Ukraine on brink of civil war
Russia declared Ukraine on the brink of civil war yesterday as Kiev said an "anti-terrorist operation" against pro-Moscow separatists was under way, with troops and armoured personnel carriers seen near a flashpoint eastern town.
The warning came after Ukraine's ousted president Viktor Yanukovych warned on Sunday that Ukraine had “one foot into a civil war”.
The move came, twenty-four hours after an Ukrainian ultimatum expired for the separatists to lay down their arms.
Interim President Oleksander Turchinov insisted the operation had started in the eastern Donetsk region, although it would happen in stages and "in a considered way".
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave a gloomy assessment after at least two people died on Sunday when Kiev unsuccessfully tried to regain control in the town of Slaviansk, about 150 km from the Russian border.
"Blood has once again been spilt in Ukraine. The country is on the brink of civil war," he said on his Facebook page.
Earlier, Turchynov accused Russia of trying to enflame the country's southeast.
Oleksandr Turchynov's impassioned charges against Ukraine's historic master came only hours after a "frank and direct" exchange on the crisis between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
But the heated phone conversation appeared to break no new ground as the Kremlin chief continued to reject any links to the Russian-speaking gunmen who have occupied town halls and police stations in nearly 10 cities across Ukraine's struggling eastern rust belt since the start of the month.
White House said Obama urged Putin to "use his influence with these armed, pro-Russian groups to convince them to depart the buildings they have seized."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday warned against use of force to pro-Russian protesters.
"The use of force would sabotage the opportunity offered by the four-party negotiations in Geneva," he said in Beijing after meeting his Chinese counterpart.
European foreign ministers meanwhile held back on unleashing punishing economic sanctions against Russia in hopes that EU-US mediated talks tomorrow in Geneva between Moscow and Kiev could help deescalate the most explosive East-West standoff since the Cold War.
The crisis was exacerbated further still by two episodes on Monday with a dash of Cold War-style intrigue: a confrontation in the Black Sea in which a Russian warplane "buzzed" a US destroyer and a weekend visit to Kiev by CIA chief John Brennan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had demanded an explanation over Brennan's visit.
Moscow accuses Kiev of provoking the crisis by ignoring the rights of citizens who use Russian as their first language, and has promised to protect them from attack. It also highlights the presence of far-right nationalists among Kiev's new rulers.
However, a United Nations report cast doubt on whether Russian-speakers were seriously threatened.
"Although there were some attacks against the ethnic Russian community, these were neither systematic nor widespread," said the report by the UN human rights office.
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