Russians aid rebels' drive to seize port

A pro-Russia rebel patrols at the Novoazovsk border crossing Friday in eastern Ukraine. Rebel fi ghters looked to be in control of the area, where at least a half-dozen tanks were seen on roads around the town.
A pro-Russia rebel patrols at the Novoazovsk border crossing Friday in eastern Ukraine. Rebel fi ghters looked to be in control of the area, where at least a half-dozen tanks were seen on roads around the town.

NOVOAZOVSK, Ukraine -- Backed by Russian troops and weaponry, hundreds of Ukrainian rebel militiamen mobilized Friday in the southeastern town of Novoazovsk, vacated by the Ukrainian military two days ago, and began to push toward the seaport of Mariupol 27 miles away.

The leader of the rebels called the advance a broad new effort to wrest control of a wide swath of coastal territory from the central government.

The militiamen flew the flag of Novorossiya, or New Russia, a reference to Russia's historical claims over the southeastern area of Ukraine. Novorossiya includes the rebellious Donetsk and Luhansk regions under siege by the Ukrainian army, as well as vast territories elsewhere in southern Ukraine.

Their thrust toward Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov, came as President Vladimir Putin of Russia directly addressed the insurgents for the first time Friday in a message posted on his website titled "The President of Russia Vladimir Putin Addresses the Novorossiya Militia."

The developments offered new insights into the strategy of Putin, who has supported the rebels in defiance of the United States and its Western allies as part of a broader effort to keep Ukraine within Russia's sphere of influence.

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AP

Captured Ukrainian border guards are held in a garage at the Novoazovsk border crossing Friday in eastern Ukraine.

The rebel advance along the southeast coast suggested Putin may be laying the basis for a more independent eastern Ukraine beyond the borders of Luhansk and Donetsk, or for creating an overland route from Russia to Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed five months ago.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of increasingly brazen military aggression that has sent troops, tanks and other weapons across the border to support the rebels. The Kremlin has denied the accusations and asserted that any Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine are volunteers on vacation.

A takeover of Mariupol, an industrial city of 450,000, would go a long way toward helping the separatists gain control over land that would connect Russia to Crimea, along a path starting at Novoazovsk.

Along a road littered with felled tree limbs from tank battles, pro-Russia soldiers waved journalists past checkpoints and behind their lines for the first time Friday, offering a glimpse at the composition of their weaponry and the insignia on uniforms, which were all the flag of Novorossiya.

The military commandant of Novoazovsk, who offered only his nickname, Svet, said the soldiers were with the army of Novorossiya, rather than either of the main separatist groups, the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics.

The political wing of the armed group that opened the new front in Novoazovsk, he said, was the parliament of Novorossiya, formed in June with representatives from Luhansk and Donetsk but open to any of the eight Ukrainian provinces claimed as Novorossiya.

"Now we are fighting for all of southeastern Ukraine, for Novorossiya, which was historically a Russian province," said Svet, interviewed outside an auto repair shop where he had set up a command post.

While local pro-Russian militiamen manned checkpoints, evidence of a Russian presence was abundant, including unmarked Russian military vehicles with no license plates, and green plastic wrappers from Russian military rations. A soldier on a tank greeted arriving journalists by shouting in English: "Back in the USSR!"

A cashier at a Novoazovsk grocery store said Russian soldiers had purchased sausages and cigarettes on the first day the town was seized, but had since handed over patrol duties to pro-Russia Ukrainian fighters. Asked how she knew they were Russian soldiers, the cashier, who identified herself as Olga, snapped: "You think I've only lived one day?"

In his statement addressed to the separatists, Putin asked the fighters of Novorossiya to open a humanitarian corridor to allow a large grouping of Ukrainian soldiers trapped behind the lines of the new advance to retreat to the west.

Alexander Zakharchenko, a rebel leader who said Thursday that more than 3,000 Russians, including active soldiers on leave, had fought among the separatists, quickly agreed to Putin's proposal. Conditions included the surrender of all heavy armaments and ammunition.

Putin and his subordinates have sought to frame the Ukraine insurgency as a struggle by the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine against an oppressive central government that is backed by neo-Nazi and other fascist elements.

In remarks to students in Russia on Friday, Putin said the Ukrainian army's shelling of cities in that country's southeast reminded him of the Nazi siege of Leningrad. The 872-day siege, in which at least 670,000 civilians died, is seen by many Russians as one of the most heroic chapters in the country's history.

Putin said the government in Kiev was trying to destroy the will of the people who resist.

Alluding to Western countries, Putin added that "Russia's partners ... should understand it's best not to mess with us."

Scrambling to counter Russia and align the country even more with the West, the Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, announced Friday that a bill had been introduced in Parliament to cancel Ukraine's status as a nonaligned country and to "restore its aspirations to become a NATO member."

"This law also reaffirms the main political goal of Ukraine -- to become a member of the European Union," Yatsenyuk said on his Facebook page.

NATO and Western governments accused Russia on Thursday of having well over 1,000 active troops in Ukraine. On Friday, the secretary-general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, offered the alliance's support for Kiev and condemned what he called a "serious escalation of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine."

He spoke after ambassadors of the 28-nation alliance met at its headquarters in Brussels, first to discuss the Ukraine crisis among themselves and then to hold talks with representatives of the government in Kiev.

"Despite Moscow's hollow denials, it is now clear that Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and southeastern Ukraine," Rasmussen said in a statement. "This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilize Ukraine as a sovereign nation."

NATO leaders are to meet in Wales next week, and Rasmussen said the alliance would assure the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, of NATO's "unwavering support for Ukraine."

In Europe, several European Union foreign ministers on Friday also accused Russia of invading eastern Ukraine and said Moscow should be punished with additional economic sanctions.

"We have to be aware of what we are facing: We are now in the midst of the second Russian invasion of Ukraine within a year," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, referring to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March.

"We see regular Russian army units operating offensively on the Ukrainian territory against the Ukrainian army," Bildt said during a meeting of the 28-nation bloc's top diplomats in Milan. "We must call a spade a spade."

Russia has rejected accusations that it invaded Ukraine.

The foreign ministers were set to propose new sanctions against Russia for consideration at a summit of the bloc's 28 heads of state today in Brussels.

All options except military action will be considered to punish Russia for pursuing "the wrong path," Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.

"The European Union should be ready to move forward with possible new measures against Russia because the situation is still getting worse," Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said.

Fighting between Ukrainian military forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has already claimed at least 2,200 lives, according to United Nations figures. Casualties doubled in the past month, with an average of 36 people killed every day, the U.N. said.

No foreign minister elaborated on what additional sanctions are being considered. The United States and the EU have so far imposed sanctions against dozens of Russian officials, several companies and the country's financial industry. Moscow has retaliated by banning food imports.

Information for this article was contributed by Andrew E. Kramer, Andrew Roth, Neil MacFarquhar, Alan Cowell, Nick Cumming-Bruce and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times; by Juergen Baetz, Alison Mutler, Nataliya Vasilyeva, Jim Heintz, Peter Leonard and Raf Casert of The Associated Press; and by Isabel Gorst and Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times.

A Section on 08/30/2014

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