putin is leading Russia to war with Ukraine in a vain attempt to restore the empire of the tsars and the USSR. There are Russian special forces in eastern Ukraine supplying weapons and leadership to the Russian speaking Ukrainian militias who are a minority of Russian speaking Ukrainians in the region. There are also Russian special forces and agents provocateurs from Transnistria in western Ukraine fomenting unrest and strife among the different ethnic groups in Odessa. The government in Kiev is within it's rights to take action to restore their control of these areas of the country. putin's government has been promoting this strife and will use it as justification for invading Ukraine just as hitler fomented strife and fabricated oppression of Germans in neighboring countries to justify the nazi anschluss program. The U.N., the E.U., the U.S. and the rest of the First World nations are unwilling to take the necessary economic action necessary to stop him before Russian troops move across the Ukrainian border. This is Munich of 1938 all over again. The meeting of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Pres Obama was nothing more than channeling the quisling spirits of Chamberlain and Daladier. The world seems ready to sacrifice the sovereignty of Ukraine to protect their own economic and political fortunes. Just as the immoral and illegal military aggression of nazi Germany was ignored until it was too late so too seems to be the fate of Ukraine. Poland and the Baltic States are right to be concerned, they have a history with the likes of hitler and putin, and know allies ignore treaties when their own economic interest are at stake. hitler's goal was nazi germany's rule of Europe and the extermination of lesser peoples, we are left to wonder just how many lives and how much territory will it take to satisfy putin. From the Washington Post......
With Ukrainian troops launching a major assault on a rebel stronghold Friday, just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Kiev to withdraw its troops from the east and south of the country, it looks like the Ukraine crisis is entering a new stage.
As The Post's Michael Birnbaum reported from Moscow, "it seemed possible that even a small spark could ignite a tinderbox regional conflict."
Given this escalation, The Washington Post is publishing a new map that shows, using information from the Royal United Services Institute and our own analysis, recent troop movements in the region. The graphic illustrates how military exercises conducted by Russia have left a big build-up of troops on Ukraine's border. It also shows Ukraine's own military moves to its borders with Russia and Moldova's Russian-dominated enclave, Transnistria.
It'd be wrong to assume that military conflict between Russia and Ukraine is inevitable: There remains plenty of hope that a diplomatic solution can be found. That said, the graphic provides an important look at the military reality of the crisis.
Click the image to see the full graphic.
President Obama and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that broad new economic sanctions
would be imposed on Russia if its threat to eastern Ukraine disrupts the
country’s presidential election later this month.
The warning, delivered during a White House news conference, provided for the first time a specific threshold that Russia must not cross if it is to avoid further sanctions from Europe and the United States.
Those measures could include sanctions against Russia’s
lifeblood energy sector, banking system and mining industries, moves
that would hurt Europe primarily but also ripple through the U.S.
economy.
For weeks, the Obama administration has declined to specify what, short of a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine, would trigger the most severe sanctions to date in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea and support for pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine.
But both leaders expressed reluctance to carry out the threat, a reflection of the deep European uncertainty over the costs of doing so.
“The idea that you’re going to turn off the tap on all Russian oil or natural gas exports, I think, is unrealistic,” Obama said during the Rose Garden appearance. “But there are a range of, you know, approaches that can be taken not only in the energy sector but in the arms sector, the finance sector, in terms of lines of credit for trade, all that have a significant impact on Russia.”
Standing next to Obama, Merkel acknowledged that “further sanctions will be unavoidable” if Ukraine is unable to hold the May 25 presidential election, although she added that this is “something we do not want.”
But, she said, “we are firmly resolved to go down that road.”
The vote is expected to help resolve the nation’s constitutional crisis that began with President Viktor Yanukovych’s flight from Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in February amid protests over the corruption and pro-Russian policies of his government.
The leaders met as the crisis in eastern Ukraine worsened, raising fears of Russian military action despite the threat of further U.S. and European economic sanctions.
The Ukrainian government launched its most aggressive push to date against pro-Russian groups occupying government buildings in several eastern towns. Two government helicopters were shot down, and Putin warned that the U.S.-brokered agreement reached last month in Geneva to reduce tensions had collapsed.
