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Update on the situation in Ukraine. 14 April
15.04.2014
The situation in the Eastern Ukraine reminds the “Crimean scenario” more and more, despite significant differences between these regions. Both the algorithm of pro-Russian activists’ actions (seizure of administrative buildings and weapons followed by proclaiming of a "new people's power" and the announcement of a referendum), and their "style" are identical. For example, as in the Crimea, where there were attempts to bribe Ukrainian officers and solders (as military officers told activists of EuromaydanSOS initiative), in the eastern Ukraine Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) is trying to "buy" the Ukrainian police (according to Yuriy Lutsenko, an opposition leader and a former Interior Minister).
A video record from Sloviansk shows the so-called "pro-Russian activists" are not peaceful protesters at all; they rather look like "little green men", who acted in the Crimea. They call themselves "the Ukrainian citizens", who arrived "to ensure a brighter future".
But in fact the experience of the Crimea and events in other regions of the country show that separatists act under command of Russian officers.
According to Andriy Parubiy, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, officers of the Russian Federal Security Service and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Russian Armed Forces were detained during the actions of the Ukrainian Secret Service. In Gorlovka, Donetsk region, the operation for capturing the Ukrainian policeman was commanded by a person representing himself as a lieutenant colonel of the Russian army.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) also reported the interception of radio-correspondence of a raiding party of the Russian intelligence service.
The number of victims during the events in the Eastern Ukraine has increased. According to unconfirmed information, four people were killed by militants in Sloviansk; two officers of the SBU were shot at a checkpoint at the entrance to the town; two civilians were shot in a car in the middle of a street.
The police in Gorlovka did not give up voluntarily. As a result of use of special weapons by militants, Andriy Kryschenko, the head of the city police department, was hospitalized with multiple injuries. More than a dozen of police officers received injuries of varying severity.
In Gorlovka seven masked men busted in to the editorial office of Gorlovka.ua online publication; they rudely pushed out the editor-in-chief from his office and took him away in an unknown direction. After a while the editor was released.
The following video record shows how pro-Ukrainian activists were beaten on 13 April in Mariupol. According to the Ministry of Interior, about 15 people were injured.
Despite such circumstances there are still people who are determined to go out in the streets in support of their pro-Ukrainian position. For instance, about 300 people participated in such a meeting in Lugansk. No attacks or injuries were reported.
The international attention is focused on Ukraine. Emergency meetings of UN Security Council, the OSCE, as well as a meeting of EU foreign ministers devoted to Ukraine were gathered on 14 April.
