Report: Putin wants delay in referendum in Ukraine's Donetsk region
By Arwa Damon, Lena Kashkarova and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
May 7, 2014 -- Updated 2356 GMT (0756 HKT)
Pro-Russian militants take back territory
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Ukraine's acting PM dismisses Putin's call to postpone a referendum
- The United States worries Putin will land lock Ukraine, sources say
- NATO has "no indication" that Russia moved troops from Ukraine border, source says
- Putin earlier said Russian forces are "now not on the Ukrainian border"
Mariupol, Ukraine (CNN) -- Russian President
Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he wants a delay in a referendum on
whether certain eastern Ukrainian residents want sovereignty from Kiev
and that presidential elections scheduled for this month are "a step in
the right direction."
But he added that the
planned May 25 presidential vote Kiev wants to hold would "not solve
anything unless all of Ukraine's people first understand how their
rights will be guaranteed" once the election has taken place.
The comments, according
to a transcript published by the Kremlin, came after Putin met with the
chairman of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on
Wednesday.
Separatists in Ukraine's
Donetsk region have scheduled a referendum for Sunday. Putin called for
the delay "in order to give this dialogue the conditions it needs to
have a chance."
Photos: Crisis in Ukraine
Ukraine may be on brink of war
Anti-Putin rally draws crowd in Moscow
He added that direct
talks between Kiev authorities and representatives of the pro-Russian
sympathizers in southeast Ukraine were key to settling the escalating
crisis.
Ukrainian interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk dismissed Putin's comments on the referendum as "hot air."
"There is no point in
dealing in hot air, especially for the President of a big country. Since
Russia is asking to postpone some referendum on May 11, I think the
Russian President needs to be informed that there was no referendum
planned on May 11 in Ukraine to begin with.
"But if terrorists and
separatists supported by Russia got an order to postpone something that
doesn't exist, then this is an internal matter," he said.
In March, voters in
Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula approved a controversial referendum to secede
from Ukraine and join Russia, which subsequently annexed the Crimea
region. That event highlighted the turmoil rocking Ukraine.
Meanwhile, NATO has "no
indication" that Russia has moved its troops from the Ukrainian border, a
NATO military official said Wednesday on the condition of anonymity.
White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest echoed that.
"There is not evidence
to date that there has been a meaningful and transparent withdrawal of
Russian forces from the Ukrainian border," he told reporters.
The comments came after
Putin said Wednesday that Russian forces are "now not on the Ukrainian
border but are carrying out their regular exercises at the test
grounds." Putin spoke after a meeting with OSCE chairman Didier
Burkhalter.
Also from the White
House on Wednesday, President Barack Obama notified Congress he intends
to withdraw Russia's eligibility for trade benefits under the
Generalized System of Preferences.
"Russia is sufficiently
advanced economically that it no longer warrants preferential treatment
reserved for less advanced developing countries, consistent with the
requirements of the GSP program," the White House said in a statement.
Violence in southeastern Ukraine
Elsewhere, five
pro-Russian activists were killed overnight when Ukrainian forces
attacked barricades on the outskirts of Ukraine's southeastern city of
Mariupol, a spokeswoman for the pro-Russian camp said. Ukrainian forces
detained 15 other activists, Irina Voropaeva said.
The violence comes amid
an escalation of tensions as Ukrainian forces seek to regain control of
some of the administrative buildings seized by pro-Russian separatists
in a swath of the country's south and east.
The activists briefly abandoned the Mariupol City Council building, according to Voropaeva.
But the security forces remained in the building for only a short time, saying they had been ordered to leave.
The activists re-entered, and Russian and regional flags went back up, to the cheers of the crowd outside.
Russia's president annexes ... words
Where unrest has occurred in E. Ukraine
Later Wednesday,
witnesses told CNN that Ukrainian forces dressed in black had fired over
the heads of separatists who had gone to a Mariupol police station to
demand the release of the 15 detained activists. The witnesses said
several people were taken away in ambulances.
Elsewhere in the
volatile Donetsk region, an uneasy standoff continued Wednesday between
the Ukrainian military and the separatists.
Both sides clashed at
the rebel stronghold of Slovyansk on Monday. Ukraine's security services
said 30 "heavily armed" militants had been killed in recent days as
part of the "anti-terrorist" operation in the area.
Referendum plan
As the tensions rise, uncertainty reigns.
The eastern Donetsk and
Luhansk regions had said they would hold a referendum on autonomy
Sunday, but there have been no visible preparations for a vote.
In Kiev, the interim
government plans to hold presidential elections on May 25, but it
acknowledges it has lost control of part of the country.
Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday said it would be "unusual" to hold a
presidential election in the country when the army was being deployed
against the population.
"In the situation where
they use the army against their own population, it's quite unusual. This
is not Afghanistan; this is a completely different situation," he said,
adding that constitutional reforms promised by Kiev's new leaders would
not be implemented in time for the vote.
Lavrov, speaking after a
meeting of Council of Europe foreign ministers in Austria, also ruled
out holding a second international meeting in a bid to defuse the crisis
in Ukraine, saying that the provisions of a first international pact
signed in Geneva, Switzerland, last month had yet to be put into force.
The agreement called on
all parties to refrain from violence and required illegal armed groups
to disarm and vacate seized public buildings.
'Gravest crisis'
Kiev and many in the
West believe that the separatists are backed by Moscow and fear that
Putin is fomenting trouble to increase his influence in the region.
In a briefing to U.S.
Senators on Tuesday night, the Obama administration provided a
"sobering" assessment of Russia's intentions in Ukraine, including a
concern that Putin will ultimately landlock the former Soviet nation,
multiple sources on Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon said.
Russia now has its
sights set on the southeastern port city of Odessa and will not allow it
to stay under Ukrainian control because Moscow views it as too crucial
to both trade and the resupply of Russian troops in the occupied
Transnistria region of Moldova, the sources said. The ultimate goal
would be to create a landlocked Ukraine.
In addition, the United
States sees no letup in Moscow's direction of pro-Russian separatists
and paramilitaries inside Ukraine and the continuing presence of Russian
agents and special forces on the ground, the sources said.
But Moscow says that
right-wing, ultranationalist groups are behind the violence in Ukraine
and that it has no direct influence over the pro-Russian groups.
The rising tensions
could have an impact far beyond Ukraine's borders, NATO Secretary
General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned Tuesday.
"Today we are facing the gravest crisis to European security since the end of the Cold War," he told reporters.
"But this is not just
about Ukraine. This crisis has serious implications for the security and
stability of the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole."
CNN's Arwa Damon reported from Mariupol and
journalist Lena Kashkarova from near Donetsk, while Laura Smith-Spark
wrote from London. CNN's Jim Sciutto, Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Claudia
Rebaza, Olga Pavlova, Kellie Morgan and Michael Martinez contributed to
this report.
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