Ukraine faces growing turmoil amid a crackdown on anti-government rebels and an angry exchange of accusations with Russia over a horrific fire that killed scores of pro-Moscow activists.
At least 10 people were killed as Kiev’s forces attacked militants around eastern Ukraine on Friday and Saturday, and rebels vowed to resist attempts to dislodge them ahead of their planned referendum on independence next Sunday.
Divisions in the country of 46 million people deepened after more than 40 pro-Russian protesters died on Friday night, when a blaze engulfed a trade union building in the Black Sea port of Odessa.
They gathered in the building after hours of running street battles with people rallying for a united Ukraine, and afterwards both sides accused each other of starting the fighting and throwing the petrol bombs that sparked the blaze.
The government launched an investigation and deputy prime minister Vitaliy Yarema said Molotov cocktails had been thrown from the roof of the building and the street. Video footage showed people leaping from high floors to escape the blaze, and the dead lying among grievously injured people in the street below.
The pro-Kiev demonstrators, many of whom were football fans from Odessa and Kharkiv teams that played in the coastal city on Friday, insisted they tried to rescue people from the blaze and said several of their number had been killed by pro-Russian protesters wielding guns, some of whom were caught on camera. In Odessa yesterday, prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the fire resulted from "a well prepared and organised action against the people, against Ukraine and against Odessa," in obvious reference to alleged Russian involvement.
Kiev’s security services say the violence was instigated by Russian operatives from Transdniestria, a Kremlin-backed separatist region of Moldova that is just 70 km from Odessa and hosts Moscow’s troops.
Ukrainian officials also claim the unrest in Odessa – which had been relatively calm until Friday – was financed by former ministers loyal to Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted from the presidency in February and is now in Russia.
“According to the organisers’ plans, the provocation in Odessa was intended to destabilise the situation in the region and be the start of a major operation to destabilise all the southern regions of Ukraine,” Kiev’s SBU security service said.
Ukraine’s new pro-western leaders, and the European Union, the United States and Nato, accuse Russia of sending agents into eastern Ukraine to foment separatist unrest and sabotage presidential elections planned for May 25th. Moscow denies those claims, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov placed the blame for the Odessa blaze squarely on Kiev and its western allies, saying they were “provoking bloodshed and bear direct responsibility for it. He said Russia had “lost influence” over Ukraine’s rebels “because it is impossible to persuade them to disarm against the background of a direct threat to their lives.” Mr Peskov also made clear Russia’s rejection of a presidential ballot that the EU and US say is a key step in stabilising Ukraine. The US and Germany have said they will impose tougher sanctions on Moscow if it disrupts the vote. “After what happened in Odessa, and against a background of spiraling confrontation in the south-east of the country, we don’t understand what kind of elections they are talking about in Kiev, European capitals and Washington,” he said, adding that it was now “absurd, at the very least, to talk about elections.” In Odessa, Mr Yatsenyuk blamed police inaction for the high death toll from the blaze. Furious demonstrators met little resistance yesterday as they stormed the city’s police headquarters and released dozens of people arrested on Friday.
