'What about Crimea'

"Ok..." sceptics might argue, "But what about Crimea?"

Back in 1954, when Crimea, with an overwhelming majority of ethnic Russians, was transferred from the Russian to the Ukrainian part of the Soviet Union there was little tension. As a favoured holiday destination for people from across the USSR, it received plenty of investment as a "showcase" for Socialism. But since 1991, as part of independent Ukraine, Crimea has often been ignored, it's former "special" status unheeded by the new country's political leadership. This inevitably created some unhappiness, and this was exacerbated by this winter’s dramatic events in the capital, Kiev, which saw the pro-Russian President Victor Yanukovich deposed.

I wasn't surprised therefore, while traveling through Crimea, to meet people who were frightened of the changes they saw coming their way. They were worried about possible bans on the use of the Russian language and increasingly by the stories emanating from Moscow of Ukrainian fascists from Kiev being sent down to destabilise the region. In mid-March, 97 percent - at least officially - voted in favour of joining Russia, and soon after Crimea was annexed by the Kremlin.

However I also met many other Crimeans who were proud to be Ukrainian. And several polls from 2013 show that even amongst the Russians here, only a little more than half actually wanted Crimea to become part of Russia again.

According to Putin, the demonstrations that toppled the Ukrainian government in February, and which subsequently posed a threat to Crimea, were led by neo-Nazis from Western Ukraine; unapologetic fascists whose ideological roots date back to the 1930s and 40s, and the "Bandera partisans" (followers of nationalist Stepan Bandera) who fought on Germany’s side in World War II. It's a theme which some in the Western media have picked up, too, reflected in several reports about extreme right-wingers now in power in Ukraine.

The country goes to the polls on May 25 to elect a new government. It can only be hoped that its citizens - whatever their background - defy the provocation and send a clear signal that harmony rather than conflict should be the theme of the months and years ahead.

But according to Andreas Umland, an internationally recognised expert on right-wing movements, this is an issue in desperate need of some perspective.

Support for the far right across Ukraine is minimal (extreme nationalists are expected to get around 10 percent of the vote in forthcoming elections), and it is a grave mistake to give them more prominence than they are due.

"The Bandera wing was an ultra-nationalist organisation, ethno-centric, xenophobic, anti-Semitic… . Most Ukrainians who think of Bandera today, prefer not to remember the problematic aspects of their history. But I wouldn't over-interpret it. It's not an expression of widespread fascism."

Millions of Ukrainians, he pointed out, had died during the war, victims of both sides of that conflict - and for the media to frame this current crisis in historical terms and to continue echoing Moscow's emotive and inaccurate language about "fascists" could only destabilise things further and create more panic.

"This panic can then be used by Russia as an excuse for a military invasion. That is playing with fire."

Tragically, driven by more inflammatory rhetoric, mostly from Moscow, this wholly manufactured crisis is now taking on a life of its own. Earlier this month, the interim government in Kiev admitted that it had lost control of parts of the east of the country. In recent days, a "referendum" organised by separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk - a ballot no genuinely impartial observer could describe as legitimate - unsurprisingly delivered a huge local majority in favour of secession from Ukraine. This was promptly followed by appeals to the Kremlin for the area to be taken back under Russian sovereignty. Sporadic outbreaks of violence are increasing.

"If the Russian army moves in tomorrow, nobody here will protest," a middle-aged man had shouted at me in Kharkiv, from amid the ranks of a small group of pro-separatists gathered under a statue of Lenin.

Of course, my journey had told me that many people would object, but my anxiety now is that it might soon be too late for the vast majority of Ukrainians who want nothing more than for their country to be stable, prosperous and unified. The country goes to the polls on May 25 to elect a new government. It can only be hoped that its citizens - whatever their background - defy the provocation and send a clear signal that harmony rather than conflict should be the theme of the months and years ahead.

Europe
Ukrainian workers join anti-separatist fight
Steelworkers employed by billionaire Ukrainian businessman enlist to help push separatists out of the country's east.
Last updated: 16 May 2014 20:12

Steelworkers in Ukraine are helping to push pro-Russia activists out of the government buildings that they have been occupying in the country's east.

The steelworkers are employees of a billionaire Ukrainian businessman, Rinat Akhmetov.

He asked them to help local police improve security in the city of Mariupol.

But residents have accused Akhmetov of using his workers for public relations purposes.

