Mayor of Ukrainian City Shot and Wounded
by VOA News April 28, 2014
The mayor of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, was in a serious condition on Monday after being shot in the back while riding his bicycle, in the latest violence to strike the eastern part of the country.
Hennady Kernes, 54, traditionally aligned with Russia, was riding along the route he takes almost every day when he was shot, probably by someone hidden in nearby woods, said Iryna Kushchenko, spokeswoman for the local government.
His bodyguards were following in a car but were not close enough to intervene, she said.
The Interior Ministry said Kernes had been taken to the city's hospital for emergency treatment.
"Doctors assess his condition as serious," the ministry said in a statement.
Kernes was accused by Ukraine's new pro-Western leaders two months ago of promoting separatism when pro-Russian protesters took control of local administrative buildings. He has since softened his stance.
Ukraine's deputy interior minister, Serhiy Yarovy, said investigators are even looking into whether the shooting was in retaliation for the detention of 13 pro-Russian separatists on Sunday on charges of possession of Molotov cocktails, explosives and nails.
Ukrainian forces evicted pro-Russia activists this month, making Kharkiv the only major eastern city to have taken back control from armed protesters who have demanded a referendum on independence for most of eastern Ukraine.
Kernes' friend, former Kharkiv governor Mykhailo Dobkin, said the attackers aimed at Kernes' heart and wanted to kill him to destabilize the city.
'If you want to know my opinion, they were shooting not at Kernes, but at Kharkiv,'' Dobkin said.
Meanwhile, pro-Russian rebels took another town on Monday morning, seizing the police headquarters and municipal administration building in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region.
Reuters journalists at the scene saw about 20 well-organized gunmen controlling the administration building. They erected a barricade of tires, sandbags and concrete blocks.
Soviet songs played over loudspeakers as women gathered the signatures of people supporting an uprising for independence and possible rule from Moscow.
New US, EU sanctions
President Barack Obama announced new sanctions on Monday against Russia for its involvement in the crisis in Ukraine.
The measures are in response to "Russia's continued illegal intervention in Ukraine and provocative acts that undermine Ukraine's democracy and threaten its peace, security, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity," said a White House statement, adding that Moscow's involvement in eastern Ukraine violence 'is indisputable.'
The White House said the targeted sanctions are aimed at a number of individuals and entities and will restrict licenses for certain U.S. exports to Russia.
'The Department of the Treasury is imposing sanctions on seven Russian government officials, including two members of President Putin's inner circle, who will be subject to an asset freeze and a U.S. visa ban, and 17 companies linked to Putin's inner circle, which will be subject to an asset freeze,' the statement said.
A senior Russian diplomat decisively condemned the new round of U.S. sanctions. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on the ministry's website that the sanctions marked a return to 'Cold War' practices.
Meanwhile, European Union governments reached a preliminary agreement on Monday to impose asset freezes and visa bans on 15 more people as part of expanded sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine, diplomats said.
The names of those to be added to the list will not be made public until they are published in the EU's Official Journal on Tuesday.
The EU has previously imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 33 Russians and Crimeans for their part in Russia's seizure of Crimea.
OSCE monitors
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier discussed on Monday the detention in Ukraine of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry gave no further details of the call, which it said was a German initiative.
Earlier on Monday, Germany urged Moscow to use its influence on pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine to secure the release of observers from the OSCE who are being held in the city of Slovyansk.
The OSCE monitors appeared in public with armed rebels watching Sunday to give assurances they are not being mistreated. The leader of the monitors, German Colonel Axel Schneider, assured reporters in Slovyansk they were in good health.
The insurgents called the military observers 'prisoners of war.'
The OSCE sent a team of negotiators to eastern Ukraine to meet with the self-proclaimed mayor of Slovyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, about freeing the military monitors. One, a Swede who is diabetic, was freed for medical reasons but four Germans, a Czech, a Dane and a Pole are still being held.
The rebels also displayed three bloodied and blindfolded officers from Ukraine's security service that they captured. The officers were shown with heads bowed, stripped of their pants and shoes.
Ukraine reports losses
Ukraine has lost at least $80 billion since Russia annexed its southern Crimea region and the price tag, Kyiv says, will be much higher when the calculation includes lost profits and the value of possible energy reserves in the Black Sea.
Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said Kyiv would press its case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights and could take individuals to court for military crimes and those against its territorial integrity.
"Any state property located on the territory of Crimea is the property of Ukraine and Russia bears the full liability for the losses incurred by state companies, ministries and departments," Petrenko told a news conference.
"These losses do not include lost profits and the value of minerals," added Petrenko.
Analysts estimate the value of such energy reserves, seen at 165.3 billion cubic meters of gas and 44 million tons of oil, at around $800 million to $1.2 billion.
Some reporting by Reuters
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
