Mariupol, France and Germany Saturday warned Russia of
"consequences" if Moscow continued to sow unrest ahead of Ukrainian
elections later this month, on the eve of "illegal" referendums the
West fears will split the country apart.
In a joint statement, French president Francois Hollande
and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also urged Ukraine's security forces to
stop their offensive on rebel-held positions ahead of the planned May 25
presidential election.The warnings suggested the West might soon move to
broaden its sanctions regime to include whole sections of the recession-bound
Russian economy.But the call for the pro-Western government in Kiev to row back
its military action echoes a similar statement by Russian President Vladimir
Putin on Wednesday, who set that as his condition for backing the election.
"If the internationally recognized presidential
elections do not take place on May 25, this would destabilize the country
further. France and Germany believe that in this case, appropriate consequences
should be drawn," indicating stepped-up sanctions, the two leaders said.
Paris and Berlin said that "proportionate" force
should be used to protect people and buildings as Kiev battles to wrest back
control of more than a dozen towns and cities in eastern Ukraine held by
pro-Russian insurgents.
However, they stressed that "the Ukrainian security
services should refrain from offensive actions before the election".
Paris and Berlin also called for a "visible"
withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian border. Putin said on Wednesday
the estimated 40,000 servicemen had been pulled back but NATO said there was no
sign of that.
Ukraine's interim president Oleksandr Turchynov said that
Kiev was "ready for negotiations" with representatives from the
region but "not terrorists whose mission is to destroy the country".
But the head of the separatists in the flashpoint eastern
town of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, told reporters that "if the
junta (the Ukrainian government) doesn't withdraw its troops, there will be no
discussions".
While the diplomatic pressure on Russia intensified, the
situation on the ground remained combustible as the southern city of Mariupol
observed a day of mourning for up to 21 people killed in clashes on Friday
between Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists. Interior minister
Arsen Avakov said on his official Facebook page that the chief of the city's
police force had been captured and snipers had been active during Friday's
violence, which occurred as Ukraine commemorated the Soviet victory over Nazi
Germany in World War II.
An attempt by around 60 rebels armed with automatic weapons
to storm the city's police headquarters turned into a "full-scale military
clash" when army and interior ministry troop reinforcements arrived,
Avakov said.
He put the death toll from the near-two-hour combat at 20
rebels and one policeman, while another four policemen were wounded and four
rebels were captured.
That sent the death toll from recent unrest to more than
100.In addition to the 21 dead in Mariupol, some 14 troops have been killed and
66 servicemen wounded in Ukrainian army assaults on the rebels.The fighting has
also claimed the lives of more than 30 insurgents.Clashes that resulted in a
horrific inferno in the southern port city of Odessa last week claimed another
42 lives,
Meanwhile, preparations were in full swing for the disputed
referendums in the two eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, home to 7.3
million of Ukraine's total population of 46 million.Merkel and Hollande
dismissed the referendums as "illegal", amid Western fears it will
hasten the break-up of Ukraine and could lead to all-out civil war on Europe's
fringes.
Voters in Sunday's referendums will first be asked if they
support the creation of two independent republics that many see as a prelude to
joining Russia, as happened in Crimea.
The head of Donetsk's separatists, Denis Pushilin, has said
their referendum will be held in "90 percent of the towns in the
region" and turnout is expected to be 60 percent.A poll released Thursday
by the Pew Research Centre in the United States suggested 70 percent of
Ukrainians in the east want to stay in a united country, while only 18 percent
back secession.
Two in three respondents in the east, however, are unhappy
with the Western-backed government in Kiev.In a sudden about-face on Wednesday
that stunned the world, Putin called on the rebels to postpone the referendums
to allow dialogue to take place to ease the worst East-West crisis since the
end of the Cold War.But the insurgents immediately snuffed out the brief
glimmer of hope, vowing to press ahead with the votes.
And after seemingly seeking to calm tensions over Ukraine,
Putin test-fired missiles in a military drill and then flew to annexed Crimea
on Victory Day, sparking outrage from Kiev and the West.Britain's Foreign
Secretary William Hague said that recent events had shown that Putin had lost
his grip over the situation.Putin "seems to have unleashed forces that he
cannot control. Armed thugs with modern weapons are stirring old tensions and
stoking new hatreds," Hague said.
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