Al Jazeera's Kim Vinnell reports from Mariupol.

Allegiances wane after Ukraine killing
Village woman's roadside execution highlights escalating tension between civilians and armed groups.
John Wendle Last updated: 19 May 2014 14:53

The cold-blooded killing of Lena Ott, by suspects believed to be linked to Kiev, has villagers rethinking their loyalty [EPA]

Starovarvarivka, Ukraine - The men from the village sweated in the harsh sun, their shovels scraping and cracking through the deep clay of southeast Ukraine. A pile of baked earth slowly grew next to the grave. A man came up the dirt road, walking between the bright blue crosses of the cemetery through the long grass.

Aleksander Ott's face was crumpled in despair. Leaning against the broken trunk of a tree, he stared absently at the newly dug grave of his wife, killed the night before in an attack near Kramatorsk, an epicentre of violence in Ukraine's southeast.

In this quiet, sun-drenched corner of Ukraine - a place with rich, black earth and fat cows - the villagers of Starovarvarivka were in a state of shock. No one could understand how the wife of a local farmer could be shot dead in the fields. Moreover, no one could understand how the tremors from the revolution on the Maidan and Russia's response could reach them in this forgotten corner of the countryside. Only one thing was sure - Ott's wife Lena was dead.

"They shouted, 'Hands up!' Then they told them to lie down on the ground. That's when they shot her," said Ott. "Why did this happen? For what? For a free Ukraine? For Russia? I don't want either of them. I want peace." (nota: por actitud como la tuya es por la que se la están metiendo bien doblada a tú país)

The army doesn't want to fight against the people but this National Guard, made up of who knows who - bandits and that sort - they are the ones who did this.

- Andrei, local farmer

But in the graveyard where his wife of more than 20 years would be buried, his tone changed suddenly. As his neighbours continued to dig, he shouted, "It was soldiers, not terrorists. It was Ukrainian soldiers!"

In this slow-burning quasi-civil war of beatings, shootings, occupied government offices, detentions, rumour and ambush - facts are scarce and emotion rules the day. In this new atmosphere, in this tightly knit village and across Ukraine, who shot Lena Ott now matters less than what people perceive.

Boiling point

This is the story of how a fight for territory and influence between Russia and the West has spun out of their hands and gained a vicious momentum. It is the story of how a struggle between Moscow and Washington ends up with a village woman being shot to death in a field last Wednesday.

Ott caught his breath and choked. "The village, we were 99 percent for Ukraine. And now, after what they've done, all this shooting here, now I don't know … If I had a rifle, I would also begin shooting at both sides."

On Wednesday morning, Lena Ott and her son Pavl got in their red Niva, a Russian car known for its ruggedness and off-road ability. Living at the end of a dirt road in a shallow grassy valley near a spring-fed pond in the 200-year-old heart of Starovarvarivka, deep in the countryside of Donetsk province, they needed a tough car. But with recent events, they were counting on that ruggedness even more.

Since violence ignited in Ukraine's southeast on April 12 with the takeover in the town of Slovyansk of the police station and the district office of the Ukrainian security services by masked and armed men, people have had to find a way to keep on getting by. Many have taken to driving on back roads and cow paths to avoid the separatist and Ukrainian army checkpoints that have popped up.

Just the day before Ott's killing, fighting flared as armed men ambushed a Ukrainian army convoy of armoured personnel carriers in the nearby village of Oktyabrsk, near the separatist stronghold of Kramatorsk. The attack left at least six soldiers dead and eight wounded, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence reported. Tensions reached a boiling point.

The mother and son decided to brave the dangers and visit Nadia, Lena's sister, in the village of Bilozersk, some 20km away. The drive would take them right through the arc of instability that lies to the northwest of the city of Donetsk, capital of the just-declared People's Republic of Donetsk - a republic that has both declared independence from Kiev and asked for membership in the Russian Federation.

Armed pro-Russian fighters take position at a checkpoint in the eastern Ukranian city of Slavyansk [AFP]

Trouble after dark

They must have left Nadia's house to drive home later than they expected to. Few want to travel the roads these days as darkness approaches, since that is the time when separatists are on the move. The separatists have imposed a curfew in some towns they control.

At about 8:30pm, Pavl was driving the red Niva through the growing darkness near a stand of trees about 4km southwest of Starovarvarivka, the village in which Lena was born and in which she lived her whole life.

