[April 22, 2014]By Richard Balmforth and Aleksandar Vasovic
KIEV / SLAVIANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) — An
international agreement to avert wider conflict in Ukraine was faltering
on Monday, with pro-Moscow separatist gunmen showing no sign of
surrendering government buildings they have seized.
U.S. and European officials say they will hold Moscow responsible
and impose new economic sanctions if the separatists do not clear
out of government buildings they have occupied across swathes of
eastern Ukraine over the past two weeks.
Washington, which signed last week's accord in Geneva along with
Moscow, Kiev and the European Union, said it would decide "in days"
on additional sanctions if Russia does not take steps to implement
the agreement.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged his Russian counterpart,
Sergei Lavrov, on Monday to help carry out the deal, including by
"publicly calling on separatists to vacate illegal buildings and
checkpoints", spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
"If they don't take steps in the coming days, there'll be
consequences," she told a news briefing on Monday. "Obviously, we
would have to make a decision in the matter of — in a matter of days — if there are going to be consequences for inaction."
The United States and the European Union have imposed visa bans and
asset freezes on some Russians over Moscow's annexation of Crimea
from Ukraine last month. Those limited measures, designed not to
have wider economic impact and to avoid deepening the crisis, have
been mocked as pointless by Moscow.
Building a consensus on tougher measures is tricky in Europe where
many countries rely on Russian energy exports.
In its account of their telephone conversation, the Russian Foreign
Ministry said Lavrov had called on Kerry to "influence Kiev, not let
hotheads there provoke a bloody conflict" and to encourage it "to
fulfill its obligations unflaggingly."
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Kiev, where he is expected
to announce a package of technical assistance. The visit is likely
to be more important as a symbol of support than for any specific
promises Biden makes in public.
MUTUAL ACCUSATIONS
The Geneva accord aimed to lower tension in the worst confrontation
between Russia and the West since the Cold War. It calls for
occupied buildings to be vacated under the auspices of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE.
But no sooner had the accord been signed than both sides accused the
other of breaking it, while the pro-Moscow rebels disavowed the
pledge to withdraw from occupied buildings.
An OSCE mediator, Mark Etherington, held his first meeting with the
leader of separatists in Slaviansk, a town that rebels have turned
into a heavily fortified redoubt.
He said he had asked the pro-Russian self-proclaimed "people's
mayor" of the town, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, whether he would comply
with the Geneva agreement, but gave no hint about the response.
Ponomaryov later told a news conference: "We did not negotiate, we
talked. We told them our position, what happened here, and they told
us about their plans."
In other signs the Geneva accord was far from being implemented,
activists in Slaviansk brought up trucks laden with sand and were
filling sandbags to reinforce their barricades.
In nearby Kramatorsk, local media showed masked gunmen taking over
the office of the SBU security service and leading away a civilian
identified as the local police chief.
Separatists said they would not disarm until Right Sector, a
Ukrainian nationalist group in western Ukraine, did so first.
"Who should surrender weapons first? Let us see Right Sector disarm
first. Let them make the first step and we will follow," Yevgeny
Gordik, a member of a separatist militia, told Reuters. "We need
dialogue. This is not dialogue. It is monologue."
Russia says Right Sector members have threatened Russian speakers.
Kiev and Western countries say the threat is largely invented by
Russian state-run media to justify Moscow's intervention and cause
alarm in Russian speaking areas.
Moscow blames Right Sector for a shooting on Easter Sunday morning,
when at least three people were killed at a checkpoint manned by
armed separatists. Right Sector denies involvement, while Kiev said
Russia provoked the violence.
One European diplomat said the Geneva deal was a way for Russian
President Vladimir Putin to buy time and undermine momentum towards
tougher sanctions: "Talks and compromises are just part of his
tactics," said the diplomat. "He wants to have Ukraine."
PROTECTING RUSSIAN SPEAKERS
Putin announced last month that Moscow had the right to intervene in
its neighbors to protect Russian speakers. He then annexed the
Crimean peninsula.
Moscow has since massed tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian
border, and Kiev and its Western allies say Russian agents are
directing the uprising in the east, including the "green men" — heavily armed, masked gunmen in unmarked uniforms.
In his latest move, likely to be seen by the West as a further
threat to the post-Cold War order, Putin signed a law on Monday
making it easier for Russian speakers across the former Soviet Union to obtain
Russian citizenship.
Eastern Ukraine is largely Russian-speaking and many residents are
suspicious of the pro-European government that took power in Kiev in
February, when Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich fled the
country after mass protests.
Separatists have declared an independent "People's Republic of
Donetsk" in the east's biggest province and have named themselves to
official posts in towns and cities, setting up checkpoints and
flying Russian flags over government buildings.
There is also some support for Ukrainian unity in the region, but
pro-Kiev activists have had a lower profile since the separatists
took up arms.
One activist who helped organize a unity rally in Rubizhne, a town
in the eastern Luhansk region, told Ukraine's Channel 5 television
that separatists attacked it, forcing the rally to disperse. Local
police said a policeman was hurt when unidentified people tried to
disrupt the rally.
In the regional capital, Luhansk, Interfax-Ukraine news agency said
a meeting of about 3,000 people in the local SBU headquarters had
elected a "people's governor" and voted to hold a two-stage
referendum next month on union with Russia.
Ukraine announced an operation to retake rebel-held territory
earlier this month, but that modest effort largely collapsed in
disarray.
Kiev has declared an "Easter truce", although it is far from clear
it could muster any real force if it tried. The army is
ill-equipped, untested and untrained for domestic operations, while
the government in Kiev doubts the loyalty of the police.
The OSCE, a European security body that includes both NATO members
and Russia, has so far deployed around 100 monitors and mediators in
Ukraine and expects their number to rise.
An OSCE spokesman said the mediators were visiting
separatist-occupied buildings with copies of last week's Geneva
accord to explain it to the people inside.
"It's a mixed experience dealing with checkpoints and so forth and
there is a varying reaction to teams. There is a hardened attitude
in Donetsk or Slaviansk but some other areas are more
accommodating," spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said. "When teams go to
smaller centers people are more willing to talk."
(Additional reporting by Natalia Zinets, Alastair Macdonald and Jeff
Mason in Kiev, Dmitry Madorsky in Slaviansk, Alissa de Carbonnel in
Donetsk, Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle in Washington, Steve
Gutterman and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; writing by Peter Graff, Philippa Fletcher and David Stamp;
editing by Tom Heneghan, Peter
Cooney and Lisa Shumaker)
