Back to the barricades
Eastern approaches 2014-04-13
Summary:
THE situation in eastern Ukraine has moved into a new and ominous phase. Shooting was reported on April 12th in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, two towns in which disciplined, armed and uniformed men seized control of police buildings. Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s acting minister of the interior, accused Russia of “an act of aggression”.
No troops have crossed the border in the conventional military sense but what is now playing out across the east, including the seizure of the interior ministry building in Donetsk, appears co-ordinated and has the hallmarks of a Russian operation. Men have appeared in unmarked uniforms as they did in the run up to the annexation of Crimea in March. Roadblocks are springing up. Pro-Russian forces now control the two main roads from Kiev to the east.
In the Donetsk interior ministry, uniformed members of the Berkut, the riot police force, which was officially disbanded following the fall of the government of president Viktor Yanukovich in February, are in control. On the morning on April 12th the local interior ministry chief was forced to resign. A new one has been appointed but a source in...Continue reading