Putin has already seized and annexed Crimea, a move the Obama administration does not recognize but acknowledges it can do little about. Obama has sought to prevent Putin, who has about 40,000 Russian troops on the Ukraine border, from pushing into the former Soviet republic through the threat of sanctions against whole sectors of the Russian economy.
White House officials say such sanctions would have an adverse effect on the U.S. economy, although Germany and other European nations would feel the impact far more severely. How effective the threat of so-called sector sanctions is depends primarily on Europe’s willingness to impose them, a focus of Obama’s meeting with Merkel on Friday.
Obama said planning for sector sanctions has been “stepped up.” He also condemned as “disgraceful and inexcusable” the detention of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, including a German citizen, by a pro-Russian group in eastern Ukraine.
In recent weeks, Obama and Vice President Biden have traveled to Europe to reassure NATO allies that the United States would honor the pact’s collective defense commitment, known as Article 5, should Russia enter a member country. But Obama has also warned NATO member nations that, given Russia’s ambitions, each must also contribute fairly to the group’s defense, including more spending and new commitments of military resources.
Echoing that message, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that NATO members will be “judged harshly” if they do not increase defense spending in response to the new Russian threat.
“For decades — from the early days of the Cold War — American defense secretaries have called on European allies to ramp up their defense investment,” Hagel said in a speech at the Wilson Center.
One of the biggest obstacles, he said, has been a sense that the age of aggression in Europe was over. “Russia’s actions in Ukraine shatter that myth and usher in bracing new realities,” Hagel said.
Only a handful of NATO’s 28 members meet the agreed budget target of 2 percent of their gross domestic product.
“We must see renewed financial commitments from all NATO members,” Hagel said.
Obama and Merkel have had a tumultuous relationship, with each at times accusing the other of missteps, mostly over issues related to the world economic recovery.
Even in the early afterglow of Obama’s 2008 election, Merkel was unafraid to call on the popular new president to begin winding down stimulus spending long before others. Obama later urged Merkel to help bail out flagging euro-zone nations to revive Europe’s economy, then a drag on the U.S. recovery.
Last year, however, the two fell out after disclosures by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, that included a “head of state” collection program that monitored Merkel’s personal cellphone. Obama said he was unaware that Merkel, who was raised in the East German police state, was a target and announced later that it would no longer continue.
Obama said Friday he was “pained” that the disclosure had upset Merkel, calling her one of his “closest friends” among international leaders.
The two did not reach agreement on a deal to stop surveillance of each other’s governments — something Merkel had hoped to secure. At the news conference, she said the deal would continue to be discussed in the weeks ahead.
Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine
suffered its bloodiest day in nearly three months on Friday, with at
least nine people killed when the army launched its first major assault
on a rebel stronghold and 34 killed in clashes between pro-Ukrainian and
pro-Russian mobs in the Black Sea port city of Odessa.
The Ukrainian army attacked Slovyansk in the east of the country at dawn, provoking the heaviest military fighting since a pro-Russian uprising began a month ago. The army took control of the major checkpoints outside the city but was unable to force its way into the center, and two of its helicopters were shot down.
The biggest loss of lives came in Odessa. A pro-Ukrainian rally
attended by thousands of soccer fans before a game Friday night was
attacked by pro-Russian separatists. The two sides fought running
battles through the city in the afternoon, throwing stones at each other
and erecting barricades. At least three people were killed.
Friday evening, a pro-Ukrainian mob attacked a camp where the pro-Russian supporters had pitched tents, forcing them to flee to a nearby government building, a witness said. The mob then threw gasoline bombs into the building. Police said 31 people were killed when they choked on smoke or jumped out of windows.
Asked who had thrown the molotov cocktails, pro-Ukrainian activist Diana Berg said, “Our people — but now they are helping them to escape the building.”
It amounted to the deadliest day in the Ukrainian crisis since February, when scores of people were killed, many by snipers, in protests against then-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Friday that the military assault on the eastern city of Slovyansk was intended to protect civilians from “mercenaries of foreign states, terrorists and criminals who are taking hostages, killing and torturing people, and threatening the territorial integrity and stability of Ukraine.”
