Russian out, Ukranian now rebel chief

A local resident displays fragment of a shell after shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 8, 2014. At least three civilians have been killed and another 10 wounded in overnight shelling of the main rebel stronghold in eastern Ukraine besieged by government forces, officials said. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A local resident displays fragment of a shell after shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 8, 2014. At least three civilians have been killed and another 10 wounded in overnight shelling of the main rebel stronghold in eastern Ukraine besieged by government forces, officials said. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Saturday, August 9, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine — A Ukrainian has replaced a Russian at the helm of the insurgency in eastern Ukraine and declared that “only moral support” is desired from Moscow, as the Kremlin continues to rebut Western claims that it is calling the shots among the rebels.

Many in the rebel ranks have decried what they call Russia’s betrayal of their cause, but most vow to keep on fighting even as Ukrainian government troops close in on the main rebel stronghold, the eastern city of Donetsk.

The new leader of the insurgency has boasted of hundreds of new recruits and said a lot of rocket launchers and tanks were seized from a Ukrainian unit.

Alexander Zakharchenko, a native of mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, took over late Thursday as prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which has declared independence from the central government in Kiev.

He succeeded Alexander Borodai, a Moscow political consultant who reportedly played a role in Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March before moving into eastern Ukraine. Borodai has worked for a nationalist tycoon with purported connections to the Kremlin.

Several other rebel leaders with links to Russia have left the region in the past few weeks.

The Russian commanders “are fleeing like rats,” said Andrei, a 27-year-old rebel in Donetsk. Like other locals who have joined the separatist cause, he gave only his first name out of fear of retribution.

“We had hoped for help from Moscow, we had expected Russian troops, but Russia betrayed us,” Andrei said. “Many fighters are beginning to think about their future and also are escaping to Russia.”

The new leader of the insurgency vowed to continue the fight but refrained from urging Moscow to send troops, a call issued by many rebel leaders in the past.

“Only moral support,” Zakharchenko said Friday when asked what assistance the rebels expect from Vladimir Putin’s government.

Ukraine’s eastern regions have strong ties to Russia, and much of its population was alarmed when a new pro-Western government came to power in Kiev with support from Ukrainian nationalists. The change of government was the result of months of street protests that ousted the pro-Moscow president in February.

Ukraine and the West have accused Moscow of beefing up its military on the border, dispatching what NATO estimates is 20,000 troops to the border of Ukraine. The deployment has fueled fears of a Russian invasion under the guise of restoring stability to eastern Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced late Friday that it has wrapped up military exercises in southern Russia that the U.S. had called a provocative step. The exercises involving fighter jets and bombers were held this week in the Astrakhan region, about 600 miles from Donetsk.

Speaking Friday at a U.N. Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power warned Russia that any further intervention in Ukraine, including under the pretense of delivering humanitarian aid, “would be completely unacceptable and deeply alarming, and it would be viewed as an invasion of Ukraine.”

The Russian government has denied the West’s accusations of backing the Ukrainian mutiny with weapons and soldiers.

It also has dismissed the West’s suspicions that it gave rebels surface-to-air missiles used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over rebel-held territory July 17, killing all 298 people on board. The rebels have publicly denied shooting down the plane, but one rebel leader said on condition of anonymity that the rebels were involved.

Ukrainian troops routed the insurgents from smaller towns in the region earlier this month and have now encircled Donetsk, where fighting has crept closer to the city center. An estimated 300,000 of the city’s 1 million residents have fled.

The Donetsk City Council said four apartment buildings in the city were damaged by artillery barrages overnight, killing at least three civilians and wounding 10 others. Residents gathered at the site in the morning, with some leaving flowers on the pavement to commemorate the victims.

Donetsk resident Marina Barsuk, 53, said the shelling happened a few days after rebels positioned a Grad multiple-rocket launcher near the apartment building and fired at Ukrainian positions. She and other residents believed the latest shelling came from Ukrainian government troops.

The government has denied that its forces are shelling populated areas.

“We are not shooting on Donetsk; we are liberating it,” Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Friday. “The residential areas are being shot at by the terrorists from their positions.”

Information for this article was contributed by Vladimir Isachenkov of The Associated Press.