As the latest talks to solve Ukraine's crisis appeared to be headed nowhere, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on March 14 that it reserves the right to intervene in Ukraine in order to protect Russian citizens -- an ominous statement that threatens a wider Kremlin military intervention beyond Russian-occupied Crimea.
The statement came after clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian demonstrators in Donetsk late on March 13 that left at least two dead and several injured. However, most eyewitnesses say that the pro-Russian side instigated the violence.
“Russia realizes responsibility for compatriots’ lives in Ukraine and
reserves the right to protect these people,” the ministry said in a statement
on its website, adding that Kyiv had demonstrated an inability
to control the situation in the eastern Ukrainian city.
The ministry’s statement said that demonstrators, “who wanted to express their attitude towards the
destructive position of people who named themselves as the Ukrainian
authorities,” were protesting peacefully before being attacked by armed right-wing
groups.
“We said several times that those who came to power in Kyiv, should
disarm rioters and ensure security of the population and their legal right to
assemblies,” the ministry said.
But the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement contrasts drastically with the version of events reported by several
journalists on the scene, including those from local news site Novosti Donbassa
and The New York Times, who stated that it was the pro-Russian group of
demonstrators who initiated the violence, throwing paving stones and smoke
canisters at pro-Ukraine and anti-war demonstrators.
Two deaths from the pro-Ukraine side were confirmed by Novosti Donbassa reporters
at the scene. “It is unknown whether a third person is alive or dead; another
is in serious condition and is undergoing an operation; two more are in
critical condition; and at least 50 people were injured, they reported,” the
news site wrote on its website.
Ukraine’s Health Ministry confirmed one death, while the news site TSN,
citing its own sources, reported three.
Newly appointed governor of Donetsk Oblast, Sergey Taruta, said at a press briefing in Kyiv on March 14 that statements
like the one from Russia’s Foreign Ministry mislead not only Russians but also
Ukrainians.
“The statement made by the Russian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs about the events that took place in Donetsk on March 13 is biased and
fundamentally misrepresents the situation,” he said at a press briefing held at
the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center inside the Hotel Ukraine.
Also on March 14, Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov ordered
the Interior Ministry to immediately detain all parties responsible for the
deaths and injuries in Donetsk on March 13, and blamed Moscow-backed
separatists for inciting the violence.
“The entire world has seen footage of this terrible massacre. The utmost
cynicism of all this is that the blood of Ukrainian citizens who attended a
rally in support of our country’s unity was spilled in their own home
city,” Turchynov said in a statement published on his
official website. “This is the true face of the Cossack separatists who
were sent there and who triggered the violence. The lives of the people that
they supposedly gathered to defend are not important to them and their masters
in the Kremlin. Every Ukrainian must realize that.
“I am issuing an urgent instruction to immediately investigate this
situation, detain all those involved in this bloodshed and punish them for the
crimes they committed, in accordance with the law,” Turchynov added.
Heeding the Turchynov’s call, Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s interim interior
minister, reported that four people suspected of participating in the attack
were arrested on March 14. Chief of Donetsk regional police Kostiantyn Pozhydayev said that an additional 300 people involved in the conflict had been identified, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported. The four men arrested will be charged under Article 294 of the Criminal Code (mass disorder), and if found guilty could face five to fifteen years in prison.
Despite the progress in the police investigation, Taruta said that law enforcement authorities did not act effectively
enough to prevent the aggression.
“In experts’ opinion, in this case the actions of the police were adequate
but not sufficient to prevent the tragedy from happening. We will learn from
this,” he said, adding that law enforcement has a cache of video footage that
will be used to identify more suspects.
“We call upon everybody now to think of their future and prevent such
tragic moment from happening in the future,” he said.
Taruta declared March 14 a day of mourning in Donetsk, as people laid
Ukrainian flags and flowers at the spot where one of the victims, 22-year-old Dmitriy Chernyavskiy,
was stabbed to death. Taruta promised the regional government would provide support to the friends
and family of the deceased.
Ukraine’s richest man and Donetsk native, Rinat Akhmetov, also weighed in
on the events, penning a letter posted on his System Capital Management website
that began: “Dear fellow countrymen.”
He continued: “A tragedy happened in our city yesterday. People of different political
views could not control their aggression, which resulted in dozens of people
being injured and the death of a young man, Dmitriy Chernyavskiy. I offer my
deepest condolences to his family and friends. No politics can justify victims,
and what happened is unacceptable.
“Donbass has always been a responsible business region. It is a place of
hard and sometimes dangerous labour where diligent and courageous people live
and work. We must act unemotionally. We must be prudent and tolerant to each
other. We must respect different views. We should stop sorting out
relationships in the streets and squares as it can take lives and bring
suffering.
“I urge all people to stay calm, hold your emotions and stop bringing
them out in public.
“We are one Donbass family and should remain so – one Donbass family, in one
united Ukraine.”
Tensions have escalated across Ukraine in recent days, as Russia’s Defense
Ministry confirmed that it had started military exercises in several regions
near Ukraine’s border, which involved some 8,500 soldiers. That, paired with the
Foreign Ministry’s announcement, has many Ukrainians fearing that Russia will
use the unrest in Donetsk to justify a full-scale invasion
of the country.
Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on March 12 warned that Russia
was trying to provoke a response from Ukraine, as a pretext
to invade.
Raising the stakes even more is a referendum in Crimea planned
for Sunday that could pave the way for the Black Sea peninsula
to join Russia.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov met in London on March 14 to hold 11th hour talks in hopes of
finding a solution to the Ukrainian problem. But after more than five hours,
it was apparent that the two had not come to any agreement.
Russia,
and the U.S., Lavrov told reporters after the meeting in London, do not have a “common vision” on Ukraine, despite “useful” talks.
Kyiv Post editor Christopher
J. Miller can be reached at [email protected],
and on Twitter at @ChristopherJM.