Suddenly a DShK heavy machine gun mounted on an armoured personnel carrier and AK-47 assault rifles opened up on the rear of the car as it drove by, shattering the window. One round, slightly larger than that fired by a .50 calibre machine gun, blew a saucer-sized hole in the left rear of the roof. Smaller rounds pierced the hatchback. Two larger bullet holes punctured the windscreen at the front of the car - one each at head level at the driver and passenger seats.

Miraculously neither Lena nor Pavl were hit. Pavl stopped the car and the pair got out. They walked back the way they had come, towards the shooters. "Hands up!" someone shouted through the darkness. They raised their hands. "Lay down!" They laid down. Then shots rang out.

When Pavl opened his eyes, his mother was lying next to him on the ground, covered in blood. A man in camouflage fatigues with no identifying marks had his finger on Lena's neck, checking for a pulse. "That's it," the man said.

Al Jazeera gained access to the Niva, was shown the casing of a 12.7mm round used in a DShK machine gun collected at the scene, and had Pavl's statement read back by Ukrainian police. Both the Ukrainian army and the separatists have armoured personnel carriers and heavy machine guns.

That night a Ukrainian army clearance operation was staged outside of Starovarvarivka to capture or kill the group of rebels that had ambushed the Ukrainian army convoy the day before. The band was rumoured to be hiding somewhere in the surrounding woods. Journalists at a nearby checkpoint about an hour before the shooting saw a column of armoured vehicles roll by, heading in the direction of the village.

'Bandits and that sort'

The next morning, villagers in Starovarvarivka were furious and scared. Gathered in the dappled shade of a roadside tree, they all spoke at once, saying a column of armoured vehicles had rolled down the main street, shooting indiscriminately at houses as a helicopter gunship flew close cover at about 8pm.


"The army doesn't want to fight against the people but this National Guard, made up of who knows who - bandits and that sort - they are the ones who did this," said Andrei, a local farmer, who preferred to not give his last name for security reasons. "These guys are volunteers from the Maidan," he said, referring to groups that helped depose former president Viktor Yanukovich during pitched battles in the centre of Kiev earlier this year. "This is Ukrainian on Ukrainian.

"Here we have Russia and here we have America, and here we are between them, and they are grinding away at us," he said, leaning on a bicycle he would later use to herd more than 100 cattle back to their various owners after they had been scattered across the countryside by the previous night's shooting. "Russia doesn't want to give it up and we're here, suffering."

At a Ukrainian checkpoint where the red Niva was seen parked the morning after Ott's killing, the soldiers talked little, sitting on sandbag bunkers or reclining on top of armoured personnel carriers, smoking cigarettes. When asked where the car had come from, Denis, a soldier with a Cossack-style moustache and wearing a black ammunition carrier, claimed to have never seen the vehicle. When told about the shooting and that the villagers were blaming the Ukrainian army for it, he said, "That can't be. That couldn't happen. We're fighting against the Russians. All of what you heard is a provocation."

Anger, anguish and shock

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report on Thursday on the situation in Ukraine. It said a number of civilians on both pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian sides have been killed in protests and attacks.

Tensions in eastern Ukraine show no sign of waning [EPA]

On the same day, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence confirmed in a statement that it had carried out an anti-insurgent operation on the edge of Starovarvarivka the day before, reporting three rebels were captured. The statement also denied claims by the separatists and Russian media that the military had fired on civilians, stating no civilians had been affected.

But the men digging Lena's grave, lifelong friends and neighbours of the Ott family, see it differently. "How can there be peace now? What peace?" they shout angrily in a chorus of voices as they pass around a glass jar of homemade apricot juice.

"If I speak honestly, if I had a machine gun, I would defend the village. I wouldn't just sit here and let them shoot me. But what am I going to fight with, a shovel? Give me a weapon and I'll sit in ambush," says one man, taking a break from digging, before being told to be quiet. "Yesterday I was working in my field and I had a tank come up to me. What am I to do? They told me to go home, but I have to work the fields to feed my family. They held me up for an hour-and-a-half questioning me in my own field," he says angrily.

By Friday, anger had drained away into anguish and shock. About 50 villagers had gathered at the Otts' house for Lena's funeral. Old women in bright headscarves sang Orthodox hymns as a priest rocked a censer in a tiny room where Lena's body lay in a small coffin, covered in frilly white cloth. Neighbours and family wept as they packed the small, incense-filled house. From the courtyard, both the cemetery and the house she was born and raised in were visible.

