Putin threat to send tanks into Ukraine as civil war edges closer
VLADIMIR PUTIN is ‘deeply outraged’ by the violence in Ukraine and is under huge pressure to send in tanks as the country lurches towards civil war, the Kremlin warned yesterday.
Amid the deepening violence and bloodshed, Moscow flexed its muscles by demanding the postponment of Ukrainian presidential elections scheduled for May 25.
The government in Kiev declared two days of mourning for Ukrainian troops killed in the eastern city of Slaviansk and for victims of protests in Odessa – including pro-Russian activists killed in attacks by Ukrainian extremist groups.
Western countries blame Moscow for inciting the mayhem now raging across Ukraine and President Barack Obama has threatened more sanctions against Russia.
But a senior Russian diplomat, UN envoy Vitaly Churkin, said the carnage of the past few days in Odessa – a Ukrainian city far from the eastern areas held by rebels – was ‘reminiscent of the crimes of the Nazis from whom the
‘People are asking Russia to help’
Ukrainian ultra-nationalists derive their ideological inspiration’.
Ukrainian security officials accused close aides of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, now exiled in Russia, of financing the violence in Odessa on Friday, which led to the deaths of 46 people and injuries to 200 in a building set alight by demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails.
Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko – who is standing in the presidential election – blamed Russian intelligence agencies for the unrest and said Mr Putin was trying to destabilise her country.
But in Moscow, a government spokesman said President Putin had received thousands of demands to intervene.
‘People are calling in despair, asking for help. The overwhelming majority demand Russian help,’ said the president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
‘All these calls are reported to Vladimir Putin.’
More than 60,000 Russian troops have been moved to the border with Ukraine and newly-annexed Crimea.
After street clashes in Odessa on Friday, a Ukrainian mob overran and set fire to a camp where pro-Moscow supporters had pitched tents, forcing them to take refuge in a trade union building which was then set ablaze with Molotov cocktails. Many were killed by smoke fumes. ‘I nearly suffocated,’ said a woman doctor who was trapped inside the burning building.
‘There was no place to escape, people were cornered.’
Eventually she and others escaped by climbing down a rope from a high window.
But others fell and their bodies were found in the street.
‘For the first time in my life I want to leave Odessa and Ukraine forever,’ she said.
One positive sign yesterday was the release of seven international military observers working for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The group had been held for a week and accused by Russian separatists of being Nato spies.
In a statement last night, the Russian foreign ministry said their release showed the ‘bravery and humanism’ of the defenders of Slaviansk, where the monitors had been detained.