[May 24, 2014]By Richard Balmforth and Sabina Zawadzki
KIEV/KARLOVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) -
Candidates in Ukraine's presidential election stayed out of the public
eye on Saturday, observing a ban on campaigning on the eve of a vote
that Kiev hopes can help end a bitter confrontation with Russia.
On Friday, armed pro-Russian separatists and a Ukrainian militia
group clashed in the east of Ukraine, leaving at least two dead. An
attack on Ukrainian troops a day earlier killed 17 soldiers,
officials have said.
Kiev's pro-Western leaders hope Sunday's poll will stabilize the
former Soviet republic after street protests toppled Moscow-backed
president Viktor Yanukovich and pro-Russian separatists responded by
seizing Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine.
European leaders will consider steps against Russia on Tuesday if
they decide Moscow has hampered the election, ranging from
restrictions on luxury goods imports to an oil and gas ban, although
some are wary due to close trade ties.
The Ukrainian authorities have promised a suspension of
anti-separatist operations on the day of the election, billed as the
most important in 23 years of independence from Moscow, but Friday's
clash suggested violence may mar the event.
A Reuters correspondent saw two dead bodies after the three- hour
firefight in the morning between Ukrainian self-defence fighters and
separatists manning a checkpoint in countryside west of the big
industrial city of Donetsk.
The pro-Kiev fighters issued a Facebook statement saying four of
their men were killed and nine wounded. Allied to billionaire Igor
Kolomoisky, they are at the forefront of Kiev's efforts to prevent
the country splitting.
"We are determined that honest and transparent elections will take
place," interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk declared in talks
with two European Union foreign ministers as the bloc's foreign
policy chief Catherine Ashton voiced support for Kiev and its
election.
Yatseniuk added that, despite separatist plans to disrupt the poll
in eastern areas they control, he believed the majority of people
there opposed the "terrorists".
But Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in St Petersburg,
said Ukraine was already in effect in the grip of civil war. "A
civil war is raging through Ukraine. But why are we the ones who are
being blamed for this?" he asked at an international business forum.
After Yanukovich's overthrow in February, Russia annexed Ukraine's
Crimea region and stationed thousands of troops in combat readiness
near the border with Ukraine as armed pro-Russian rebels took over
strategic buildings in the east.
It looks askance at Kiev's leaders and their pro-Europe policies,
which could take the former Soviet republic out of Moscow's orbit
and denies Kiev's charges that it has fomented the separatist
rebellions in the Russian-speaking eastern areas.
On Friday, Moscow said it would pull back all forces from its border
with Ukraine "within a few days", a move that, if carried out, could
ease tensions around the election.
The United States said it was not yet convinced: "We have actually
seen the movement of some units away from the border region,
apparently back to what we would consider garrison, their home base.
But it's not in great number right now," said Rear Admiral John
Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.
BIG OBSERVER TEAM
While Germany's Angela Merkel appealed to Russia to accept the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) verdict
on the vote, Putin sent mixed messages, saying he would work with
the winner and wanted better ties with the West but fiercely
criticizing U.S. policy on Ukraine.
The OSCE watchdog has sent a team of more than 1,000 observers to
monitor an election in which Ukraine's leaders say they expect a
huge turnout that will offset the loss of voters in annexed Crimea
and separatist-controlled parts of the east.
The man tipped to win, confectionery magnate Petro Poroshenko, has
urged voters to hand him an outright victory, suggesting that
Ukraine's deteriorating security situation might otherwise derail
the election before a second round can be held.
If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote on Sunday, a
run-off will be held on June 15, in all likelihood pitting
Poroshenko against ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Voting begins at 8 a.m. Exit polls should indicate the result when
it ends at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT). Full results will not be announced
till Monday, when OSCE observers will give their verdict on the
poll's integrity.
The fierce firefight in the eastern Ukraine settlement of Karlovka
underlined the fragility of the security situation.
"The main threat to the elections is the illegal carrying of weapons
and the moving around of people. We do not see an end to this
illegal activity," state security chief Valentyn Nalivaychenko told
journalists.
Underlining the logistical challenges of staging this
poll, Konstantin Hivrenko of Ukraine's Central Election Commission
said voters from five of 12 electoral districts in Donetsk now
blocked by separatists would instead be able to travel to the city
airport to cast their ballots as security there was good.
Friday's clash did not involve the army but pitted armed groups
operating under various flags against each other. Pro-Russian
separatists, calling themselves the "Patriotic forces of Donbass",
were manning a checkpoint, one of many set up by the rebels who have
proclaimed two "people's republics".
They clashed with self-defence fighters from a pro-Ukrainian militia
called the Donbass battalion. It was unclear who attacked first. But
the firefight, in which the pro-Ukrainian militia said separatists
used grenade launchers and machine guns, lasted more than three
hours, residents said.
BODIES
A Reuters correspondent who visited the scene soon after saw two
dead men, both wearing black battle fatigues. One lay on his back by
the roadside, the other lay some way away near a burned-out
warehouse. He had a gunshot wound in his head.
Another fighter, dressed also in battle fatigues, was clenching his
fists in pain as paramedics tended his leg wounds.
"A small unit was on the road doing reconnaissance and it ran into a
roadblock where there were many more separatists than us. They
opened sniper fire, they had armored personnel carriers and
machineguns," said Semen Semenchenko, commander of the pro-Ukrainian
militia force.
He said the separatists included at least 15 Chechen fighters from
Russia's formerly rebel region of Chechnya.
But the separatists said the pro-Ukrainian force, backed by members
of a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist group, opened fire first. Locals,
who mostly stayed indoors once the shooting began in the early
morning, had contrasting views of who was to blame.
A 52-year-old woman who gave only her first name, Valentina, laid
the blame at the door of Kiev, which is using the Ukrainian army in
an "anti-terrorist operation" against the separatists.
"Why do they (the Kiev authorities) do this? Why is Europe silent?
Everybody was living normally but now everyone is interfering".
Asked if she would vote on Sunday, Valentina said: "Who should I
vote for - for people who are killing us and shooting at us? The
answer is No!".
Alexei, in nearby Krasnomaisk, voiced an opposite view as he brought
petrol to pro-Ukrainian self-defence fighters.
"All this is because these idiot separatists want to undermine the
elections. But we will vote anyway. Out of 25 kids in my son's
school, only seven are for Ukraine, the others call my son
'Banderovets'," he said, using a pejorative label for Ukrainian
ultra-nationalists.
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Krasnomaisk; Writing
by Richard Balmforth and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Ron Popeski)
On Friday, armed pro-Russian separatists and a Ukrainian militia
group clashed in the east of Ukraine, leaving at least two dead. An
attack on Ukrainian troops a day earlier killed 17 soldiers,
officials have said.