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin called the offensive a “criminal” act and said it had “effectively destroyed the last hope for the implementation of the Geneva agreements” reached April 17 that were intended to defuse the crisis. Under the accord, signed by Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union, separatists were supposed to lay down their arms and vacate government buildings they have occupied across eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine accuses Russia of financing and arming the separatists, who have vowed to hold a referendum on independence on May 11. Russia denies the charge.
In Washington, President Obama expressed strong support Friday for the Ukrainian offensive and said the United States and Europe “are united in our determination to impose costs on Russia for its actions” in destabilizing eastern Ukraine.
Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border with Ukraine, and Friday’s developments raised the risks of a Russian military response. Russian officials have said they would intervene in Ukraine to protect ethnic Russians, and the Kremlin said Friday that Putin was “closely following developments.”
At the U.N. Security Council, Russia and the United States again traded accusations and insults. Using Cold War language, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said that if the “criminal misadventures of the Kiev clique are not stopped, . . . catastrophic consequences cannot be avoided.”
Churkin charged that “English-speaking foreigners” had been overheard in radio communications during Ukraine’s current “punitive operations” against the separatists.
The United States, France and Britain were scathing in their responses.
“A pyromaniac fireman situation is what we have here,” French U.N. Ambassador Gérard Araud said. Russia is “screaming in order to make us forget that this path was set long ago, and it’s no longer possible to go backwards.”
Assault on Slovyansk
Ukrainian troops attacked the rebel stronghold of Slovyansk at dawn, meeting heavy resistance from pro-Russian separatists. After three or four hours of clashes, the army had taken control of checkpoints on the main roads leading to the city, but the center of Slovyansk remained in rebel hands. The fighting subsided by the afternoon but resumed in the evening.
Two Ukrainian Mi-24 attack helicopters were shot down and two crew members killed, while seven soldiers were wounded in the offensive, the government said. One helicopter pilot was captured by the rebels and transferred to a hospital, medics told local news media.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said a third helicopter, an Mi-8 transport reportedly carrying medics, was also hit and a service member wounded.
The rebels said three of their fighters and two civilians were killed. But Turchynov said many “criminals” were killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
Vyacheslav Ponomarev, who has been appointed mayor of Slovyansk by the insurgents, urged women, children and senior citizens to remain in their homes but asked men with guns “to render all possible assistance.”
“We will defend the city. We will win,” he said in a video message posted on the Internet.
Stella Khorosheva, a rebel spokeswoman, posted on her Facebook account: “The situation is stable on the streets, but there is a high risk of full-scale action. In short, it’s war.”
The Ukrainian Security Service said its fighters were facing “highly skilled foreign military men” in Slovyansk. It said one of the helicopters was shot down with a surface-to-air missile, which it said undercut Russia’s claims that the city is under the control of civilians who bought arms in “hunting stores.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt agreed. “Ukrainian helicopters shot down in Slovyansk. Some elderly ladies bought some RPGs or missiles at the local grocery store, I assume,” he posted on Twitter.
The European Union said it is watching the developments with growing concern, and NATO has said it must view Russia as an adversary in light of apparent efforts to destabilize the region following its annexation of Crimea in March. But Western leaders have made it clear they have no intention of engaging Russia militarily over Ukraine.
Putin sends envoy
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the objective of Friday’s operation in Slovyansk was to free several hostages taken by the rebels, force the rebels to lay down their arms, release administrative buildings from their control and restore the normal functioning of the city administration.
Putin on Thursday sent a special envoy, Vladimir Lukin, to eastern Ukraine to negotiate with separatists who have taken seven international observers hostage, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news service. That mission was “under threat” Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Foreign Ministry also said that English-speaking foreigners were seen among the Ukrainian forces mounting the assault on Slovyansk on Friday, echoing its previous charges that U.S. contractors were involved in Ukraine’s response to the unrest in the east.
“The United States and the E.U. are taking on a huge responsibility in cutting of the road to a peaceful resolution of the crisis,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Nemtsova reported from Slovyansk, Ukraine. Michael Birnbaum in Moscow and Karen DeYoung and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.