As an old truck carried the coffin and Lena's grief-stricken sister to the overgrown cemetery on a hill above a cluster of houses, a group of women wound their way along a path, past a pond and upwards through brush and trees. Even in the face of this tragedy, Lyuba Travinska refused to blame either the rebels or the Ukrainian army.

"These incidents need to stop now, not slowly, now. When people die, we need to stop and think what is going on. We need to put a stop to all of this," she said. "We can live together with Kiev, but our decision means very little."

As a result of the actions of organised armed groups, the continuation of the rhetoric of hatred and propaganda fuels the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, with a potential of spiralling out of control.

- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report

'Spiraling out of control'

Back at the house, sitting in the courtyard with family and friends at a funeral dinner of traditional Ukrainian dishes and vodka shots with no toasts, Aleksander Ott said, "Half of the people here are Russian, but they were 99 percent for Ukraine before this incident. Now people will have to stop and think about that."

None of the two dozen people Al Jazeera spoke to ventured to guess what would happen over the next few days, weeks or months, such is the state of instability here.

The death of Lena Ott has served to galvanise a community, which by all accounts was previously insulated from the surrounding violence and mostly uninterested in it, except to fear it. People are now on the fence about their allegiance. Though the people of Starovarvarivka may have been dragged into this conflict, how events unfold around them will determine what happens next.

For its part, the UN human rights commission draws dark and foreboding conclusions from the violence over the past months in Ukraine.

"Security and law enforcement operations must be in line with international standards and guarantee the protection of all individuals at all times," adding, "Primarily as a result of the actions of organized armed groups, the continuation of the rhetoric of hatred and propaganda fuels the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, with a potential of spiraling out of control."

Europe
Soldiers killed in east Ukraine clashes
At least eight killed and 18 wounded in overnight clashes with pro-Russian separatists near city of Donetsk.
Last updated: 22 May 2014 14:02

Ukraine forces and the pro-Moscow rebels have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine [Reuters]

At least eight Ukrainian security personnel have been killed and 18 wounded in overnight clashes with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, three days before a presidential election in the former Soviet Republic.

Security sources said on Thursday that the main clash took place about 20km south of the industrial hub of Donetsk, which is now in the hands of separatists who say they will disrupt the election.

Ukrainian forces also fought separatists in the neighbouring Luhansk region but there was no word about any casualties there, the Reuters news agency reported.

The defence ministry confirmed that several people died in a firefight near Donetsk, but gave no precise death toll. It added that the clash occurred when gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint near the town of Volnovakha.

Separately, Ukrainian border guards said they rebuffed an attempt by dozens of separatists, armed with grenade launchers and rifles, to enter the Luhansk region overnight from Russia. Several guards were hurt in the fighting.

Separatists on Thursday also seized four Ukrainian coal mines in the country's east, according to the Ministry of Energy.

"The terrorists, threatening [workers] with guns, are demanding explosives" in the eastern Lugansk region near the Russian border, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the mines belong to the Lysychanskugol company.

Frequent clashes

Ukrainian security forces and the pro-Moscow separatists have clashed repeatedly in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, where the breakdown of security has rattled the pro-Western interim government in Kiev.

Kiev has acknowledged that Sunday's election cannot be held in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and has accused Moscow of deliberately seeking to undermine Ukrainian democracy, a charge echoed by the United States and European Union.

Russia denies the legitimacy of the current Kiev government, which took over after mass street protests toppled Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February. He fled to Russia and in March Russia seized Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, asserts that Moscow has the right to intervene on behalf of Russian speakers outside Russia's borders and has expressed sympathy for people in eastern Ukraine who he says face discrimination and harassment by the Kiev government.

Europe
Ukraine checkpoint ambush leaves eight dead
Villagers fear for their lives after witnessing latest violence between pro and anti-Kiev fighters in east of country.
John Wendle Last updated: 23 May 2014 16:18


Karlivka, Ukraine - Eight people have been killed in an attack by pro-Kiev fighters on a fortified checkpoint manned by pro-Moscow rebels in the east of Ukraine.

The attack, launched early on Friday in Karlivka, destroyed one building and left four members of the pro-Russian Vostok Battalion, three fighters from the pro-Ukraine Donbass Battalion, and one civilian dead.

