Bharat Rakshak

Anant wrote:Deleted

UlanBatori wrote:

Pro-Russian separatists seize Ukrainian armoured vehicles

I hope the UkBapZis donate some of those attack helicopters as well.

Johann: I think this is the report I have been waiting for:

"Our troops used a guerrilla-style method to penetrate areas controlled by armed units of the Russian Federation and the separatists financed by Russia. I think that this will be reported within three hours or so and you will realize that it was a breakthrough that enabled our units to advance. That's the official information from the defense minister," Sobolev said.
At around 11:30 am on Wednesday, three APCs flying Russian flags reportedly entered Kramatorsk. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry initially denied those reports.

"We flew the enemy's flag to ride into the towns where our voters live, and the voters greeted us with flowers, women rushed out to kiss us, babies handed us their candy, thereby proving the absolute popularity and legitimacy of our terrorist government until they realized who we were!"

Not to mention the brilliance of our leaders to crow about that achievement. Of course, I assume that this just Russian propaganda, or did the UkBabZi actually say this?

There is no large Russian military presence in East Ukraine, head of EU intelligence, Commodore Georgij Alafuzoff, has said. The spy chief has dismissed multiple accusations from the West alleging Russian involvement in the unrest in the region.

In an interview with Finnish national news broadcaster, Yle, Alafuzoff said the Russian military had nothing to do with the seizing of government buildings in eastern Ukraine.

“In my opinion, it’s mostly people who live in the region who are not satisfied with the current state of affairs,” said Alafuzoff, referring to the situation in East Ukraine. He went on to say that the people are worried for the welfare of those who speak Russian as their first language in the region.

Alafuzoff echoed the words of the Russian government which has categorically denied interfering in the ongoing unrest. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a press conference on Monday that Moscow is not interested in destabilizing Ukraine and wants the country to remain united.

Anti-Kiev activists in the southeast of Ukraine have seized local government buildings as a mark of protest against the coup-appointed Ukrainian government. In response to the unrest, Ukraine’s interim President Aleksandr Turchinov announced the beginning of an “anti-terrorist” operation in eastern Ukraine.

On Tuesday, military hardware and troops began to mass on the outskirts of the eastern city of Slavyansk. Sightings of groups of military vehicles have been reported in the neighboring Kharkov and Lugansk regions, where pro-Russian and anti-Kiev sentiment is high.

Moscow has condemned Kiev’s operation as “anti-constitutional” and “criminal” and indicative of the government’s unwillingness to open dialogue with the regions.

“We are deeply concerned over the military operation launched by the Ukrainian Special Forces with support by the army. There have already been victims,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Anti-Kiev sentiment is, meanwhile, spreading across Ukraine. On Wednesday the anti-Maidan movement in the city of Odessa called for a day of protests and declared the creation of a “people’s republic” in the region.

“From this day on, the Odessa region is declared the Odessa People’s Republic where the power belongs only to the people who live there. Tomorrow at 4pm [13:00 GMT] Odessa should grind to a halt, literally!” read a message on the Odessa Anti-Maidan movement’s website.

The protest movement in southeast Ukraine is rejecting Kiev’s coup-appointed government that was established in February following weeks of violent protests.

NATO is strengthening its military presence in the Baltic and Mediterranean due to the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis. The organization is to deploy ships and intensified aerial patrols in the region.

At a meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in Brussels, NATO approved a number of measures to strengthen security in Eastern Europe in connection with the growing crisis in Ukraine.

“Our defense plans will be revised and strengthened,” said Anders Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO, to press in Brussels.

He added that NATO had not yet reached a decision about the possible deployment of troops in Eastern Europe.

“Today we agreed on a number of measures that can be implemented quickly. But more work needs to be done,” said Rasmussen. Elaborating on the measures that are to be taken, Rasmussen said that air policing aircraft will fly more sorties over the Baltic region and NATO ships would be deployed in the Baltic Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.

“We all agree that a political solution is the only way forward,” Rasmussen told press. “We call on Russia to be part of the solution.”

In addition, he accused Russia of destabilizing Ukraine and amassing its troops along the country’s borders. He called on Moscow to “make clear” it does not support the violent actions of armed militia and pro-Russian separatists.

NATO has already been stepping up its presence in the region. Several warships have been deployed in the Black Sea over the last few days. They include the US missile destroyer Donald Cook, which carries helicopters and a crew of 300 and two more attack vessels.

US warship, USS Donald Cook, sails through the Bosporus in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 10, 2014, en route to the Black Sea. (AFP Photo/Bulent Kilic)

US warship, USS Donald Cook, sails through the Bosporus in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 10, 2014, en route to the Black Sea. (AFP Photo/Bulent Kilic)

Moscow has repeatedly denied Western allegations that it has a hand in the ongoing unrest in the south-east of Ukraine and said reports of Russian interference in the region are based on dubious information.

Furthermore, President Vladimir Putin has said the recent escalation in the Ukrainian crisis has brought Russia’s neighbor to the brink of civil war.

Kiev’s coup-appointed government announced the beginning of an “anti-terrorist” operation in the south-east of Ukraine on Monday. The move comes in response to ongoing unrest and violent protests in the region, rejecting Kiev’s interim authorities. Some more extreme elements are even calling for a Crimea-style referendum and possible separation from Ukraine.

Following months of deadly protests, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted and replaced by a self-appointed government on February 22. Russia slammed the coup-appointed government as illegitimate and said it had violated the Ukrainian constitution by setting elections for May 25.

