THE WORLD AT A GLANCE
'If I want to I can take Kiev in a fortnight': Putin's threat to Europe revealed by EU boss as Ukraine loses control of key airport
Kiev's forces suffered a further setback in their war with
pro-Moscow separatists, with Ukraine's military revealing it had pulled
back from defending a vital airport in the east of the country. Military
spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Ukrainian forces had pulled back from the
airport near Luhansk.
However, they had destroyed seven Russian tanks and identified a major build-up of Russian forces to the north and south of the city.
However, they had destroyed seven Russian tanks and identified a major build-up of Russian forces to the north and south of the city.
'If I want to I can take Kiev in a fortnight': Putin's threat to Europe revealed by EU boss as Ukraine loses control of key airport
- Putin made an incendiary remark to the European Commission President
- He said that his forces could march to the Ukrainian capital in two weeks
- Two seamen are missing after a rebel artillery attack on a patrol boat
- Sergei Lavrov said negotiations on Monday should seek a ceasefire
- Putin says rebel-held areas should be granted 'statehood', splitting Ukraine
- Analysts say Putin wants to establish a 'frozen conflict' to solidify his gains
Russian
President Vladimir Putin made a bellicose statement to the European
Commission President, telling him that his armed forces could 'take Kiev
in a fortnight'.
The warning was made to Jose Manual Barroso over the phone, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
it
came as Kiev's forces suffered a further major setback in their war
with pro-Moscow separatists, with Ukraine's military revealing that it
had pulled back from defending a vital airport in the east of the
country.
Warning: Mr Putin (right) made a
bellicose statement to the European Commission President, Jose Manual
Barroso (left), telling him that his armed forces could 'take Kiev in a
fortnight'. The pair are pictured here on August 20
Putin listens to an explanation during a visit to the Mammoth Museum of the North-Eastern State University in Yakutsk, Russia
Denial: Mr Putin insists that Russian troops are not involved in fighting in eastern Ukraine
People loosen parts from a burned-out Ukrainian armored personnel carrier in the village of Hrabske, eastern Ukraine
The wreckage of an armoured personel carrier is seen at an abandoned checkpoint in Olenivka, 12 miles south of Donetsk
Ukrainian soldiers patrol in an APC in
the Donetsk area. Ukrainian troops have retreated from the Lugansk
airport and a nearby village in the east after coming under artillery
fire
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Ukrainian forces had pulled back from the airport near Luhansk.
However,
they had destroyed seven Russian tanks and identified a major build-up
of Russian forces to the north and south of the city.
'According
to our operational data, there are no fewer than four (Russian)
battalion-tactical groups in Ukraine,' he told reporters, adding that
each one comprised 400 men.
Earlier, Russia faced claims from Ukraine that the rebels it backs had fired on a naval vessel with artillery.
Two
seamen are missing after the attack, which came as the Kremlin
increased pressure for an immediate ceasefire, at the same time as
calling for rebel-held areas to become a separate state.
Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said negotiations taking place on Monday should seek an immediate
ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Pictured are pro-Russian rebels preparing
arms for an assault on Ukrainian army positions in Donetsk airport
A Pro-Russian rebel armed with a heavy machine gun prepares to attack Ukrainian troops at Donetsk airport
Russian President Vladimir Putin,
center right, poses for a photo with athletes while attending the Judo
World Cup in the city of Chelyabinsk in Siberia, Russia, on Sunday.
Analysts said Putin wants to establish a 'frozen conflict' to
consolidate his gains in Ukraine
A man shoots at targets depicting a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a shooting range in Lviv
Figure of hate: A target depicting a portrait of Putin that's riddled with bullet holes
Ending
hostilities now would consolidate gains for pro-Moscow forces, which
the Kiev government say are simply a front for Vladimir Putin.
Russia
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukrainian forces must pull back
from positions from which they can hit civilian targets, and
negotiations taking place on Monday should seek an immediate ceasefire
in eastern Ukraine.