Bullet casings and blood trails were visible on the road when Al Jazeera reached the scene of the attack. Two of the dead Donbass Battalion fighters still lay where they fell, one in a car park near a cafe and another in an outbuilding.

"The attack began around 5:30 this morning," said Sergei, a villager who lives across the street from the checkpoint, which protected a small bridge over a reservoir. "They came in from the south along that small road," he said.

"It's becoming too dangerous here now," said another villager, adding that he was considering an offer he had seen on television to move to Russia.

"What is this? This checkpoint was peaceful. They didn't bother us. Why did they attack it?" said a villager looking at the aftermath. "This is madness. There can be no peace here. I will join the Vostok Battalion now."

The skirmish in the village, 30km northwest of Donetsk, came a day after a surprise attack on a Ukrainian army checkpoint near the village of Volnovakha, to the south of Donetsk, that left an estimated 16 soldiers dead and an undetermined number of separatist fighters.

Many in the area fear more violence ahead of the presidential election scheduled for Sunday by the interim government in Kiev.

Putin says Ukraine in 'full-scale civil war'
Russian leader blames US for crisis in Ukraine advance of presidential vote amid reports of more deaths in the east.
Last updated: 23 May 2014 15:49

Ukraine's elections have been undermined by an upsurge in attacks by pro-Russians in the east [Getty]

Russia's president Vladimir Putin has said that the crisis in Ukraine has evolved into a full-scale civil war, blaming the US for backing the overthrow of former president Viktor Yanukovich.

Putin's comments came on Friday, just two days before Ukrainian presidential elections were due to take place.

"The Ukrainian crisis arose because Yanukovich postponed the association agreement with the European Union. This was followed by a coup backed by our American friends and as a result there is chaos and full-scale civil war," he told an economic forum in Russia's St Petersburg.

Putin's remarks came on a day at least eight people were killed in fighting in the village of Karlivka, near the city of Donetsk, Al Jazeera's John Wendle reported from the scene.

Four of the dead appeared to be members of the self-styled Vostok Battalion while one man with a swastika tattoo seemed to have fought for the Donbass Battalion. Both the volunteer groups are known for their pro-Moscow sympathies.

In another development on Friday, Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine's interim president, appealed to voters to come out and show their support for a free and democratic Ukraine.

"We will never again stand being denied freedom and independence or seeing our Ukraine being turned into a part of a post-Soviet empire," Turchynov said in a brief nationally televised address.

In the face of pressure from the West, Russia has ordered a withdrawal of all forces deployed to regions near its border with Ukraine.

Anatoly Antonov, Russia's deputy defence minister, told Reuters news agency that the Kremlin would leave "less than nothing behind", withdrawing all of its troops "within a few days".

Los rebeldes prorrusos declaran el estado de guerra en Donetsk tras la reanudación de la ofensiva del gobierno ucraniano

Por: Redacción / Sinembargo - mayo 25 de 2014 - 17:07
De revista, Mundo, TIEMPO REAL, Último minuto - Sin comentarios


Kiev, 26 may (EFE).- La autoproclamada república popular de Donetsk declaró hoy el estado de guerra en ese territorio tras la reanudación de la ofensiva de las fuerzas gubernamentales ucranianas contra los bastiones prorrusos del este del país.

“A partir de la medianoche estamos en estado de guerra. Nuestro objetivo prioritario es limpiar nuestro territorio de fuerzas ocupantes”, afirmó Denís Pushilin, líder de la república separatista, citado por las agencias rusas.

Pushilin hizo este anuncio después de que el ministro de Interior de Ucrania, Arsén Avákov, adelantara que la operación antiterrorista contra los rebeldes se reanudará tras las elecciones presidenciales del domingo.

“Las elecciones han concluido. No han logrado sabotearlas. Hemos ganado. Ahora defenderemos el resultado”, escribió Avákov en su cuanta de la red social Facebook.

El ganador de las presidenciales, el magnate Petró Poroshenko, abogó por entablar un “diálogo directo” con la población del este del país y prometió que le garantizará el libre uso de la lengua rusa con un estatus oficial.

Y no descartó que la ceremonia de inauguración se celebre en el Donbass, cuenca hullera ucraniana que incluye a las regiones insurgentes de Donetsk y Lugansk.

