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Kharkiv
mayor shot in assassination attempt as sanctions imposed
Mayor
of eastern Ukraine's largest city is fighting for his life as
instability sweeps region
28
April, 2014
The
mayor of Ukraine’s second largest city is fighting for his life
after an assassination attempt, as unrest spirals in eastern Ukraine,
local officials have said.
Gennady
Kernes, the major of the eastern city of Kharkiv, was shot in the
back at about midday local time.
“He
is currently on the operating table in a hospital emergency room.
Doctors are fighting for his life,” his office said in a statement
on Monday afternoon.
The
statement made no comment about the identity of the attackers or the
circumstances of the attack.
Kharkiv
is a major industrial and university city just 20 miles from the
Russian
While
it has seen pro-Russian disturbances in recent weeks, separatist
activists have failed to establish a foothold there similar to those
gained in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Pro-Russian
demonstrators briefly occupied the regional administration building
in the city centre earlier this month, but were swiftly evicted by
police.
Mr
Kernes is a member of former president Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of
the Regions, and has been mayor of Kharkiv since 2010.
Heavily
armed pro-Russian gunmen on Monday seized another town in east
Ukraine, storming the town hall in Kostyantynivka and setting up
barricades.
Kostyantynivka
has 80,000 inhabitants and is located mid-way between the flashpoint
town of Slavyansk and the regional hub city of Donetsk, both of which
are also under the control of insurgents.
Speaking
on a tour of Asia, President Barack Obama said the US and European
Union would impose new sanctions later today that would target
Russian companies and individuals close to President Vladimir Putin
over the escalating crisis in Ukraine.
Mr
Obama says the sanctions are in response to Russia's failure to
uphold an international accord aimed at stemming the crisis in
Ukraine. But he acknowledged that it's possible the sanctions won't
change Russian President Vladimir Putin's calculus.
The
specific targets are expected to be announced by officials in
Washington. The list will also include firms with high-technology
businesses close to the Russian defence industry.
A
Ukrainian interior ministry spokesman said the pro-Russian
separatists had taken the local police headquarters in Kostyantynivka
first thing Monday.
"At
6:00am about 30 separatists came to the local police headquarters and
occupied the ground floor. Negotiations are underway with the local
police chief.
We do not know what their demands are," said Laryssa Volkova, interior ministry spokeswoman.
We do not know what their demands are," said Laryssa Volkova, interior ministry spokeswoman.
Eyewitnesses
said some 20 militants armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and
wearing uniforms with no insignias took control of the town hall and
hoisted the flag of the "Donetsk Republic".
The
gunmen also set up a perimeter around the adjoining police station.
They
used the same tactics and weapons as those seen during in the lead-up
to the annexation of Crimea which Moscow later admitted involved the
deployment of Russian military forces.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin has denied sending such forces to eastern
Ukraine.
The
development came hours after separatists paraded captive European
military observers and three Ukrainian security guards, who were
shown on Russian TV bloodied, blindfolded and stripped of their
trousers and shoes, their arms bound with packing tape.
The
provocative displays came as the increasingly ruthless pro-Russian
insurgency in the east turns to hostage-taking as an ominous new
tactic.
Germany's
foreign minister condemned the appearance as "revolting"
and a violation of the men's dignity. Four members of the team are
German.
One
of the observers, a Swedish officer, was released later in the day
for medical reasons.
Dozens
of people are being held hostage, including journalists and
pro-Ukraine activists, in makeshift jails in Slovyansk in the heart
of the separatists' territory, as the pro-Russian insurgents
strengthen their control in the east in defiance of the interim
government in Kiev and its Western supporters.
A
crowd of several hundred pro-Russia activists stormed the television
broadcasting centre in Donetsk, the regional capital of eastern
Ukraine, to demand that Russian state channels be put back on the
air. The Kiev government last month blocked broadcast of the Russian
channels, which serve as propaganda tools for the Kremlin.
The
crowd included several dozen men wearing camouflage fatigues and face
masks, the standard uniform of the pro-Russia forces that have seized
government buildings in at least 10 cities in eastern Ukraine.
Col
Axel Schneider from Germany, who spoke for the group of military
observers detained on Friday, stressed that they were on a diplomatic
mission under the auspices of the Organisation of Security and
Cooperation in Europe and weren't spying for Nato, as the insurgents
claim.
Col
Schneider said additional proof of this was the participation of the
officer from Sweden, which is not a member of Nato.
The
observers appeared nervous as they were escorted by armed men into
the Slovyansk city hall for the news conference and then led away.
Referring
to himself and his team as "guests" under the "protection"
of the city's self-proclaimed mayor, Col Schneider said they were
being treated as well as possible under the circumstances.
"The
mayor of this city granted us his protection and he regarded us as
his guests," Schneider told journalists. "I can tell you
that the word of the mayor is a word of honor. We have not been
touched."
US
announces sanctions on Putin's inner circle over Ukraine
- Seven officials and 17 companies targeted
- Statement: involvement in Ukraine violence 'indisputable'
28
April, 2014
The
US and the European Union stepped up their sanctions on President
Vladimir Putin’s inner circle on Monday, accusing Russia of stoking
violence and political tension in eastern Ukraine.
The
White House announced it was adding seven prominent Russians to a
blacklist subject to visa bans and asset freezes, including two
officials particularly close to the Russian leader: Igor Sechin, the
head of Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft, and Vyacheslav
Volodin, first deputy chief of staff in the presidency, widely
believed to run its internal political strategy.
