April 30, 2014 -- Updated 1506 GMT (2306 HKT)
Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov says the country's armed
forces are at full combat readiness because of the threat from Russia. FULL STORY
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SEPARATISTS SEIZE BUILDINGS
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BORDER POSTS REINFORCED
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BORDER POSTS REINFORCED
Ukraine crisis: Defiant pro-Russian activists seize more buildings
April 30, 2014 -- Updated 1414 GMT (2214 HKT)
Separatists seize buildings in Ukraine
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- OSCE negotiators are meeting daily with separatists holding observer team hostage
- Acting President says Ukrainian military has been put on full combat readiness
- Barricades, wire and armed men surround regional administration building in Luhansk
- Pro-Russian militants seize police department in another town, Horlivka
Seized by armed men
Tuesday, the building in Ukraine's restive Donetsk region is just the
latest to fall under the control of pro-Russian militants.
Government sites across
more than a dozen towns and cities in Donetsk remain occupied, despite
an international deal agreed to earlier this month that called for
illegal armed groups to disarm and go home.
And the militias, resolutely defiant, show no signs of changing their stance.
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In the foyer of the
Luhansk government building -- outside which pro-Russian flags now fly
-- more armed men, sandbags and wire surrounded a desk through which
access to the rest of the building was controlled. A handful of
employees waited, looking very uncomfortable.
At a briefing inside for
reporters, a man who described himself as the press secretary for the
headquarters of the "southeast army," Oleg Desyatnichenko, said this was
the threatened takeover of additional buildings.
He said the activists had
given the local government an ultimatum Saturday about holding a
referendum on greater autonomy for the region.
There was no response, he said, so the activists moved in.
Video footage seen
Tuesday showed the pro-Russian militants as they approached the
building, smashed doors, waved flags and chanted "Russia! Russia!"
Desyatnichenko said the
seizure of key administrative buildings, including the police station
and prosecutors' office, would allow the separatists to control local
government and access resources needed to hold the referendum.
A controversial
referendum in Ukraine's Crimea region last month resulted in its
annexation by Russia, a step widely condemned by the international
community.
Separatist leader: 'I am not worried'
In the town of
Slavyansk, to the west of Luhansk, Denis Pushilin, self-declared
chairman of the "Donetsk People's Republic," was also defiant, despite
the international pressure for the groups to disband.
At the start of this
week, additional sanctions were imposed by the United States and
European Union on dozens of individuals and businesses seen as backing
Russia's intervention in Ukraine or as being close to Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
Pushilin is among those named in the EU sanctions list. But he appears unfazed by the prospect of asset freezes and visa bans.
"I am not worried by the sanctions. I have no reaction," he told CNN. "I have no money in Europe."
He said the same applied
to Igor Strelkov, also on the sanctions list, whom the European Union
accuses of being a Russian special forces soldier.
Pushilin also confirmed
that pro-Russian separatists have seized the police department in the
town of Horlivka. "Where they are still enemies of the people, we will
do this. We are making such operations in places where the police are
not on our side," he said.
Separatists in Slavyansk
continue to hold a team of Western military observers from the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, seized outside the
town Friday.
Asked what they intended
for the seven observers -- described by their captors as "prisoners of
war" -- Pushilin said they "would decide about them later."
New EU sanctions target key Putin allies
Donetsk besieged by violence, protesters
Occupations run with military precision
Ukraine reinforcing border positions
He repeated the
separatists' assertion that the observers are NATO spies and said they
would like to exchange them for people detained by pro-Kiev authorities.
OSCE negotiators
continue to meet daily with the pro-Russians in Slavyansk to discuss the
observers' release, and there is a sense that progress is being made,
OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said Wednesday.
The negotiating team has seen the observers each day and reports that they are all in good health.
Turchynov: Military is ready for combat
Acting Ukrainian
President Oleksandr Turchynov said Wednesday that the country's armed
forces have been put on full combat readiness because of the threat from
Russia.
Speaking at a meeting
with the heads of regional state administrations, he said the
authorities' task was to prevent the spread of the "terrorist threat"
from separatists and pro-Russian saboteurs to other regions of Ukraine.
He accused groups in
Slavyansk of "killing and torturing people, capturing people," and he
said that in addition to automatic weapons, they had heavy weapons like
grenade launchers.
In a statement on his
official website Tuesday, Turchynov said events in eastern Ukraine
"illustrated inactivity, helplessness, and sometimes criminal betrayal
of the law enforcement agencies in the Donetsk and (Luhansk) regions."
He said, "It is hard to
admit, but it is true. The vast majority of the law enforcement
officials in the east are not able to fulfill their obligations to
protect our citizens."
New heads of security have been appointed in Donetsk and Luhansk, he said.
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