Al mismo tiempo, descartó cualquier clase de diálogo con los milicianos insurgentes, aunque se mostró dispuesto a amnistiar a aquellos que depongan las armas, siempre y cuanto no hayan cometido crímenes graves desde el estallido de la sublevación prorrusa a principios de abril.

“Aquellos que quieren convertir al Donbass en Somalia, que no defienden ni los derechos ni la federalización, que se arrogan el derecho a robar y matar, con esa gente no puede haber ninguna negociación”, dijo.EFE

The Blueprint: How Russia and Ukraine Can Move Forward

"There are some signs of an emerging modus vivendi that could restore a semblance of normalcy."
Matthew Rojansky

May 30, 2014
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“The Ukrainian question is one of the most dangerous questions facing us in the future,” wrote Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent years suffering alongside Ukrainian campmates in the Bolshevik Gulag. He penned these prescient words in 1981, a full decade before both Russians and Ukrainians would throw off the yoke of Soviet totalitarianism and establish two independent states side by side.

Yet the peace and relative harmony in which these two states coexisted since 1991 has collapsed in a matter of months into a state of mutual hostility and distrust not seen since the darkest days of World War II. In March, Russia blatantly seized, occupied and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Since then, Russian agents have provided moral and material support for an ongoing, bloody separatist insurgency in southeastern Ukraine which threatens to undermine the national reconciliation so urgently needed following the country’s May 25 presidential election.

Despite these grievous assaults on Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, the two states cannot afford to continue confrontation much longer. Ukraine has lost not only territory, citizens, assets and infrastructure, but has suffered an economic contraction approaching that of the 2009 crisis. The costs for Russia are not yet fully known, but it is likely that the Crimea annexation has forever spoiled the prospects for Putin’s vaunted Eurasian integration project, while most analysts predict the combined impact of Western sanctions and lost market confidence will wipe out all growth this year and possibly next.

Fortunately, even in the midst of continuing high tensions, there are some signs of an emerging modus vivendi that could restore a semblance of normalcy to relations between Kyiv and Moscow—and as importantly, between Ukrainian and Russian societies at large.

Vladimir Putin’s recent expressions of support for the Ukrainian presidential election and his indication that he would be prepared to work with President-elect Petro Poroshenko suggest that if a deal has not already been cut, it may be in the offing. Both leaders now enjoy extremely high personal approval ratings with their respective populations, and thus have an opportunity to end the conflict on terms that will continue to benefit each of them politically.

In the short term, a Putin-Poroshenko deal would most likely entail Ukraine’s promises to settle its debts with Gazprom, not to seize Russian assets in Ukraine as compensation for Crimea, and to include Russian representation in any future negotiations on constitutional reform. From the Russian side, Putin need not offer much except to withhold further material support for the separatists in the southeast, keep the gas flowing, and refrain from new provocations during this extremely sensitive period in Ukraine’s domestic politics.

Though in the longer term, Russia and Ukraine will have to negotiate about “redline” issues, like Ukraine’s ties with the EU and NATO, as well as the sensitive question of decentralization of state power, including on trade and security issues. At the moment, there is insufficient trust between Moscow and Kyiv to achieve any worthwhile agreements on those points.

Crimea will also remain a sore spot for the foreseeable future. Russia is not likely to give ground on its illegal annexation, and Ukraine will enjoy the support of most of the international community in keeping up persistent pressure on this issue. Yet in the longer term, it may be possible to find an accommodation on Crimea that serves both sides’ core interests, such as a special economic zone and free-travel status akin to that which NATO/EU members Poland and Lithuania have granted to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which like Crimea, is home base to a Russian naval fleet.

Although analysts have interpreted the recent gas deal between Russia and China primarily as a setback for Western efforts to pressure Russia through economic sanctions, there may be a silver lining for Ukraine. With a major alternative market for Russian gas now under development, Ukraine’s efforts to increase its own energy efficiency and lessen dependency on Russian gas may be perceived as less threatening to Moscow’s vital economic interests. Over the next decade, demand for Russian gas in the East could become the key to greater energy security in the West.

Speaking of the West, relations between Russia and Ukraine are invariably influenced by European and American policies. Therefore, it is vitally important that Washington and Brussels avoid defining Ukraine’s success in terms of defeating Russia. Instead, the West should play the long game with Kyiv, providing “tough love” that exploits the current government’s dependency on Western loans to extract concrete progress on institutional reforms that no previous Ukrainian leadership has been willing or able to deliver. At the same time, positive incentives for such progress should be clear, including readiness to move quickly on free trade and travel with both the EU and the United States.