'They
must leave positions from which they can harm the civilian population,'
Lavrov told students in Moscow. 'I very much count on today's
negotiations being devoted above all to the task of agreeing an
immediate ceasefire, without conditions.'
He
also said that from Russia 'there will be no military intervention (in
Ukraine), we are for an exclusively peaceful resolution of that most
serious crisis, that tragedy'.
Russia Today
filmed the BBC's John Sweeney confronting Mr Putin directly about the
crisis. He asked him if he regretted the deaths in Ukraine.
Mr
Putin said: 'The current government in Ukraine does not want to conduct
political negotiations with the eastern regions of the country.
Political and essential negotiations.
'What was the purpose of the military actions in the east of the country? What provoked the reactions in the eastern regions?
'The
Ukrainian military encircled the big cities and villages. They were
shelling houses directly. The purpose of people in eastern regions is to
take them away from the villages and stop them shelling the villages.
This is what is being neglected in the Western countries.'
Analysts
said that Putin wants to establish a 'frozen conflict', which would
consolidate his gains in the region, giving him permanent strong
influence in Ukraine.
The
talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk will bring together
representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE security forum and
separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov's call for a ceasefire came after Ukraine accused rebels of shelling a Navy patrol boat.
Two
seamen are missing after Sunday's separatist rebel artillery attack on a
patrol boat in the Sea of Azov, and eight seamen were rescued, a
Ukrainian border guard official said on Monday.
'The
cutter has sunk. We managed to save eight sailors, thanks to other
cutters coming to their rescue. Seven of them are injured or burned. Two
sailors have gone missing. We are continuing rescue operations,' the
official, Serhiy Astakhov, told Reuters.
'After
analysing the situation, we believe that this attack was from an
artillery system but we don't know yet where it was fired from,' he
said.
Conflict: A map showing the military state of play in eastern Ukraine
Analysts said that Putin wants to
establish a 'frozen conflict', which would consolidate his gains in the
region. Pictured are Ukrainian troops riding in an armoured vehicle in
the Donetsk region
Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia on Monday of launching
'direct and open aggression' which he said had radically changed the
balance on the battlefield against Kiev in its fight against pro-Russian
separatists.
'Direct
and open aggression has been launched against Ukraine from a
neighbouring state. This has changed the situation in the zone of
conflict in a radical way,' he said in a speech at a military academy in
Kiev.
Ukrainian
troops and local residents were reinforcing the port of Mariupol on
Sunday, the next big city in the path of pro-Russian fighters who pushed
back government forces along the Azov Sea this past week in an
offensive on a new front.
Following
events last week in Ukraine there would be high-level personnel changes
in the Ukrainian armed forces, Poroshenko said.
Moscow
denies the presence of Russian tanks and troops in Ukraine, despite
what Nato and Western governments have said is overwhelming evidence to
the contrary.
A volunteer helps dig trenches near a block post of the Ukrainian army to defend Mariupol from pro-Russian rebels
Lavrov
added that any new sanctions from the European Union or the United
States would force Russia to protect its economy, citizens and
businesses.
In
the case of new sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, he said, 'we will
first of all start from our own interests - protect our economy, protect
our social sphere, protect our businesses and at the same time draw
conclusions from the actions of our partners'.
Lavrov
played down Russia's exclusion from the Group of Eight over its
annexation of Ukraine's Crimea, saying the forum had lost much of its
significance since the formation of the wider G20.
Meanwhile,
lights went off temporarily overnight in most cities on the Crimean
peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in March, with local leaders
accusing Kiev of sabotage.
Ukrainian army servicemen repair an armoured vehicle at their position near Debaltseve, Donetsk region
Some
two-thirds of the normal electricity supply from Ukraine went off
around 1900GMT, Russian news agency Itar-Tass cited the local
electricity distributor as saying, plunging into darkness major cities
as Yalta and Sevastopol, the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Supplies
to the peninsula, which is dependent upon Ukraine for 80 per cent of
its electricity, were eventually restored, said energy distribution
company Crimenergo, but there was no explanation from Ukraine as to the
reason for the outage.
