Militants scoff at calls to free 13 in Ukraine

Held monitors called spies

Pro-Russia militants patrol a seized government building Saturday in Mariupol, Ukraine.
Pro-Russia militants patrol a seized government building Saturday in Mariupol, Ukraine.

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine - Anti-government militants in eastern Ukraine on Saturday rebuffed international calls for the release of a group of European military observers but suggested that they would consider a prisoner exchange.

The 13-member foreign military observer team detained Friday at a rebel checkpoint at the edge of the city of Slovyansk was made up of three German soldiers, a German translator and one soldier each from Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden and Denmark. Germany’s Defense Ministry said the team also included five Ukrainians.

The militants have accused the observers of espionage.

The observers, known as a military verification team, had been working under the auspices of a document from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that allows member nations - Ukraine, in this case - to invite other member nations to send observers to examine security conditions.

Their detention and the allegations led to a day of swift-moving diplomatic developments. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, spoke by telephone with his counterparts in the United States and Germany and with the president of Switzerland, Didier Burkhalter,who also is the chairman of the security organization.

In a phone call with Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Russia to use its influence with the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine to ensure that the observers and their Ukrainian guides be released “without preconditions,” a senior State Department official said. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s foreign minister, said he welcomed Lavrov’s pledge to help free the observers.

Andrei Kelin, Russia’s representative to the security group, said the country would take “all possible steps” to help secure the observers’ release. “We think that these people need to be freed as soon as possible,” he said.

The situation has been complicated by rival interpretations of the observers’ role, in part because their organization has taken pains to draw a public distinction between its permanent mission in Ukraine and the detained military observer team, and has said that all of its staff members are accounted for.

Militants have seized upon the organization’s statements to characterize the observers as NATO spies who exercised poor judgment and entered territory outside their host government’s control without invitation or permission.

“As we found maps on them containing information about the location of our checkpoints, we get the impression that they are officers carrying out a certain spying mission,” said Vyachislav Ponomaryov, the appointed mayor of Slovyansk.

“The officers we currently have do not have any relation to the [Organization for Security and Cooperation],” said Ponomaryov. “The OSCE disowned them. They were here to carry out their military mission.”

Ponomaryov brushed off questions about his plans for the observers, hinting only that he might consider exchanging them for prisoners held by Ukraine, perhaps including his deputy, who he said had disappeared while returning from Moscow and might be in Ukrainian government custody.

“If we have the chance to swap them, we will do it,” he said. “If not, let them live with us. Maybe they’ll start families in time.”

In a public appearance later, Ponomaryov said he had no direct contact with Russia about the detainees.

Ponomaryov claims the city has detained at least 40 other prisoners, whom he calls Ukrainian “saboteurs.”

A journalist working for Telekanal Zik, a Ukrainian Internet TV station, also was detained Friday after recording a video report near the city’s main square, according to his colleagues.

The journalist, Yuri Lelyavsky, from Lviv in western Ukraine, was heard speaking Ukrainian on camera before being approached by men in camouflage and woolen head coverings, they said. He has not been heard from since.

A statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, released after Lavrov spoke Saturday with world leaders, emphasized that Ukraine was holding prisoners and noted that Lavrov had been told that representatives of the security organization had seen Pavel Gubarev, a pro-Russian leader in eastern Ukraine known as the “people’s governor” who had been arrested by the Ukrainian authorities.

The ministry also released a summary of Lavrov’s phone call with Kerry, saying Lavrov had reiterated a previous statement that the interim government in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, should be held responsible for not “controlling the situation on the ground” and providing adequate security. The Russian government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the unrest in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian security forces appeared to tighten the government’s self-declared blockade around Slovyansk on Saturday, establishing at least one more armed checkpoint on a road to the northwest.

The blockade appeared to be limited, and it did not restrict the flow of goods. Civilian vehicles were allowed to pass in both directions after a brief search and document check.

Later in the day, in a crowded auditorium in Slovyansk, anti-Kiev residents appointed a new people’s council loyal to Ponomaryov.

Residents also gathered for the funeral for Aleksandr Lubenets, 21, who they said died after being shot near a checkpoint that had been attacked by Ukrainian forces. The attack, one man said, only drove eastern Ukrainian provinces closer to Russia.

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Ukraine “must be a member of NATO” to protect itself from Russian aggression.

Tymoshenko, who is running in the May 25 presidential election, said Saturday that though only a minority of Ukrainians supported NATO membership previously, Russia’s aggressive actions in the country’s east had forced a “fundamental change” in public thinking.

“With his war against us, Putin was able to change the mentality of Ukrainians and turn us in a different strategic direction,” she said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “In this case, NATO is the best choice for Ukraine.”

Tymoshenko, who hasn’t previously backed NATO membership publicly, has ramped up the tough rhetoric as pro-Russian militias have seized police stations and government buildings in at least 10 cities across eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine and some Western countries have accused Russia of using covert forces to spur unrest in Ukraine. Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warned Friday that Russia “is keen to start World War III,” though Tymoshenko shied away from that assessment.

Tymoshenko said she welcomed another round of sanctions on Russia and hoped they would be “so powerful that Putin will stop his aggression and return to the territory of his own country.”

The U.S. and other nations in the Group of Seven said in a joint statement released Friday night by the White House that they plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden tried to keep building support for sanctions during phone calls Saturday to the prime ministers of Hungary and the Czech Republic.

On Saturday, Yatsenyuk traveled to Rome to meet with Pope Francis and Italian Premier Matteo Renzi. Francis gave Yatsenyuk a fountain pen, telling him, “I hope that you write ‘peace’ with this pen.”

Yatsenyuk replied: “I hope so, too.”

In a briefing with reporters, he lashed out at Moscow, saying Russian military aircraft violated Ukrainian airspace late Friday.

“The only reason is to provoke Ukraine to strike a missile and to accuse Ukraine of waging a war to Russia,” he said, asking Russia “not to provoke and not to support Russian-led terrorists … in eastern and southern Ukraine. We ask Russia to leave us alone.”

The Russian Defense Ministry denied claims, first raised by the U.S. on Friday, that its aircraft had crossed the border with Ukraine, a spokesman told state news agencies Saturday.

U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saturday that Russia certainly has the capability to invade eastern Ukraine but added that he hasn’t determined yet whether the nation’s intent is to do so.

Dempsey said he found it “unsettling” that Russia would amass forces along the Ukrainian border.

“They are clearly trying to pressure the upcoming elections, and whatever transitional government might form, using military force,” he said.

Dempsey also rebutted an assertion by his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, that Ukraine has mobilized a “significant number of troops” on the Ukrainian side of the border.

“That’s not at all what our reports indicate is unfolding in Ukraine,” Dempsey said.

Also on Saturday, Slovakia agreed to use reverse-flow deliveries to send natural gas to Ukraine. Russia has threatened to cut off supplies because of Ukrainian debt.

The Slovak pipeline operator Eustream said both sides reached a deal during talks in Kiev.

In a Saturday statement, Eustream said it would sign a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine’s Ukrtransgaz on Monday.

Slovakia will utilize a currently unused pipeline from Vojany to Ukraine’s western city of Uzhorod. Ukraine could get about a fifth of its gas needs through the pipeline.

Information for this article was contributed by C.J. Chivers, Noah Sneider, David M. Herszenhorn, Melissa Eddy, and Michael R. Gordon of The New York Times; and by Peter Leonard, Laura Mills, John-Thor Dahlburg, Frances D’Emilio, Pietro De Cristofaro, Frank Jordans, Emily Schmall, Yuras Karmanau, Nedra Pickler and staff members of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/27/2014

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