Talks of split increase across troubled nation

LVIV, Ukraine — Protesters control public buildings, hold mock trials for government officials and create their own governing councils, speaking of “autonomy” in this western city.

It’s a scene increasingly playing out in other parts of the country, as party officials in the east and south talk of secession, holding an emergency meeting Saturday to consider what to do next even as the country’s security service warns against a split.

As the nation spirals out of control, people on both sides are calling for a breakup — a move once considered unthinkable despite the deep divisions that exist in this former Soviet country.

It’s clear that Ukraine — a nation of 46 million in which half the country looks toward the West and the other toward Russia — is at a crossroads, analysts say.

“They are all Ukrainian, whether they speak Ukrainian or Russian,” said Ben Tonra, associate professor of interna- tional relations at University College Dublin in Ireland.

“The challenge that the Ukrainian nation has is coming to an agreement on where the future of Ukraine rests — and as there are different opinions now leading to the point of civil violence, this is the context in which Ukraine has to make the decision,” he added.

The Party of Regions held an emergency meeting Saturday with more than 2,000 deputies of all levels from the eastern and southern regions in the eastern city of Kharkiv, the unofficial capital of the Russian- speaking heartland where Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Saturday — just before lawmakers voted to remove him — as protesters took over key sections of the capital Kiev.

This region is largely made up of Russian speakers loyal to their larger neighbor and is the base of the president’s Party of Regions.

Here, offices of the ultraright-wing Freedom Party as well as buildings used by opposition leader Vitali Klitschko’s Udar party were attacked in the cities of Kharkiv, Dneprope- trovsk and Krivoy Rog over the past week.

As officials here have denounced protesters and demanded a crackdown against them, some have mulled independence.

Crimea, a pro-Moscow, autonomous republic within Ukraine, may secede if the country descends into chaos, the head of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, told lawmakers earlier this week, according to Russian media.

He added that he believes “the country is heading toward a split.”