Russia complains of large Ukrainian troop buildup in east
updated 6:21 PM EDT, Sat April 26, 2014
Relatives and friends of a man
killed in a gunfight participate in his funeral ceremony in the eastern
Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on Saturday, April 26. Ukraine has seen a
sharp rise in tensions since a new pro-European government took charge
of the country in February.
HIDE CAPTION
Crisis in Ukraine
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Russian state news says 15,000 Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine
- Self-declared mayor of Slavyansk says diabetic hostage has the medicine he needs
- Ukraine's Security Service says OSCE team is being held in "inhumane conditions"
- U.S. official says planned U.S. sanctions "can have a significant impact" on Russia
Quoting a Russian Defense
Ministry source, RIA Novosti said satellite photos showed the force
forming around the city that has become a friction point between the
Ukraine military and pro-Russian militants.
The Defense Ministry
source said the number of Ukraine troops put the pro-Russian militants
at a disadvantage because the latter are "armed only with small amount
of pistols and shotguns." Many eastern Ukraine residents have Russian
roots and sympathize with Moscow.
The source said the
photos showed about 160 tanks, 230 infantry combat vehicles and armored
personnel carriers, mine throwers and multiple-launch rocket systems.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly criticized Kiev's use of force against Ukrainian civilians.
Developments in Ukraine have come at a rapid pace in recent days:
-- Russia, which already
had 40,000 troops on its side of the border, started new military drills
a few days ago after Ukrainian forces said they killed five pro-Russian
militants. Ukraine launched the second stage of an "anti-terrorist
operation" against militants in Slavyansk.
-- On Friday, a team of European and Ukrainian military observers were seized Friday by pro-Russian separatists in Slavyansk.
-- Russian military
aircraft "crossed and violated" Ukrainian airspace seven times
overnight, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told reporters in
Rome on Saturday. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the accusation,
according to the state news agency Itar-Tass.
-- Yatsenyuk met with
Pope Francis while in Rome on Saturday. The meeting has been seen as a
sigh of support from the Vatican for his government.
-- G7 leaders said they would impose new sanctions on Russia over its role in the crisis.
The Ukrainian Prime
Minister urged Russia to pull back its security forces and not to
support pro-Russian militants in eastern and southern Ukraine. "We urge
Russia to leave us alone," he said in televised remarks.
Ukraine's government has
promised constitutional reforms and protections for Russian speakers in
a bid to ease the tensions in its eastern regions.
On Saturday, the fate of the military inspectors preoccupied world leaders.
The group from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
were detained Friday as it entered Slavyansk, alongside five Ukrainian
military representatives and the driver of their bus, Ukraine's Interior
Ministry said.
Ukraine's Security
Service, the SBU, said the group is being kept under "inhumane
conditions" in the basement of a building held by the militants.
"One of the detainees is
in need of urgent medical care which the Ukrainian anti-terror unit is
ready to provide," the service said in a statement. "Terrorists are not
allowing any assistance to the hostages."
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The self-declared mayor
of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, told reporters that one of the
"prisoners" has diabetes, but he has the medicine he needs and will be
given his own quarters overnight.
Ponomarev earlier told
CNN that the observers were safe and well, but that there were no
negotiations going on. Their captors will exchange them for activists
held by Kiev, he said, adding that the men were unarmed soldiers from
NATO countries who did not have permission to be there.
A spokesman for the OSCE said there is work being done to free the captives.
The organization is in
talks with the Ukrainian government, and is seeking contact with the
group that has detained their team, Michael Bociurkiw said.
"We have to work with the utmost speed and, of course, the Ukrainian government is a key partner in this," he said.
Separatist leader Denis
Pushilin, self-declared chairman of the so-called "Donetsk People's
Republic," told CNN he doesn't believe they are from the OSCE, but that
some are NATO spies.
The German Foreign
Office said it had set up an emergency task force to find out what has
happened to the team, four of whom are German.
The others are from Denmark Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, Russian state media said.
In a phone call with
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov asked the United States to use its influence to secure the
release of pro-Russian leaders being held in Ukraine. The Russian
minister restated the country's position that Ukraine must stop its
military operations against pro-Russian separatists, the Foreign
Ministry said in a statement.
Kerry urged Russia to
support efforts of the OSCE and the government of Ukraine to liberate
the inspectors and their Ukrainian guides, according to a senior State
Department official.
The diplomat called on
Russia to publicly support Ukraine's efforts rather than denigrate them,
the official said, and "expressed continued concern that Russia's
provocative troop movements on Ukraine's border, its support for
separatists and its inflammatory rhetoric are undermining stability,
security and unity in Ukraine."
Russia will do all it can, envoy says
The OSCE mission in
Ukraine is tasked with helping to implement an international agreement
signed nine days ago in Switzerland, which called for illegal militia
groups to disarm and leave occupied buildings, among other provisions.
Western nations and
Ukraine's interim government in Kiev accuse Russia of coordinating and
supporting the militant groups, and of seeking to destabilize the
situation in Ukraine.
The SBU accused the
militants in Slavyansk of seeking to use the OSCE representatives as a
human shield and claimed a Russian citizen was behind their seizure.
Acting Ukrainian
President Oleksandr Turchynov also pointed the finger at Russia for the
OSCE team's capture, saying it must have endorsed the militants'
actions, and said the Russian leadership must be held accountable for
what he called its support for terrorism.
Even the observers'
international mandate did not prevent "armed criminals" from taking them
hostage, he said, according to a statement from his office.
Russia's Foreign Ministry insisted Saturday it was taking all possible measures to resolve the situation.
In a statement, it added that the security of the observers is the responsibility of the hosting country.
Russia, like the United States, is a member of the 57-nation OSCE, a body which has a history of stepping in to mediate crises.
Targeted sanctions
Against the backdrop of
increasing volatility in Ukraine, leaders of the G7 industrialized
nations on Friday announced they would "move swiftly to impose
additional sanctions on Russia" over its actions in Ukraine.
The statement from the
group -- which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the
United Kingdom and the United States -- came hours after U.S. President
Barack Obama threatened Russia with new sanctions.
According to a senior
Obama administration official, each G7 country "will determine which
targeted sanctions they will impose" -- measures that "will be
coordinated and complementary, but not necessarily identical."
The United States could take action as early as Monday, according to the official.
end quote from:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/26/world/europe/ukraine-crisis/
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