MAP: How Ukraine and Russia are moving toward war
With Ukrainian troops launching a major assault on a rebel stronghold Friday, just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Kiev to withdraw its troops from the east and south of the country, it looks like the Ukraine crisis is entering a new stage.
As The Post's Michael Birnbaum reported from Moscow, "it seemed possible that even a small spark could ignite a tinderbox regional conflict."
Given this escalation, The Washington Post is publishing a new map that shows, using information from the Royal United Services Institute and our own analysis, recent troop movements in the region. The graphic illustrates how military exercises conducted by Russia have left a big build-up of troops on Ukraine's border. It also shows Ukraine's own military moves to its borders with Russia and Moldova's Russian-dominated enclave, Transnistria.
It'd be wrong to assume that military conflict between Russia and Ukraine is inevitable: There remains plenty of hope that a diplomatic solution can be found. That said, the graphic provides an important look at the military reality of the crisis.
Click the image to see the full graphic.
(Gene Thorp/The Washington Post)
Obama, Merkel: Russia faces tougher sanctions if Ukraine election is disrupted
Video:
President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the importance
of a diplomatic solution to Ukrainian clashes and threatened new
sanctions against Russia during a news conference at the White House
Friday.
The warning, delivered during a White House news conference, provided for the first time a specific threshold that Russia must not cross if it is to avoid further sanctions from Europe and the United States.
Video
President Obama says German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one of his
greatest friends on the world stage, and it pains him that Edward
Snowden's NSA disclosures caused a strain in the American-German
diplomatic relationship.
For weeks, the Obama administration has declined to specify what, short of a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine, would trigger the most severe sanctions to date in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea and support for pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine.
But both leaders expressed reluctance to carry out the threat, a reflection of the deep European uncertainty over the costs of doing so.
“The idea that you’re going to turn off the tap on all Russian oil or natural gas exports, I think, is unrealistic,” Obama said during the Rose Garden appearance. “But there are a range of, you know, approaches that can be taken not only in the energy sector but in the arms sector, the finance sector, in terms of lines of credit for trade, all that have a significant impact on Russia.”
Standing next to Obama, Merkel acknowledged that “further sanctions will be unavoidable” if Ukraine is unable to hold the May 25 presidential election, although she added that this is “something we do not want.”
But, she said, “we are firmly resolved to go down that road.”
The vote is expected to help resolve the nation’s constitutional crisis that began with President Viktor Yanukovych’s flight from Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in February amid protests over the corruption and pro-Russian policies of his government.
The leaders met as the crisis in eastern Ukraine worsened, raising fears of Russian military action despite the threat of further U.S. and European economic sanctions.
The Ukrainian government launched its most aggressive push to date against pro-Russian groups occupying government buildings in several eastern towns. Two government helicopters were shot down, and Putin warned that the U.S.-brokered agreement reached last month in Geneva to reduce tensions had collapsed.
Putin has already seized and annexed Crimea, a move the Obama administration does not recognize but acknowledges it can do little about. Obama has sought to prevent Putin, who has about 40,000 Russian troops on the Ukraine border, from pushing into the former Soviet republic through the threat of sanctions against whole sectors of the Russian economy.
White House officials say such sanctions would have an adverse effect on the U.S. economy, although Germany and other European nations would feel the impact far more severely. How effective the threat of so-called sector sanctions is depends primarily on Europe’s willingness to impose them, a focus of Obama’s meeting with Merkel on Friday.
Obama said planning for sector sanctions has been “stepped up.” He also condemned as “disgraceful and inexcusable” the detention of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, including a German citizen, by a pro-Russian group in eastern Ukraine.
In recent weeks, Obama and Vice President Biden have traveled to Europe to reassure NATO allies that the United States would honor the pact’s collective defense commitment, known as Article 5, should Russia enter a member country. But Obama has also warned NATO member nations that, given Russia’s ambitions, each must also contribute fairly to the group’s defense, including more spending and new commitments of military resources.
Echoing that message, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that NATO members will be “judged harshly” if they do not increase defense spending in response to the new Russian threat.
“For decades — from the early days of the Cold War — American defense secretaries have called on European allies to ramp up their defense investment,” Hagel said in a speech at the Wilson Center.
