buildings in a city in eastern Ukraine on Saturday
and hoisted the Russian flag, deepening a stand-off
with Moscow which, Kiev warned, was dragging
Europe into a "gas war" that could disrupt supplies
across the continent.
At least 20 men armed with pistols and rifles took
over the police station and a security services
headquarters in Slaviansk, about 150 km (90 miles)
from the border with Russia.
Officials said the men had seized hundreds of
pistols from arsenals in the buildings.
The militants
replaced the Ukrainian flag on one of the buildings
with the red, white and blue Russian flag.
On a road leading into Slaviansk, other members of
the group, armed with automatic rifles, set up a
roadblock and checked vehicles entering the city.
Ukraine's Western-backed government warned of
tough action if the militants did not lay down their
weapons, but it was unclear if the local law
enforcement agencies were taking orders from
Kiev any more after the local police chief quit.
Kostyantyn Pozhydayev came out to speak to pro-
Russian protesters at his offices in the regional
capital, Donetsk, and told them he was stepping
down "in accordance with your demands".
Some of
his officers left the building. The protesters occupied the ground floor of the
Donetsk police headquarters and a black and
orange flag adopted by pro-Russian separatists
flew over the building in place of the Ukrainian flag.
The occupations are a potential flash point because
if protesters are killed or hurt by Ukrainian forces,
that could prompt the Kremlin to intervene to
protect the local Russian-speaking population, a
repeat of the scenario in Crimea.
Russia and Ukraine have been in confrontation
since protests in Kiev forced the Moscow-backed
president from office, and the Kremlin sent troops
into Crimea, the home of its Black Sea Fleet and a
part of Russia until 1954.
Moscow denies any plan to send in forces or split
Ukraine, but the Western-leaning authorities in Kiev
believe Russia is trying to create a pretext to
interfere again.
NATO says Russian armed forces
are massing on Ukraine's eastern border, while
Moscow says they are on normal maneuvers.
Oleksandr Turchynov, the acting Ukrainian
president, called an emergency meeting of the
national security council for Saturday evening to
discuss the unrest in the east.
Ukraine's acting foreign minister, Andriy
Deshchytsia, said he had spoken by telephone with
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and
demanded Moscow stop what he called
"provocative actions" by its agents in eastern
Ukraine.
Lavrov, in a statement issued by his ministry, said
there were no Russian agents in the region and
that it would be "unacceptable" if Ukrainian
authorities were to order the storming of the
buildings.
Ukrainian commentator Sergei Leshchenko said the
burst of activity by pro-Russian groups was an
attempt by the Kremlin to give it a strong
negotiating position before international talks
about Ukraine in Geneva next Thursday.
Russia is expected to argue at the talks for a
revamp of Ukraine's constitution to give a large
degree of autonomy to eastern Ukraine, something
Kiev and its Western backers reject.
"Russia will come to the talks with the position that
'Donetsk and several neighboring regions are
already ours - now let's talk about federalization', "
said Leshchenko, a commentator with the
Ukrainska Pravda newspaper.
BAD SOLUTION
With the crisis in Ukraine still unresolved, the gas
dispute threatens to affect millions of people across
Europe.
A large proportion of the natural gas that EU states
buy from Russia is pumped via Ukrainian territory,
so if Russia makes good on a threat to cut off
Ukraine for non-payment of its bills, customers
further west will have supplies disrupted.
Russia is demanding Kiev pay a much higher price
for its gas, and settle unpaid bills.
Russian state-
owned gas giant Gazprom and its Ukrainian
counterpart, Naftogaz, are in talks, but the chances
of an agreement are slim.
"I would say we are coming nearer to a solution of
the situation, but one in the direction that is bad for
Ukraine," Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan
said in an interview with the German newspaper
Boersenzeitung "We are probably steering towards Russia turning
off its gas provision," he was quoted as saying.
That raised the specter of a repeat of past "gas
wars", when Ukraine's gas was cut off with a
knock-on effect on supplies to EU states.
The scope for compromise narrowed after the
Naftogaz chief executive told a Ukrainian
newspaper that Kiev was suspending payments to
Gazprom pending a conclusion of talks on a new
deal.
Ukraine has de facto stopped payments already
because it failed to make an installment of over $
500 million due this month to Russian state gas
giant Gazprom.
Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov, asked about the statement by the Naftogaz chief,
said: "What does suspending mean? They've not
paid at all" since mid-way through last month.
Moscow says it does not want to turn off Ukraine's
gas if it can be avoided, and that it will honor all
commitments to supply its EU customers.
Kiev and Brussels are working out ways to keep
supplies flowing to EU states, and for those
countries to then pump the gas to Ukraine by
reversing the flow in their pipelines.
The crisis has been seized upon by some right-
wing nationalists in the EU who are campaigning
for next month's European Parliament elections.
They accuse Brussels of antagonizing Russia. Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National
Front, was in Moscow on Saturday and met the
speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, one
of the people on an EU sanctions list.
"I am surprised a Cold War on Russia has been
declared in the European Union," Russian media
quoted her as saying.
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