Kiev forces do little as Moscow gets stern

DONETSK, Ukraine - Ukraine’s highly publicized goal to recapture police stations and government buildings seized by pro-Russia forces in the east produced little action Wednesday but drew foreboding words from Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Russia would mount a firm response if its citizens or interests were attacked in Ukraine. Although he did not say Russia would launch a military attack, his comments bolstered wide concern that Russia could use any violence in eastern Ukraine as a pretext for sending in troops.

Separately, the Russian foreign ministry issued a statement demanding that Ukraine pull its armed forces out of the crisis-ridden region. Russia, meanwhile, has tens of thousands of troops stationed in areas near the Ukrainian border.

Ukraine’s interim government has accused Russia of orchestrating the unrest in eastern Ukraine.

The Interior Ministry said police forced a group of armed insurgents out of the eastern village of Svyatogorsk on Wednesday, but did not give details of the action other than to say there were no injuries.

A previous operation to reclaimed seized buildings showed few results before it was suspended last week after international talks in Geneva that produced an agreement to de-escalate the crisis. Ukrainian forces claimed to have regained control of one small airport, but insurgents also seized armored vehicles and reports said some Ukrainian soldiers had switched sides.

“Security forces are in a state of disorganization and demoralization,” said Kiev-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. “Today, most of them don’t want to fight for anyone because they don’t know who is going to win tomorrow and how all of this will end.”

The army is underfunded and poorly equipped after years of corruption and mismanagement under Viktor Yanukovych, the Russia-friendly president who fled the country in February after months of protests.

Yanukovych’s ouster sparked wide anger in his support base in Ukraine’s east. The insurgents, who claim Ukraine’s post-Yanukovych government consists of nationalists who will suppress the east’s large Russian-speaking population, are demanding regional autonomy or annexation by Russia, like the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea last month.

The insurgents, whom Kiev and the West claim have Russian backing and direction, have occupied buildings in at least 10 eastern cities.

To reassure other eastern European countries that are alarmed by the events in Ukraine, a detachment of about 150 U.S. Army paratroopers arrived Wednesday in northwestern Poland to take part in joint training exercises, Western officials said.

U.S. officials said the paratroopers were from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, based in Vicenza, Italy, and that more troops would be sent in the next few days for similar exercises in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They said the exercises would last about a month.

Also Wednesday, pro-Russia forces in Slovyansk admitted they are holding an American journalist, saying he was suspected of spying for Ukrainian ultra nationalists.

Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist for Vice News, has not been seen since early Tuesday in Slovyansk. The fluent Russian-speaker who also holds an Israeli passport has been covering the crisis in Ukraine for weeks and was reporting about the masked gunmen seizing government buildings.

Stella Khorosheva, a spokesman for the Slovyansk insurgents, confirmed that Ostrovsky was being held.

“He’s with us. He’s fine,” Khorosheva said.

Information for this article was contributed by Jim Heintz, Nataliya Vasilyeva, Maria Danilova and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press and by Andrew Roth, Neil MacFarquhar and staff members of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 04/24/2014

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