LATEST UPDATE: Russia trying to ‘dismember’ Ukraine through protests, Kiev says
(DONETSK, Ukraine)
Pro-Russian protesters have seized state buildings in several east Ukrainian cities, prompting accusations from Kiev that Moscow is trying to “dismember” the country.
The protesters broke into a regional administrative building in the mining city of Donetsk on Sunday as well as security services offices in nearby Luhansk, where police said they had seized weapons.
Protesters also seized the regional administrative building in Kharkov. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, in the city, said on his Facebook page Monday that the building had been cleared and that public employees had returned to work.
All three cities lie close to Ukraine’s border with Russia.
“It is absolutely clear that there is a realization of anti-Ukrainian, anti-Donetsk, anti-Luhansk and anti-Kharkov plans to destabilize the situation. The plan is (for) foreign troops to cross the border and seize the territory of the country,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. “We will not allow it.”
Mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine has seen a sharp rise in tensions since a new pro-European government took charge in Kiev after the overthrow of pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych in February.
Moscow has branded the new government illegitimate and last month annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region, citing threats to its Russian-speaking majority — a move that has sparked the biggest rift in East-West relations since the end of the Cold War.
“There is a script written in the Russian Federation, the purpose of which is only one: the dismemberment and destruction of Ukraine. … This cannot be,” Yatsenyuk said.
Moscow had no immediate word about the comments.
(CNN)
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