| CNN | - |
Donetsk,
Ukraine (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council has called an urgent,
previously unscheduled meeting Sunday night to discuss the worsening
situation in Ukraine.
U.N. Security Council to meet soon on Ukraine
updated 4:20 PM EDT, Sun April 13, 2014
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: The "urgent consultations" were requested by Russia, Luxembourg tweets
- Russia says Ukraine should stop war on its own people
- Ukrainian President promises punishment for violent protesters
- Ukraine says it will present evidence of Russian involvement in takeovers of buildings
The delegation from Luxembourg tweeted the "urgent consultations" were requested by Russia and would be held at 8 p.m. ET.
The meeting comes the
same day that Ukraine acting President Oleksandr Turchynov issued a
promise of amnesty for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine but
warned that anyone who continues to support the takeover of government
buildings would be held responsible for their actions.
The acting President
added a warning to "terrorists" who did not comply, saying they would
subject to an army anti-terrorism operation if they do not comply by 2
a.m. ET Monday.
"We'll not allow any
repetition of the Crimean scenario in the east of Ukraine. I have signed
a decree that would allow those who did not shoot at our officers to
lay down their arms and leave the occupied buildings by Monday morning
without fear of being prosecuted," he told a national television
audience, according to a CNN translation.
Photos: Crisis in Ukraine
Russia requests meeting with UN council
Pro-Russian gunmen seize building
NATO: Pics show Russian military buildup
Turchynov added that anyone who supports violence will be punished.
"We are ready to consider
a significant expansion of regional powers of all regions and the wider
reform of local self-government. However, all those supporting
aggressors and occupiers in an armed struggle against our country will
not escape punishment and will be prosecuted," he said.
He said Russia was
responsible for bloodshed; at least one Ukrainian soldier was killed in
clashes between pro-Ukrainian crowds and pro-Russian separatists, a
high-level source in Ukraine's Security Services told CNN.
Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov tweeted Sunday that Ukrainian authorities must "stop war
against their people" and asked the U.N. Security Council and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to give "urgent
attention" to the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
Earlier, Ukrainian
officials placed blame for unrest in the eastern section of their
country squarely on their neighbors in Russia in a written statement
Sunday from Kiev.
The new Ukrainian
government said the security operations were launched against terrorists
who are attempting to "destroy our country."
"In the eastern regions
of Ukraine, the Russian special service and saboteurs embarked on the
large-scale separatist operations to seize power, destabilize the
situation threatening the lives of citizens of Ukraine, as well as the
separation of the regions of our country," the Foreign Ministry said.
Giving no further
details, it also said it had "concrete evidence of Russian special
service involvement" in the pro-Russian protests and storming of
buildings in the east in recent days and would present it at an
international meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Thursday.
Ukrainian security
forces launched an operation Sunday to clear pro-Russian separatists
from a police headquarters in the eastern city of Slaviansk, officials
said.
However a CNN crew in
the city saw no sign of a large presence of Ukrainian security forces --
with the exception of a single police car and a helicopter flying above
-- nor any confrontation with the occupiers.
Gunmen dressed in
camouflage had stormed and seized the police building a day earlier in
Slaviansk, a town about 100 miles from the Russian border, and set up
barricades around it.
In a post on his
Facebook account Sunday morning, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said an
"anti-terrorist operation" had started in Slaviansk.
"It is managed by
Anti-terrorist Center of the Security Service of Ukraine. All the law
enforcement agencies of the country are participating. Godspeed!" Avakov
wrote.
"Tell all civilians to leave the center of town -- don't leave your apartment, or go to the window," he added.
Samantha Power, the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, said the attacks in Slaviansk were
"professional" and "coordinated" -- similar to Russia's incursion into
the Crimean Peninsula last month.
"There's nothing
grass-roots seeming about it," Power said on ABC's "This Week," noting
the latest action "gives credence" to the notion that Russian President
Vladimir Putin wants control over eastern Ukraine.
The unrest is the latest
show of spiraling anger in eastern Ukraine, which has a large
Russian-speaking population. The region was the support base for
pro-Moscow former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in
February following months of protests in Kiev.
