Ukraine accuses Russia of orchestrating separatist moves

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Police detained 70 people occupying a regional administration building in eastern Ukraine overnight, but pro-Moscow protesters held out in a standoff in two other cities in what Kiev called a Russian-led plan to dismember the country.

Kiev says the seizure of public buildings in eastern Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking industrial heartland on Sunday night is a replay of events in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow annexed last month.

Ukrainian authorities gave few details of the "anti-terrorist" operation that cleared the building in the town of Kharkiv but said two police had been wounded by a grenade that was thrown. Russia has denied Ukrainian charges of involvement but warned Kiev against any use of force against Russian-speakers.

Ukrainian special forces in combat gear, helmets and balaclavas and carrying kalashnikovs and machine guns stood guard early on Tuesday outside the building whose outside windows were broken.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/08/uk-ukraine-crisis-idUKBREA3709O20140408

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Minister: Kharkiv protesters driven out.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Ukraine's interior minister says pro-Russia demonstrators who seized the regional administration building in the country's second-largest city have been driven out of the building and about 70 of them were arrested.

Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page that an "anti-terrorist operation" was launched in the city of Kharkiv early Tuesday. He did not specify what forces took part. The Interfax news agency cited the head of the region, Igor Baluta, as saying it included police and soldiers.

The protesters were calling for a referendum on seceding from Ukraine.

Pro-Russia demonstrators also seized the administration building in Donetsk and called for a referendum.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_UKRAINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-08-02-07-55

[joshcryer]

1. I await the condemnation of these fascists.

Oh wait... pro-Russia-fascists? Fair game! They only want what's bestests! Increased pensions for all!

[davidpdx]

2. But but...

They are attacking their own people. It's all the damn Nazi's fault

[dipsydoodle]

3. We'll have to wait see

if Kiev will actually publisice who the 70 were they arrested i.e Ukrainians , and if so which group , or Russians.

[cosmicone]

4. The pro-West CIA fascists showed how it is done. n/t

[uhnope]

5. What else does Putin want us to think?

[arewenotdemo]

7. Protests can only be authentic when they're pro-EU/US.

Pro-Russian protests are obviously "contrived", and the protesters deserve neither encouragement nor cookies!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

8. Well, considering the "local activists" thought the Opera Center was City Hall....

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/protesters-storm-kharkiv-theater-thinking-it-was-city-hall/497709.html

Pro-Russian demonstrators in eastern Ukraine mistook a theater for the city hall and stormed the wrong building, a local journalist said, citing the case as evidence that the protesters were not local.

Protesters who took over Kharkiv City Hall over the weekend first broke into the town's opera and ballet theater, but left upon finding a concert hall inside, journalist Vyacheslav Mavrichev said on his Facebook page.

Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating "separatist unrest" in Kharkiv and eastern cities Donetsk and Lugansk, while officials say that many pro-Russia protesters in east Ukraine may in fact be Russian.

On Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said there was "strong evidence" to suggest some of these demonstrators were paid and were not local residents."

[Bosonic]

6. Moscow may be planning intervention in eastern Ukraine, US warns

Moscow may be planning intervention in eastern Ukraine, US warns

The US issued a stark warning on Tuesday that Moscow could be orchestrating another Crimea-style intervention in eastern Ukraine, after pro-Russian forces cemented their control of a government building in the city of Donetsk and there were claims that in Luhansk protesters had taken up to 60 people hostage and were laying mines.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, described recent developments in eastern Ukraine as "more than deeply disturbing" and repeated threats of western sanctions against Russia, which he said would be expanded to the country's energy, banking and mining sectors.

Kerry blamed pro-Russian protests in eastern Ukraine on "special forces and agents" sent by Moscow in a move he said "could potentially be a contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in Crimea".

The top US diplomat was speaking at the Senate foreign relations committee as Ukraine's state security service said that pro-Russian separatists had placed explosives in a building they seized in the eastern city of Luhansk on Sunday and were holding around 60 people against their will.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/08/us-moscow-crimea-style-intervention-eastern-ukraine

[JVS]

9. Crazy conspiracy theorists.