UKRAINE

Russia has promised to retaliate if its interests are attacked as Ukraine’s leaders relaunched their ‘anti-terror’ offensive and threatened to ‘liquidate’ armed pro-Russian rebels.

With tensions continuing to rise and the much heralded Geneva peace deal in tatters, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Vitaly Yarema said security agencies would target Kremlin supporters in key eastern cities, driving them from buildings they have occupied for several weeks.

Mr Yarema said:

… Security agencies are working to liquidate all the groups operating in Kramatorsk, Slovyansk and the other towns in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

His declaration came after two men, including a pro-Kiev politician, Volodymyr Rybak, were said to have been tortured to death by pro-Russian forces near the flashpoint eastern city of Slaviansk.

A disturbing video has emerged showing Mr Rybak, a member of the Batkivschhyna party led by former premier Yulia Tymoshenko, surrounded by a mob before being manhandled by several men, including a masked man in camouflage. Mr Rybak had attempted to remove the flag of the separatist Donetsk Republic. It is believed both men had been tortured and thrown in a river to drown.

Interim Ukrainian leader Oleskander Turchinov cited the deaths as a reason to relaunch the previously ineffective ‘anti-terror’ operation. He insists that terrorists have effectively taken the whole Donetsk region hostage and have crossed a line by starting to torture and murder Ukrainian patriots. Mr Turchinov says these crimes have been carried out with the full support and indulgence of the Russian Federation. The aim of the anti-terrorist measures is to protect Ukrainian citizens living in eastern Ukraine from such violent acts. Armed separatists have already been flushed out of an eastern town on the outskirts of Sviatogorsk as part of this anti-terror drive.

But that brought an immediate rebuke from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who said Moscow will respond if its interests in Ukraine are attacked. Mr Lavrov said that Russian citizens being attacked is an attack against the Russian Federation and has accused the United States of ‘running the show’ in Ukraine. The Russian foreign minister claimed it was ‘quite telling’ that Kiev had relaunched its anti-terrorist operation during a high profile visit by US vice-president Joe Biden.

Mr Yarema, speaking a day after meeting Mr Biden, said:

… We have obtained the support of the United States… that they will not leave us alone with an aggressor. We hope that in the event of Russian aggression this help will be more substantive.

Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk has warned that the risk of eastern regions of Ukraine becoming detached is real. He fears that we will not have to wait long before we see more acts unfolding in Ukraine.

Russian gas giant Gazprom has said it will turn off supplies to Ukraine next month unless Kiev pays its debts. That would have a knock-on effect on deliveries to Europe, because much of the gas transits through Ukrainian territory.

• 25 April, 2014

As two more pro-Moscow separatists have been killed in shoot-outs with Ukrainian troops, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has warned that the escalating violence would have ‘consequences’.

With some 40,000 Russian soldiers on the border, he did not specify what action he would take, but warned that Ukraine was committing a crime by carrying out a ‘punitive operation’ against pro-Russian insurgents. They have been occupying buildings for several weeks now in ten eastern Ukrainian cities.

The Ukrainian government and many in the West fear Russia is seeking a pretext for a military intervention in eastern Ukraine, where Mr Putin insists he has the right to protect ethnic Russians.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that the situation in Ukraine ‘could quickly spin out of control’.

Within hours of Mr Putin’s warning, Russia began military drills near the Ukrainian border with defence minister Sergei Shoygu declaring: ‘If this military machine is not stopped, it will lead to greater numbers of dead and wounded.’ Ukraine’s acting interim president Oleksandr Turchinov called for Mr Putin to stop the drills, pull his troops away from the border and to end the Russian ‘blackmail’ of the country.

Ukrainian forces are now stationed around the eastern city of Slaviansk in an ostensible preparation for an assault. Stella Khorosheva, a spokesperson for the pro-Russian insurgents, insisted fighters would ‘repel the troops’, and said they are ready to ‘repeat Stalingrad’.