One of the biggest obstacles, he said, has been a sense that the age of aggression in Europe was over. “Russia’s actions in Ukraine shatter that myth and usher in bracing new realities,” Hagel said.
Only a handful of NATO’s 28 members meet the agreed budget target of 2 percent of their gross domestic product.
“We must see renewed financial commitments from all NATO members,” Hagel said.
Obama and Merkel have had a tumultuous relationship, with each at times accusing the other of missteps, mostly over issues related to the world economic recovery.
Even in the early afterglow of Obama’s 2008 election, Merkel was unafraid to call on the popular new president to begin winding down stimulus spending long before others. Obama later urged Merkel to help bail out flagging euro-zone nations to revive Europe’s economy, then a drag on the U.S. recovery.
Last year, however, the two fell out after disclosures by Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, that included a “head of state” collection program that monitored Merkel’s personal cellphone. Obama said he was unaware that Merkel, who was raised in the East German police state, was a target and announced later that it would no longer continue.
Obama said Friday he was “pained” that the disclosure had upset Merkel, calling her one of his “closest friends” among international leaders.
The two did not reach agreement on a deal to stop surveillance of each other’s governments — something Merkel had hoped to secure. At the news conference, she said the deal would continue to be discussed in the weeks ahead.
Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
Ukraine suffers deadliest day in months; 34 killed in Odessa
Video:
Clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in Ukraine's
previously calm southern port of Odessa led to a fire that police said
killed at least 30 people.
The Ukrainian army attacked Slovyansk in the east of the country at dawn, provoking the heaviest military fighting since a pro-Russian uprising began a month ago. The army took control of the major checkpoints outside the city but was unable to force its way into the center, and two of its helicopters were shot down.
Graphic
Map: How Russia and Ukraine are positioning their troops for war.
Friday evening, a pro-Ukrainian mob attacked a camp where the pro-Russian supporters had pitched tents, forcing them to flee to a nearby government building, a witness said. The mob then threw gasoline bombs into the building. Police said 31 people were killed when they choked on smoke or jumped out of windows.
Asked who had thrown the molotov cocktails, pro-Ukrainian activist Diana Berg said, “Our people — but now they are helping them to escape the building.”
It amounted to the deadliest day in the Ukrainian crisis since February, when scores of people were killed, many by snipers, in protests against then-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Friday that the military assault on the eastern city of Slovyansk was intended to protect civilians from “mercenaries of foreign states, terrorists and criminals who are taking hostages, killing and torturing people, and threatening the territorial integrity and stability of Ukraine.”
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin called the offensive a “criminal” act and said it had “effectively destroyed the last hope for the implementation of the Geneva agreements” reached April 17 that were intended to defuse the crisis. Under the accord, signed by Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union, separatists were supposed to lay down their arms and vacate government buildings they have occupied across eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine accuses Russia of financing and arming the separatists, who have vowed to hold a referendum on independence on May 11. Russia denies the charge.
In Washington, President Obama expressed strong support Friday for the Ukrainian offensive and said the United States and Europe “are united in our determination to impose costs on Russia for its actions” in destabilizing eastern Ukraine.
Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border with Ukraine, and Friday’s developments raised the risks of a Russian military response. Russian officials have said they would intervene in Ukraine to protect ethnic Russians, and the Kremlin said Friday that Putin was “closely following developments.”
At the U.N. Security Council, Russia and the United States again traded accusations and insults. Using Cold War language, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said that if the “criminal misadventures of the Kiev clique are not stopped, . . . catastrophic consequences cannot be avoided.”
Churkin charged that “English-speaking foreigners” had been overheard in radio communications during Ukraine’s current “punitive operations” against the separatists.
The United States, France and Britain were scathing in their responses.
“A pyromaniac fireman situation is what we have here,” French U.N. Ambassador Gérard Araud said. Russia is “screaming in order to make us forget that this path was set long ago, and it’s no longer possible to go backwards.”