But Crimea's acting governor accused Kiev of using electricity as a weapon against the peninsula.
'It
is the latest act of sabotage by the Ukrainian authorities, this time
aimed at disrupting preparations for the schools' reopening for the
beginning of the school year,' Sergei Aksyonov was quoted as saying by
RIA-Novosti news agency.
No comment was immediately available from the Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine says its military is riddled with Russian spies
Concern: Valeriy Heletey says that the Ukrainian army is riddled with Russian spies
With
pro-Russian forces making significant gains in Ukraine, Kiev's defence
minister has vowed to set up a SMERSH-style counter-intelligence agency
to stop Moscow's infiltration weakening his armed forces.
Amid
fears that the conflict could descend into full-scale war between the
two former Soviet states, Valeriy Heletey claimed that his army is now
engaged with Russian servicemen in both Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
The
pro-Kremlin forces - which Kiev insists are spearheaded by Vladimir
Putin's troops - have now seized control of Lugansk airport and are
strengthening around Novoazovsk in Donetsk region, they claim.
The claims come as Nato leaders prepare to meet in Wales for the alliance's toughest summit since the end of the Cold War.
With
his army in retreat, defence minister Heletey said he was setting up a
new counter-intelligence service based on Stalin's feared SMERSH -
'death to spies' - system established in the Red Army during World War
Two.
'Today
like never before, it is important to get rid of the Russian 'fifth
column' within the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Defence Ministry, and more
importantly, in the units and regiments engaged in the Anti-Terrorist
Operation,' he said.
The service 'will be somewhat similar to SMERSH and operate mainly on the front-line and in the military command bodies'.
It
would 'identify and destroy enemy agents' and 'uncover instances of the
non-fulfilment of military orders by commanders as well as instances of
desertion'.
Ukrainian servicemen rest near their military equipment inside a military camp in the Donetsk region
The
special service will be 'directly subordinated to me', said Heletey, a
former policeman appointed by President Petro Poroshenko to crush rebels
in the east of Ukraine.
'Russian
troops appeared not only in Donetsk but also near Lugansk airport and
in other towns,' he told Ukrainian TV, admitting the task facing his
army - which is seeking military equipment from the US and EU countries
-'has become more difficult'.
This
was confirmed by both intelligence and other responsible services,
including eyewitnesses who have seen them in Donetsk', he alleged.
'Right
now we are already fighting not against the self-proclaimed republics -
DPR, DLR [Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics].
'We are fighting against Russia. The Kremlin decides what happens in Donbass, what to do next.'
He warned: 'Everything is decided in the Kremlin. We are holding talks with representatives of the Kremlin.'
He
claimed the Russian had plans to 'redraw the map' in the region,
including in the unofficial statelet of Transistria, a region of Moldova
bordering Ukraine to the west, which is entirely supported by Moscow.
While not acknowledging the presence of Russian troops, a rebel spokesman in Lugansk said:
'We
have managed to take the airport under our control. It is a very
important strategic point, we have been fighting for it for a long time
and now we have taken it.'
Concern
was high today over the fate of both Ukrainian forces and their Russian
captives amid Kiev claims that separatist forces including Russians
opened fire on a convoy of evacuees, breaking an agreement.
Borys
Filatov, a senior official in the Dnipropetrovsk regional state
administration, said: 'The Russians gave their word to let the people
evacuate. However, they started to shoot.'
Sources have put the number of dead at dozens or even hundreds, but there is so far no confirmation.
'Our convoy also had tens of wounded and captured Russian troopers. They also were killed,' said Filatov.
Poroshenko and his military commanders are seeking weapons and intelligence support from the West.
However, Ukraine is not a Nato member, and major Western countries have indicated they will not deploy troops on the ground.
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