Promoting reform in Ukraine and fostering Russian-Ukrainian reconciliation will be challenging, to say the least. But the stakes are high for all sides, and the latest developments may present a window of opportunity.

Looking ahead, leaders on all sides would do well to heed Solzhenitsyn’s words: “I wish Ukrainians happiness from the bottom of my heart, and I would like us to jointly, without enmity, properly settle the accursed question. . . . It will be very difficult to guide this conversation to a sensible haven, but whatever voice and weight I have, I shall apply it to this end.”
Matthew Rojansky is the director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center. Follow him on Twitter: @MatthewRojansky.

New Ukraine president presses for peace talks
Petro Poroshenko takes oath of office, promising to bridge the east-west divide that has split his country.
Last updated: 08 Jun 2014 03:20

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Petro Proshenko is Ukraine's fifth president since independence [EPA]

Ukraine's new president has called for a dialogue with representatives of the country's east that has been swept by a separatist insurgency, but insisted he will still not talk with rebels, who he described as "gangsters and killers".

In a combative inaugural speech on Saturday, Petro Poroshenko also vowed that Ukraine would not give up Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from it in March.

"Crimea was, is, and will be Ukrainian," Poroshenko said after his swearing-in .

His speech drew an ovation from guests at a ceremony attended by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, US Vice President Joe Biden and senior EU officials.

He stressed the unity of Ukraine, which is fighting a pro-Russian separatist uprising in the east, and said it would not become a federalised state as advocated by Moscow.

Poroshenko, 48, also said he intended very soon to sign the economic part of an association agreement with the European Union, as a first step towards full membership.

He called on the armed groups in the east to lay down their arms and promised an amnesty "for those who do not have blood on their hands'.'

Talking to gangsters and killers is not our avenue.

President Poroshenko

That appeared to apply both to separatist, pro-Russia fighters in the country's east and to nationalist groups that oppose them.

Poroshenko also promised dialogue with citizens in the eastern regions, but excluded the rebels.

"Talking to gangsters and killers is not our avenue,'' he said. He also called for early regional elections in the east.

Al Jazeera's Kim Vinnel, reporting from Donetsk, said people there are divided over whether Poroshenko can create any real change in the east.

"Many people have for a long time felt alienated by Kiev," she said.

The chairman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, dismissed Poroshenko's offer to call regional elections.

He told Al Jazeera that Donetsk is already in talks about becoming a part of the Russian Federation and that the fight in the east will continue until Ukrainian troops withdraw.

Separatist killed

Government forces continued to battle rebel fighters even as the president took the oath of office.

Hours after Poroshenko was inaugurated, an aide of the Donetsk People's Republic's leader was fatally shot while in a car in front of a restaurant.

Maxim Petrukhin, the aide of Pushilin, was killed in Donetsk, with separatists claiming the act was an assassination attempt on Pushilin.

Poroshenko, the billionaire confectionary magnate, became Ukraine's fifth president since independence and its first since 1991 to win election with more than half the vote in a single round.

He says he wants closer relations with Europe, and won support and encouragement for his policies to stabilise Ukraine when he met US President Barack Obama and European leaders in Poland and France on Friday.

Putin meeting

He also briefly met Putin in France during ceremonies marking the World War Two D-Day landings on Friday, and may have discussed a possible ceasefire with the rebels.

Putin said he welcomed Poroshenko's plans to stop the bloodshed, but said Ukraine must stop its "punitive" military operation.

Russia rejects charges by Kiev and the West that it is actively supporting the rebels in the Russian-speaking east.

The fighting since Poroshenko's election has revealed that many of the rebels are from Russia, with dozens of dead bodies of fighters sent back across the frontier.

In a small sign of a thaw, Moscow sent its ambassador - withdrawn after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich was toppled in February - to Kiev to attend the swearing in.

Moscow has also begun withdrawing some of the tens of thousands of troops it had massed on the frontier.

