KIEV, Ukraine - Crowds of pro-Russian demonstrators stormed government buildings Sunday in several major cities in eastern Ukraine, where secessionist sentiment has sparked frequent protests since Ukraine’s Russia-friendly president was ousted in February.
In Donetsk, 50 miles west of the Russian border, a large group of people, including many in masks carrying sticks and stones, surged into the provincial government building and smashed windows.
A gathering of several hundred, many of them waving Russian flags, then listened to speeches delivered from a balcony emblazoned with a banner reading “Donetsk Republic.” Activists in the building said they want to see a referendum for the Donetsk province to join Russia.
An AP photographer reported seeing people bringing car tires to be used as barricades against any presumed attempt by authorities to retake the building.
Eastern Ukraine was the heartland of support for Viktor Yanukovych, the president who fled to Russia in February after months of protests. About half of the region’s residents are ethnic Russians, many of whom believe Ukraine’s acting authorities are Ukrainian nationalists who will oppress Russians.
Ukraine’s interim authorities deny they are infringing the rights of the ethnic Russian population and accuse Moscow of trying to sow instability. Russia has moved large contingents of troops to areas near the Ukrainian border, and speculation is strong that unrest in eastern Ukraine could be used as a pretext for a Russian incursion.
Since Crimea held a referendum to secede and then was annexed by Russia in March, calls for similar referendums in Ukraine’s east have emerged.
President Oleksandr Turchinov’s office said in a statement that he had canceled a planned visit to Lithuania this week to take personal charge over the situation in eastern Ukraine.
In Luhansk, to the northeast from Donetsk, hundreds of people surrounded the local headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine and later scaled the facade to plant a Russian flag on the roof. Ukrainian media reported that demonstrators pelted the building with eggs, and then stones, a smoke grenade and finally a firebomb. The flames were reportedly quickly extinguished.
A police officer and a demonstrator were injured in the disturbances.
Local media reported similar unrest in Kharkiv, less than an hour’s drive from the Russian border.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his Facebook account that Russia was to blame for the turbulence.
Russian President Vladimir “Putin and Yanukovych have ordered and financed another round of separatist unrest in the east,” he said. “Not many people have gathered, but they are behaving aggressively. In Donetsk, the crowd brought many children and women for the storming.They are provoking a spillover into blood.”
Avakov said no heavy-handed measures would be adopted to deal with the unrest.
“The situation will be brought back under control without blood,” he said. “The Interior Ministry will not shoot at people, at this gang of paid-up provocateurs. Among the protesters, there are many that have been deceived, many that have been paid.”
On Saturday, Ukraine’s Security Service said it had detained a 15-strong armed gang planning to seize power in Luhansk province.
The Security Service said it seized 300 machine guns, an anti-tank grenade launcher, a large number of grenades, five handguns and firebombs.
It said the group intended to mount a grab for power. No names or additional details were provided.
Also Sunday, authorities in Ukraine said they found the body of a kidnapped journalist who played an active role in protests that led to Yanukovych’s ouster. The body was found in a forest about 60 miles outside the capital, Kiev.
Cherkassk province prosecutors said Vasily Sergiyenko was abducted in his home city of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi on Friday evening and later murdered. The nationalist Svoboda party, of which Sergiyenko was a member, said the reporter was found with stab wounds and signs of beatings to his head and knees.
As Putin completes Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Azerbaijan is worried that his next move will be to shift his attention southward.
The Caspian Sea nation, the only westward route for central Asian oil and gas that bypasses Russia, is finding itself hemmed in by Putin’s regional ambitions. Russian troops are already stationed in neighboring Georgia and Armenia.
“As for the Trans-Caucasus region, Russia will never leave this region,” Putin said Dec. 2 after surveying Russian troops at the base in Armenia. “On the contrary, we will make our place here even stronger. We will strengthen our position here, drawing on the best of what our forebears left us and with the support of good relations with all countries in the region, including Armenia.”
Officials already complain about feeling the Kremlin’s pressure. The push from Moscow to join Putin’s new customs union, a project he wants to rival the European Union, is similar to the squeeze put on Ukraine, said Siyavus Novruzov, a senior member of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.
Azerbaijan’s position is complicated by the fact that it never courted the U.S. and the European Union the way that ex-Soviet satellites such as Poland and the Baltic states did. Azerbaijan hasn’t applied to join either the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or the European Union and has instead pursued an independent foreign policy.
Russia’s main lever over Azerbaijan is its sway over Armenia, which it can use to ratchet up tension in the frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Vafa Quluzada, a former foreign policy adviser to ex-President Heydar Aliyev, the father of current leader Ilham Aliyev. Armenia, backed by Russia, took over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts from Azerbaijan. Large-scale hostilities ended with a cease-fire in 1994, with the sides yet to sign a peace agreement.
“What’s happening in Crimea today first started in Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Asim Mollazade, a member of Azeri parliament’s foreign relations committee. “It was the same scenario with the same participants. Azerbaijan lost 20 percent of its territory.” Information for this article was contributed by Peter Leonard of The Associated Press and by Zulfugar Agayev, Sara Khojoyan and Anna Andrianova of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/07/2014