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Ukraine To Launch 'Large-Scale' Offensive Against Separatists

April 13, 2014
by RFE/RL

Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has said a 'large-scale counterterrorist operation' involving the army will be launched in the country's east after pro-Russia militants seized government buildings.

Russia said the planned military operation was a 'criminal order,' and called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council in New York to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.

The meeting is scheduled to start shortly.

Speaking in a live televised address from parliament on April 13, Turchynov accused Russia of waging 'war' against Ukraine by sowing disorder in the country's east.

Turchynov said authorities in Kyiv will not allow the 'repetition of the Crimean scenario.'

Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March after local residents voted to secede from Ukraine and seek to join Russia in a referendum.

In a decree, Turchynov offered not to prosecute any militants who gave up their weapons by 9 a.m. (0600 GMT/UTC) on April 14.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Kyiv's decision to use the armed forces against protesters was 'outrageous,' and demanded that the authorities 'immediately stop waging war again their own people.'

'It is now the West's responsibility to prevent civil war in Ukraine,' it said in a statement.

Turchynov's announcement came after pro-Russia militants took over Slovyansk on April 12 and targeted several other municipalities in eastern Ukraine.

The activists are demanding a referendum on autonomy and possibly joining Russia.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said one Ukrainian security officer was killed, and five others wounded in a gunfight with pro-Russia activists in Slovyansk on April 13.

He said both sides suffered a number of casualties.

Reports said armed men also took over police stations and official buildings in Kramatorsk, Krasny Liman, Mariupol, and other cities.

In Donetsk, the pro-Russia activists continue to occupy the main government building that they seized a week ago.

Meanwhile, pro-Russia protesters and pro-Ukraine demonstrators clashed in the eastern city of Kharkiv. Interfax news agency quoted Kharkiv authorities as saying 10 people were injured in the violence.

Kyiv and the West accuse Russia of intimate involvement in the trouble -- a charge denied by Moscow.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, AFP, and Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine- turchynov-response-east/25331783.html

Copyright (c) 2014. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.