The uprising in the east is not the only challenge facing Poroshenko, who inherits a country on the verge of bankruptcy, still dependent on Russia for natural gas, and rated by watchdogs as one of the most corrupt and ill-governed states in Europe.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Ukrainian troops regain port city of Mariupol
Special forces involved in dawn operation that left at least five pro-Russian rebels and two soldiers dead.
Last updated: 13 Jun 2014 14:24


Ukrainian forces have reclaimed the port city of Mariupol after heavy fighting with pro-Russian separatists.

The government said there had been many casualties after an operation to expel separatists in the city began at dawn on Friday.

The advances appear to be significant victories for the pro-European leadership in a military operation to crush the armed rebellion that began in east Ukraine in April.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov announced in a post on Facebook that Ukrainian forces had taken the city less than six hours after the attack began.

An Interior Ministry aide said that government forces stormed the rebels after they were surrounded and given 10 minutes to surrender, the Reuters news agency reported.

At least five separatists and two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the battle before many of the rebels fled.

Al Jazeera's Neave Barker, reporting from Donetsk, said officials believed the separatists were commanded by a Chechen commander.

Government gains

Mariupol, which has changed hands several times in weeks of conflict, is strategically important because it lies on major roads from the southeastern border with Russia into the rest of Ukraine, with steel exported through the port.

Regaining control of the long and winding frontier is also vital for the government because it accuses Moscow of allowing the rebels to bring tanks , other armoured vehicles and guns across the porous border.

Avakov said the government forces had won back control of a 120km stretch of the border that had fallen to the rebels, but it is unclear who controls other parts of the roughly 2,000km frontier.

The rebels, many of whom want east Ukraine to become part of Russia and who have taken over several towns and cities, confirmed that five of their fighters were killed in the fighting for Mariupol.

Avakov said National Guard and Interior Ministry units were involved in the battle, as well as special forces.

Donetsk explosion

A Ukrainian defence analyst, Dmytro Tymchuk, said four Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 31 wounded in fighting in other parts of east Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

In Donetsk, an explosion targeting a minibus belonging to separatist leader Denis Pushilin killed three people.

Rebels said Pushilin was not in the vehicle at the time.

The attack late on Thursday took place outside the headquarters of the separatist movement in the former regional government building in the heart of the coal mining city.

Ukrainian special forces are suspected to be behind the explosion, Barker said.

Government forces have recorded a number of successes in recent days including the disruption of supply routes along the Russian border.

Troops destroyed part of a column of rebel tanks and military vehicles crossing from the border of Russia near the town of Snizhnye on Thursday.

Authorities also claim to have seized three motorcades supplying separatist rebels that were entering Ukraine from Russia.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Ukrainian president to order unilateral truce
Poroshenko's ceasefire plan aims to end crisis in separatist east and is expected to put into practice "in a few days".
Last updated: 18 Jun 2014 19:04


Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that he will soon order a unilateral ceasefire in the separatist east as part of a broader plan to end the 10-week crisis.

Poroshenko's announcement on Wednesday cam a day after a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which the two leaders discussed a long-term solution to the pro-Russian uprising gripping Ukraine's eastern "rust belt" since early April.

Speaking to students at a military institute in Kiev, Poroshenko outlined a 14-step plan, including an amnesty for separatist fighters who lay down arms, and tighter controls over Ukraine's border with Russia.

"Immediately after that, we must receive support for the presidential peace plan from all sides involved [in the conflict]. This should happen very shortly," Poroshenko said.

Poroshenko also said that the ceasefire was meant to be a temporary measure designed to give the pro-Russian fighters a chance to disarm.

Acting Defence Minister Mykhailo Koval told journalists in Kiev the ceasefire "will happen in the next few days".

His office said the two presidents "discussed a series of priority measures that must be undertaken to implement a ceasefire, as well as the most efficient ways to monitor it".

Kremlin said in a separate statement that the conversation between the two leaders "touched on the theme of a possible ceasefire in the area of military action in southeastern Ukraine".

The dialogue between the leaders aims at ending the clashes in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian rebels and government forces that killed tens of people.

Ukrainian troops have struggled to suppress the fighters, who on Saturday shot down a military transport plane, killing all 49 on board.

Separatists have seized government buildings, held disputed referendums and declared independence in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions along Ukraine's eastern border with Russia.

In his inaugural address on June 7, Poroshenko had said that he was willing to negotiate with people in the region, but not with "terrorists" with "blood on their hands". He proposed an amnesty for separatists, early regional elections and new efforts to create jobs in the area.