Ukrainian citizens carry cost of conflict
Russian separatists in Donetsk dig in
Pro-Russian crowds dwindle in Luhansk
Mounting strife
Kiev's fragile new
government and the West accuse Russia of destabilizing the region as a
pretext to potentially send in troops to protect the local
Russian-speaking population.
NATO says Russian armed
forces are massing on Ukraine's eastern border, while Moscow says they
are merely carrying out military exercises.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine's
second most populous city, police outside city hall offered no
resistance when protesters took over the building Sunday afternoon,
according to a witness. It is not clear why the police stepped aside for
protesters.
Russian and local
Ukrainian media reported that pro-Russian demonstrators had seized the
city hall in Mariupol, in the southeast, with no violence. Some showed
pictures of Russian flags in the city. The reports could not immediately
be independently confirmed.
In Slaviansk, the gunmen
had arrived at the police station in two minibuses on Saturday. They
opened fire at the police station before entering it through windows,
Donetsk regional police said. Three police officers were slightly
injured.
The gunmen introduced
themselves as part of the Donetsk Republic initiative group. Their goal
was to seize hundreds of weapons inside the police building; they
allowed the police officers inside to leave the facility, the press
office said.
A CNN team in Slaviansk
had seen dozens of armed, well-equipped men in camouflage in control of
the Ukraine Security Services building, as well as the police building.
The men did not want to be filmed.
Makeshift barricades
have been erected around both buildings and local residents brought food
and tires to the armed men at the security services site.
Distrust among the
population in the region grew as political power in the national
government shifted rapidly in a pro-Western direction. A short time
later, pro-Russian elements occupied the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea,
which Russia quickly annexed. Since then, pro-Russian protesters have
taken to the streets in eastern Ukrainian regions and in some cases stormed and occupied buildings.
"We want to create a
people's republic, a real one, one in Donetsk, one in Luhansk, and in
general, let the people of the southeast determine what they want. We
want to hold a referendum," one pro-Russian armed activist in Slaviansk
told Reuters.
In Kramatorsk, also in
the east, police and pro-Russia activists exchanged gunfire on Saturday,
Avakov's spokeswoman Natalia Stativko said.
In the cities of
Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv, pro-Russian protesters seized government
buildings several days ago and remain barricaded in some.
The Donetsk chief of
regional police, Kostyantyn Pozhydayev, announced his resignation during
a pro-Russia activist rally outside the police office Saturday,
according to a police press statement. The head of the Security Service
for the region, Valery Ivanov, was sacked, authorities said.
U.S. prepared to step up sanctions
The United States has accused Russia of fomenting the separatist unrest in its neighbor as a pretext for military intervention.
U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry spoke by phone with Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, on
Saturday, expressing "strong concern that attacks today by armed
militants in eastern Ukraine were orchestrated and synchronized, similar
to previous attacks in eastern Ukraine and Crimea," a senior State
Department official said.
The official said Kerry
warned Lavrov there would be "additional consequences" if Russia did not
take steps to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine and move its
troops back from its border.
The official also noted
that militants involved in Saturday's unrest in eastern Ukraine "were
equipped with specialized Russian weapons and the same uniforms as those
worn by the Russian forces that invaded Crimea."
The United States is
prepared to step up sanctions against Russia if the recent actions in
Ukraine continue, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power
said on Sunday. Power said on ABC's "This Week" the latest events in
Ukraine bore "the telltale signs of Moscow's involvement."
"I think we've seen that
the sanctions can bite. And if actions like the kind that we've seen
over the last few days continue, you're going to see a ramping up of
those sanctions," she said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Kiev on April 22 to meet government leaders and members of the civil society.
NATO described the
appearance in eastern Ukraine of men with specialized Russian weapons
and identical uniforms without insignia -- as previously seen in Crimea
-- as a "grave development."
European Union foreign
policy chief Catherine Ashton is to meet this week with foreign
ministers from the United States, Russia and Ukraine in Switzerland to
discuss efforts to de-escalate the situation.
In a written statement,
she urged Moscow "to call back its troops from the Ukrainian border and
to cease any further actions aimed at destabilising Ukraine."
"The EU commends the
Ukrainian authorities for pursuing their law and order operations in a
measured way, in order to establish the authority of the state."
EU foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg on Monday to discuss the crisis.
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