“Putin’s
decision to move into Crimea is believed to have been based on
consultations with his closest advisers, including Volodin,” a US
Treasury statement said.
Accusing
Russia of continuing to “fund, co-ordinate, and fuel a heavily
armed separatist movement” in eastern Ukraine, the US also imposed
asset freezes on 17 Russian companies, which will also be denied
trading licences.
After
a meeting of European ambassadors in Brussels, the EU declared it was
increasing its own list of targeted sanctions from 33 to 48 top
Russians. The 15 new names added to the list are not due to be
published until Tuesday.
Both
the US and UK warned that broader sanctions against whole sectors of
the Russian economy would be forthcoming in the event of more overt
Russian miltary intervention in eastern Ukraine, despite concerns
that such measures would pose a risk to the global economy, and have
limited support inside the EU.
Speaking
in Manila, Obama said the goal of the new round of sanctions was to
change the Russian calculation in its alleged sponsorship of
separatists in Ukraine. “The goal is not to go after Mr Putin
personally. The goal is to change his calculus with respect to how
the current actions that he's engaging in Ukraine could have an
adverse impact on the Russian economy over the long haul,” Obama
said.
The
administration said that further sanctions could include targeting
sectors of the Russian economy such as financial services and energy,
the impact of which would be “far more powerful” than those
announced on Monday, officials said.
The
tier of sanctions announced on Monday had been prepared some weeks
ago but had been held back after an 17 April accord in Geneva signed
by the US, Russia, EU and Ukraine, intended to defuse the crisis. US
officials said Russia had done nothing to implement the measures
agreed to, but had instead fuelled the separatist takeover of eastern
Ukrainian cities.
Anger
in Washington and Brussels was exacerbated by the continued detention
of seven European military monitors by pro-Russian separatists in the
town of Slavyansk. A senior US official said that the seven,
including four Germans, a Pole, a Dane and a Czech officer, in
Ukraine under the mandate of the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), had been “subjected to abuse in
capitivity” but that claim could not be confirmed.
At
an emergency meeting of OSCE member states in Vienna, the US
delegate, Gary Robbins, said the organisation faced “a hostage
crisis”. Robbins said: “We remain disappointed that senior
officials in Moscow have not condemned the abduction – nor have
they demanded the team’s immediate release.”
He
added: “While the government of Ukraine is working in good faith to
fulfill the aspirations of the Geneva joint statement, Russia
continues to deceive and destabilise its neighbour. Despite its
propaganda attempting to hide the truth, Russia continues to fund,
coordinate, and fuel a heavily armed separatist movement in Donetsk.”
The
OSCE reported that other members of its special monitoring team had
been temporarily detained by separatists in two locations near
Donetsk on Sunday. Monitors were held in a heavily-barricaded police
builidng in the town of Horlivka and were accused of espionage before
being allowed to leave.
Speaking
in the House of Commons on Monday, the British foreign secretary,
William Hague said: “Russia is already paying a serious price for
its actions and the longer it breaches the independent sovereignty of
Ukraine the heavier the price it will pay."
“Russia’s
actions betray their fear of democracy and the rule of law taking
root in their neighbourhood,” the foreign secretary added.
The
principal target of Monday's sanctions was Rosneft. Not only was its
president, Igor Sechin, singled out in the US blacklist, but also
Sergei Chemezov, a member of the board who also directs a state-owned
holding company.
Like
other Russian energy firms, Rosneft has deep ties with American-based
counterparts, particularly ExxonMobil, with whom it has a $500m joint
venture for exploration of Arctic oil. The British oil giant, BP,
also owns a nearly 20% stake in Rosneft, but said on Monday it
intends to remain a long-term investor in Russia, despite the new
sanctions.
Russian
officials vowed to take reprisal measures for the American sanctions
package. “We are certain that this response will have a painful
effect on Washington,” deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told
the Interfax news agency.
The
Obama administration indicated it believes it is more likely to
influence Russian behaviour through economic pressure than providing
additional and potentially lethal military aid to Ukraine, citing the
massive discrepancy in Ukrainian and Russian military capabilities.
Last
week, a contingent of US soldiers from the 173rd infantry combat team
arrived in a Polish air base, part of a commitment of 600 troops the
administration will send to Poland and the Baltic states on a
so-called training mission that the White House hopes will have a
deterrent value.
Fraud
investigators in Britain also froze $23m of suspected dirty money
held in the UK, as they opened an investigation into possible money
laundering from Ukraine, mostly by members of the ousted regime of
Viktor Yanukovych.
The
announcement of a criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office
comes on the eve of an international conference in London aimed at
helping Ukraine’s new government recover stolen assets. The two-day
Ukraine Forum on Asset Recovery, organised by the Foreign Office and
the US attorney general, brings together investigating organisations
to work on recovering millions in stolen assets.
Robert
Barrington, executive director of Transparency International in the
UK, said the $23m of suspected stolen money the SFO was looking at
could be a tiny proportion of the total money embezzled by corrupt
officials in Ukraine. “One would hope this would be the first
announcement on a very long journey.”
Governments
were working much faster to recover stolen assets than after the Arab
Spring, he said. But questions persist about the UK’s legal
framework for checking on stolen money. “Why was the money here in
the first place? If if was corrupt it should never have been here.”
Last
month the EU froze assets of former president Yanukovych, and 21
other people held responsible for embezzling state funds.
Quite
frankly I can understand why Mr. Ostrovsky was 'kidnapped'
Simon
Ostrovsky Describes His Kidnapping: Russian Roulette In Ukraine
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