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• Fatal clashes at Ukrainian military base

  
  At least one dead and 15 injured at Mariupol base as pro-Russian and pro-Kiev factions face off
  
  
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  • theguardian.com, Thursday 17 April 2014 11.53 BST
  

  A minibus burns at the gates to the military base in Mariupol. Photograph: Nikolai Ryabchenko/AP
  At least one pro-Russian protester was killed and 15 injured during clashes at a Ukrainian military base in Mariupol on Wednesday night, raising the fatality count in eastern Ukraine to at least three..
  Around 500 protesters – many of them wearing the St George's ribbons used as a symbol of the anti-Kiev movement – reportedly attempted to storm a national guard base starting at 8.30pm, the Mariupol information website 0629 reported. Ukrainian soldiers inside the besieged base fired warning shots in response to explosives hurled inside the compound by the militia. Periodic shooting continued late into the night.
  Earlier this week, pro-Russian protesters seized the administration building in Mariupol, an industrial city on the Azov Sea, and named a "people's mayor". The attack on Wednesday came as an "anti-terrorist operation" tried to take back government buildings seized by pro-Russian protesters and militia in 10 cities around eastern Ukraine. So far the operation has seen little success, and on Wednesday militiamen in Kramatorsk captured six infantry fighting vehicles and enlisted an unknown number of Ukrainian army defectors.
  Accounts differed on events at the Mariupol base, the actions of the attackers and soldiers and the number of dead and injured.
  Interior minister Arsen Avakov posted a statement on his Facebook page reporting that a gang of 300 pro-Russian men had attacked the Ukrainian base, throwing firebombs and molotov cocktails. After they began shooting at the garrison, he wrote, soldiers fired warning shots into the air and only shot at attackers when they attempted another assault.
  Interior ministry special forces later began hunting the attackers down, capturing 63, according to Avakov. He said interior ministry forces hadn't suffered any casualties, while three attackers were killed and 13 wounded.
  "After a short battle, the gang of attackers was dispersed and for the most part isolated and disarmed," he wrote.
  Medics in Mariupol talking to the Guardian, however, could confirm only one death and 15 injures.
  Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said the attackers carried machine guns, and Associated Press reported it had seen footage of unidentified men with assault rifles outside the base.
  Avakov said the attackers had mobile phones operating on Russian networks. The pro-Kiev analytical centre Informational Resistance said they were locals with basic military training led by a Russian military intelligence officer.
  But footage published by 0629 appeared to show a disorganised assault by protesters, who said they had been unarmed and were seeking negotiations.
  In a video posted on the site, a masked man wearing a St George's ribbon and a military helmet said after "the gates came down" soldiers began shooting at protesters and also threw stun grenades, wounding several of them. A man with him said a wounded comrade had been left inside the base, indicating protesters had penetrated the walls.
  "We were yelling, asking for the troops, the commander, to come out for negotiations, because no one here wants blood. They answered with shooting," the first man said.
  Vladimir Putin gives his annual televised question-and-answer session with the nation in Moscow Photograph: Alexei Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images A third man said troops had fired at "peaceful residents". In another video, a masked man with a megaphone standing behind some lorries calls on troops inside the base to come out: "We don't want you – our guys, friends, comrades – to suffer."
  The assertion that the protesters were unarmed was contradicted, however, by photographs also published by 0629 showing masked men, many of them in camouflage, assembled outside the base armed with clubs and molotov cocktails.
  Other photographs depicted the gory aftermath of the attack, with first responders applying pressure to a stomach wound as they carried one man away.
  As the increasingly chaotic scenes in Ukraine's east continued, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, told a televised call-in programme he was certain that Russia and Ukraine could reach a compromise on the basis of their common interests. "I'm sure we will come to a mutual understanding with Ukraine," he said. "We will not be able to do without each other."
  The US meanwhile has promised Ukraine non-lethal military aid after the low morale among the country's soldiers became evident in confrontations with pro-Moscow separatists, but the White House urged Kiev to act in a "measured and responsible way" in responding to unrest in the east.
  
  • COPY http://www.theguardian.com