Ukraine military repels Russia incursion into area next to Crimea

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine...ture-1.2574094

Ukraine crisis: Russia vetoes UN resolution on Crimea's future

Tensions ramp up as vote nears, military repels Russia incursion into area next to Crimea

Updated

• Ukraine military fends off Russia grab of Kherson region
• 3 protesters die in different demonstrations overnight
• Russia vetoes UN resolution declaring Crimea referendum invalid
• Western powers prepare economic sanctions against Russia

Russia has vetoed a UN resolution declaring Sunday's referendum on the future of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula illegal, but its close ally China abstained in a show of Moscow's isolation.
Supporters of the U.S.-sponsored resolution knew that Russia would use its veto. But they put the resolution to a vote Saturday morning to show the strength of opposition to Moscow's takeover of Crimea. The 13 other council members voted "yes."
The resolution would have reaffirmed the council's commitment to Ukraine's "sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity."

• Follow the latest updates from Ukraine
• Crimea's referendum fuels ethnic identity crisis
• Ukraine sailors trapped in Crimean port put up brave front

Supporters of Ukraine's territorial integrity had hoped to demonstrate the strength of opposition to Russia's takeover and possible annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in the vote.
The resolution would also have declared that Sunday's referendum on whether Crimea should become part of Russia "can have no validity, and cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of Crimea."
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said the resolution is aimed at "showing the extent of Russia's isolation as it pursues a non-peaceful path."
The draft resolution also urged all parties "to pursue immediately the peaceful resolution of this dispute through direct political dialogue," to protect the rights of minorities in Ukraine.


'A real danger'

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military scrambled aircraft and paratroops on Saturday to repel an attempt by Russian forces to enter a long spit of land belonging to a region adjacent to Crimea, Ukraine's defence ministry said.
Demonstrators in Moscow carrying Russian and Ukrainian flags march to oppose president Vladimir Putin's policies in Ukraine. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press)

"Units of Ukraine's armed forces today ... repelled an attempt by servicemen of the armed forces of the Russian Federation to enter the territory of Kherson region on Arbatskaya Strelka," a ministry statement said. "This was repelled immediately."
The territory in question is a long spit of land running parallel to the east of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, now controlled by Russian forces.
The border guard service said Ukrainian forces had taken up defensive positions on Arbatskaya Strelka, where about 60 Russian troops had landed on the strip and begun digging in, assisted by three armoured personnel carriers.
Six Russian helicopters arrived with 60 more servicemen about two hours later outside the village of Strelkovoye. The border guard service said talks between the two sides established that the Russian servicemen were "guarding against possible terrorist acts" against a gas pumping station.
"At this time, there is no threat of confrontation," the Ukrainian border guard service said.
Ukraine also accused "Kremlin agents" of fomenting deadly violence in Russian-speaking cities and urged people not to rise to provocations its new leaders fear Moscow may use to justify a further invasion after its takeover of Crimea.
Election commission workers prepare for Sunday's referendum. Ukraine's government and Western nations have denounced the vote as illegitimate. (Andrew Lubimov/Associated Press)

From his speaker's chair in parliament, acting president Oleksander Turchinov referred to three deaths in two days in Donetsk and Kharkiv and said there was "a real danger" of invasion by Russian troops across Ukraine's eastern border
Turchinov, quoted by local media, closed the parliamentary session by saying: "The situation is very dangerous. I'm not exaggerating. There is a real danger from threats of invasion of Ukrainian territory and we will reconvene on Monday at 10."
Other members of the Western-backed interim administration, which Russian President Vladimir Putin says supports Ukrainian ultra-nationalists hostile to ethnic Russians, urged people in the east not to be drawn into violence stirred up by Moscow.


Kharkiv clash

Two men, aged 21 and 30, were killed by buckshot late on Friday when pro-Russian demonstrators besieged an office of the far-right Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector, which rose to prominence fighting riot police in Kyiv over the winter.
Ukraine's military scrambled aircraft and paratroops on Saturday to repel an attempt by Russian forces to enter a long spit of land belonging to a region adjacent to Crimea. (Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press)

Police said 32 Right Sector activists and six pro-Russian demonstrators were detained and a number of weapons seized.
A spokesman for Right Sector in Kharkiv said his group had been besieged in their office overnight by pro-Russian activists firing shotguns and rifles and throwing petrol bombs and stun grenades. Avakov said both sides had used firearms.


U.S. military exercises

The USS Truxtun, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, will carry out more exercises with allied ships in the Black Sea, its commander said on Saturday, in a further sign of the international response to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
Commander Andrew Biehn was briefing reporters aboard the 300-crew destroyer as it lay docked in a Bulgarian port.
-Reuters


Kharkiv governor Ihor Baluta, newly appointed by the interim authorities in Kyiv, said the "well-planned provocation by pro-Russian activists" began when unidentified men in a minibus provoked a confrontation with pro-Russia demonstrators and then drove off. When pursuing demonstrators caught up with the vehicle, it was parked outside the nationalists' building.
The Right Sector spokesman, quoted by Interfax-Ukraine news agency, said his group had taken no part in the initial clash and believed the minibus was left outside its office by others.
Authorities in Kharkiv banned political gatherings that were planned in the city over the weekend. In Donetsk, hundreds of people rallied in Lenin Square, flying Russian flags and calling for a referendum in the region similar to that in Crimea.


Mixed emotions

Home to a million people, Donetsk is the heart of the Donbass coal and steel region that anchors Ukraine's industrial base. Many ethnic Russians live there as well as ethnic Ukrainians who use Russian as their first language.
A convoy of trucks towing artillery cannons moves on a road at a security check point near Chongar, Crimea. (Andrei Udovichenko/ Associated Press)

People in Donetsk voice mixed feelings about the confrontation with Russia that has plunged Europe back toward the atmosphere of the Cold War of a quarter-century ago. Eastern Ukraine was part of the Russian empire for centuries, unlike western regions which came variously under Austrian and Polish rule. There, Ukrainian is widely spoken and support for closer ties to the European Union is strong.
"I'm worried about Ukraine. I'm crying all the time," said Tatyana Lazunova, a physical education teacher in her 30s. "I don't want to be under Russia."
Natalya Sedova, 50, said she was "for a united Ukraine and against occupation" and that, as an ethnic Russian, she felt no threat in Ukraine. She feared pro-Russian activism was part of efforts by corrupt allies of the ousted president to return. "All these Russian demonstrations are just pretend," she said.
'All these Russian demonstrations are pretend.'- Natalya Sedova, Donetsk resident
But others in the city say political and economic turbulence in Ukraine is frightening and see Moscow as stable.
"Ukraine needs stability and calm," said 50-year-old mathematician Oleg Laktionov, "We won't get that in Ukraine but in Russia I think we will," he said, adding that he wanted a referendum to decide whether Donetsk would gain autonomy within Ukraine, full independence or union with Russia.
He said military help from Russia to eastern separatists should be a last resort, however. "From Putin we expect mainly diplomatic and political support," he said. "If the Nazis in Kyiv put us under pressure, then we would like economic aid."
Student Dmitry Maksimenko said he too wanted a referendum on autonomy and expected Russian help. "If a single Russian gets hurt here, Putin won't hold back and will send in his troops."


© Thomson Reuters, 2014






Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.