Assault on Slovyansk
Ukrainian troops attacked the rebel stronghold of Slovyansk at dawn, meeting heavy resistance from pro-Russian separatists. After three or four hours of clashes, the army had taken control of checkpoints on the main roads leading to the city, but the center of Slovyansk remained in rebel hands. The fighting subsided by the afternoon but resumed in the evening.
Two Ukrainian Mi-24 attack helicopters were shot down and two crew members killed, while seven soldiers were wounded in the offensive, the government said. One helicopter pilot was captured by the rebels and transferred to a hospital, medics told local news media.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said a third helicopter, an Mi-8 transport reportedly carrying medics, was also hit and a service member wounded.
The rebels said three of their fighters and two civilians were killed. But Turchynov said many “criminals” were killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
Vyacheslav Ponomarev, who has been appointed mayor of Slovyansk by the insurgents, urged women, children and senior citizens to remain in their homes but asked men with guns “to render all possible assistance.”
“We will defend the city. We will win,” he said in a video message posted on the Internet.
Stella Khorosheva, a rebel spokeswoman, posted on her Facebook account: “The situation is stable on the streets, but there is a high risk of full-scale action. In short, it’s war.”
The Ukrainian Security Service said its fighters were facing “highly skilled foreign military men” in Slovyansk. It said one of the helicopters was shot down with a surface-to-air missile, which it said undercut Russia’s claims that the city is under the control of civilians who bought arms in “hunting stores.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt agreed. “Ukrainian helicopters shot down in Slovyansk. Some elderly ladies bought some RPGs or missiles at the local grocery store, I assume,” he posted on Twitter.
The European Union said it is watching the developments with growing concern, and NATO has said it must view Russia as an adversary in light of apparent efforts to destabilize the region following its annexation of Crimea in March. But Western leaders have made it clear they have no intention of engaging Russia militarily over Ukraine.
Putin sends envoy
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the objective of Friday’s operation in Slovyansk was to free several hostages taken by the rebels, force the rebels to lay down their arms, release administrative buildings from their control and restore the normal functioning of the city administration.
Putin on Thursday sent a special envoy, Vladimir Lukin, to eastern Ukraine to negotiate with separatists who have taken seven international observers hostage, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news service. That mission was “under threat” Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Foreign Ministry also said that English-speaking foreigners were seen among the Ukrainian forces mounting the assault on Slovyansk on Friday, echoing its previous charges that U.S. contractors were involved in Ukraine’s response to the unrest in the east.
“The United States and the E.U. are taking on a huge responsibility in cutting of the road to a peaceful resolution of the crisis,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Nemtsova reported from Slovyansk, Ukraine. Michael Birnbaum in Moscow and Karen DeYoung and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.
Chaos grips Odessa, Ukraine’s third-largest city
Friday marked a dark day in Ukraine's months-long turmoil, with forces sent by the government in Kiev clashing
with pro-Russian separatists in the breakaway town of Slovyansk,
leaving at least three people dead after two Ukrainian helicopters were
reportedly shot down.
Unrest also broke out away from the battle zones of eastern Ukraine. In Odessa, the country's third-largest city, pro-Kiev and pro-Russian demonstrators fought in the streets, hurling rocks, loose flagstones and Molotov cocktails as overwhelmed riot police beat a hasty retreat. Rival protest camps have existed for months in public spaces in the city, though no fracas in the recent past can match this round of violence.
It kicked off after marchers calling for Ukrainian national unity, which the Kyiv Post claims was largely comprised of supporters of the local soccer team, encountered a rival pro-Russian group. Barricades were set up and buildings set aflame. Initial reports suggest that dozens were wounded, with at least three people shot dead, according to police. Then, police said at least 31 people were dead after pro-Kiev demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails into a building where a pro-Russia contingent was holding out.
Journalist Howard Amos, in Odessa on Friday, chronicled the violence on his Twitter feed:
Amateur video from Odessa has also flooded social media:
WAPO TV
http://youtu.be/_xh0FtGebts
Until now, Odessa, a famed Black Sea port, has existed somewhat at a remove from the chaos gripping Ukraine. But it was perhaps only a matter of time. The city has a rich history and was the crown jewel in Catherine the Great's settlement of the region, starting in the late 18th century after Tsarist Russia wrested control of the northern rim of the Black Sea from the Ottoman Empire. The "New Russia" or "Novorossiya" that she set out to establish — and which both authorities in Moscow and pro-Russia separatists now invoke — was centered on Odessa, an elegant, cosmopolitan city of colonnades and arches.
After the nearby Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia in March, some thought Odessa would be the next to fall into Putin's crosshairs. But unlike Crimea, where a vast Russian majority seemed happy to align with Moscow, Odessa has a far more complicated identity. Even under the Tsars, the city — teeming with merchants and traders from all sorts of backgrounds — became difficult to rule, writes Brown University historian Patricia Herlihy:
But given the scenes from Odessa today — where riot police fled and city residents battered each other — those two virtues now seem in short supply.
An earlier version of the story mistakenly identified the pro-Russia protesters in Odessa as being comprised largely of organized soccer fans. The soccer fans were in fact in the pro-Kiev ranks. The error has been amended.
Unrest also broke out away from the battle zones of eastern Ukraine. In Odessa, the country's third-largest city, pro-Kiev and pro-Russian demonstrators fought in the streets, hurling rocks, loose flagstones and Molotov cocktails as overwhelmed riot police beat a hasty retreat. Rival protest camps have existed for months in public spaces in the city, though no fracas in the recent past can match this round of violence.
It kicked off after marchers calling for Ukrainian national unity, which the Kyiv Post claims was largely comprised of supporters of the local soccer team, encountered a rival pro-Russian group. Barricades were set up and buildings set aflame. Initial reports suggest that dozens were wounded, with at least three people shot dead, according to police. Then, police said at least 31 people were dead after pro-Kiev demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails into a building where a pro-Russia contingent was holding out.
Journalist Howard Amos, in Odessa on Friday, chronicled the violence on his Twitter feed:
Amateur video from Odessa has also flooded social media:
WAPO TV
Until now, Odessa, a famed Black Sea port, has existed somewhat at a remove from the chaos gripping Ukraine. But it was perhaps only a matter of time. The city has a rich history and was the crown jewel in Catherine the Great's settlement of the region, starting in the late 18th century after Tsarist Russia wrested control of the northern rim of the Black Sea from the Ottoman Empire. The "New Russia" or "Novorossiya" that she set out to establish — and which both authorities in Moscow and pro-Russia separatists now invoke — was centered on Odessa, an elegant, cosmopolitan city of colonnades and arches.
After the nearby Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia in March, some thought Odessa would be the next to fall into Putin's crosshairs. But unlike Crimea, where a vast Russian majority seemed happy to align with Moscow, Odessa has a far more complicated identity. Even under the Tsars, the city — teeming with merchants and traders from all sorts of backgrounds — became difficult to rule, writes Brown University historian Patricia Herlihy:
By the mid-19th century, Russia was suspicious of the city because of its foreign population. Greeks, Bulgarians, Poles and Ukrainians formed secret societies. Jews made up an increasing percentage of the population. And Nicholas I, who ruled from 1825 to 1855, called Odessa "a nest of conspirators."... Worldly, materialistic, commercial, impudent, entrepreneurial and ethnically diverse, Odessa was an exceptionally cosmopolitan and non-Russian city.That character lingers, perhaps. While Odessa was a base of support for the ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych — whose departure precipitated the alarming series of escalations that have brought Ukraine and Russia to the precipice of war — there's clearly also a strong current of pro-Kiev feeling, fueled in part by the havoc elsewhere. It belies, says Volodymyr Dibrova, a Ukrainian teacher and writer at Harvard University, the crude divisions that have emerged, pitting "Russian-speakers" against Ukrainian nationalists and the provisional government in Kiev. "It was a Yanukovych stronghold," Dibrova said, "but you see now when push comes to shove, in these times of crisis, that issues of language are secondary to other things — to [people wanting] rule of law, to common decency."
But given the scenes from Odessa today — where riot police fled and city residents battered each other — those two virtues now seem in short supply.
An earlier version of the story mistakenly identified the pro-Russia protesters in Odessa as being comprised largely of organized soccer fans. The soccer fans were in fact in the pro-Kiev ranks. The error has been amended.
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