BBC reports that the Ukranian "special forces" surrendered "after lunch"

For Kiev's beleaguered army it was meant to be a display of strength. Early on Wednesday a column of six armoured personnel carriers trundled through the town of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine. Some 24 hours earlier Ukrainian soldiers had recaptured a small disused aerodrome. Their next target appeared to be Slavyansk, the neighbouring town, occupied by a shadowy Russian militia. Was victory close?

The column didn't get far. At Kramatorsk's railway junction, next to an open-air market and a shop selling building materials, an angry crowd caught up with it. Next armed separatists dressed in military fatigues turned up too. Within minutes the Ukrainian soldiers gave up. Without a shot being fired they abandoned their vehicles. The pro-Russian gunmen grabbed them. They raised a Russian tricolour. They sat on top and went for a victory spin.

In theory this was happening in Ukraine, under the control of a pro-western government in Kiev, and several hundred kilometres from the Russian border. In reality large chunks of the east of the country are now in open revolt. Ukraine is rapidly vanishing as a sovereign state. Its army is falling apart. What happens next is unclear. But the Kremlin can either annexe the east, as it did Crimea, again shrugging off western outrage. Or it can pull the strings of a new post-Kiev puppet entity.

The militia who captured the armoured vehicles on Wednesday looked like professionals. They had Kalashnikovs, flak jackets, ammunition. One even carried a tube-shaped green grenade-launcher. Some hid their faces under black balaclavas. Others waved and smiled. All wore an orange and black ribbon – originally a symbol of the Soviet victory over fascism, and now the colours of the east's snowballing anti-Kiev movement. There was a flag of Donbass, the Russian-speaking eastern region with its main city of Donetsk.

After posing for photos, this new anti-Kiev army set off. The armoured personnel carriers (APCs) rattled past Kramatorsk's train station and turned right over a steep dusty bridge. There was a cloud of diesel smoke. Amazed locals jogged alongside then piled into battered mini-buses to keep up. White tread tracks on the tarmac pointed the way. The column covered about six miles (10km) before turning left at the entrance to Slavyansk. It then drove serenely into town and parked round the back of the city hall. Soldiers got off and stretched their legs next to the White Nights cafe.

Slavyansk residents who had been fearing an imminent attack from Ukrainian forces had a moment of cognitive dissonance. Armed pro-Russian gunmen seized control of the city administration on Saturday. Ever since, Ukrainian helicopters and planes had buzzed ominously overhead.
Armed men wearing military fatigues gather by APCs as they stand guard in Slavyansk, Ukraine. Militia gather by seized APCs as they stand guard in Slavyansk, Ukraine. Photograph: Genya Savilov/AFP/Getty Images

"I heard the sound of tanks approaching. I thought that Ukrainian troops had arrived," Vladimir Ivanovich admitted, gazing at the APCs now stationed opposite a small park and children's playground. "I was wrong." So who exactly were the soldiers in masks? "I don't know," he said.

He added: "I'm not a radical or a separatist. I'm actually more on the left. I didn't much like Viktor Yanukovych. I'm for peaceful coexistence. The problem is that when the nationalists seized power in Kiev they didn't think about the consequences. I have my own prognosis about what will happen next. It's not comforting."

The armed men, meanwhile, made little secret of the fact they took orders from Moscow. Many of them appeared to be Russian troops from Crimea. Asked where he had come from, one told the Guardian: "Simferopol." How were things in Crimea? "Zamechatelna," he said in Russian – splendid. He added: "The old ladies are happy. Because of Russia their pensions have doubled." Had he served in the Ukrainian army and perhaps swapped sides? "No, I'm Russian," he replied.

Within minutes, the captured APCs had become the town's newest, most extraordinary tourist attraction. Teenage girls posed coquettishly with the men in balaclavas. Small children lined up too. Someone put a cuddly toy next to a gun barrel. "We were very afraid. Now we are reassured. The tanks are here to protect us," Olga Yuriyevna said. She added: "I'm Russian-speaking. We have relatives in Russia. My husband fought in the Afghan war."

Some people, though, were lacking in enthusiasm. Outside the town hall one pensioner, Alexander Ivanovich, said: "I'm Ukrainian. This should be Ukrainian territory." Gesturing at the faceless gunmen outside the entrance, he said: "I'm suspicious of them." The soldiers had piled sandbags in front of windows, and created sniper positions on the roof. They had also, apparently, ripped down the building's blue-and-yellow trident, a symbol of Ukrainian statehood. A Russian and Donetsk republic flag flew from the roof. The impression was one of calm and vertical order.

On Wednesday afternoon Ukrainian soldiers were led out of the building and packed on to buses. The Ukrainians had surrendered when crowds surrounded their tanks. They were missing their weapons, now confiscated. The 40 or so demoralised troops headed out of town in a westerly direction.

At first the authorities in Kiev refused to believe they had lost the army vehicles. The defence ministry initially dismissed news reports as fake. Later it admitted the disaster was true. As well as APCs, Ukraine has lost control of another crucial weapon in its losing battle with the Russian Federation: television. On Tuesday the Donetsk prosecutor turned Russian state TV back on again, weeks after Kiev pulled the broadcasts on the grounds they sowed lies and Kremlin propaganda. Since President Viktor Yanukovych fled in February Russian channels have consistently called Kiev's new rulers "fascists".

Outside Kramatorsk's aerodrome, meanwhile, at the end of a rustic rutted alley lined with sycamores and apricots, protesters had set up a new camp. It boasted a parasol, a table decked out with sandwiches, and a clump of empty beer bottles. On Tuesday Ukrainian forces had opened fire, lightly wounding two anti-government demonstrators who surged at them across a field. On Wednesday Ukrainian troops were holed up inside. They showed little enthusiasm for venturing out. A felled tree blocked their route.

"We're Russians. We live on Russian soil. So how can we be separatists?" Sergei Sevenko, a 52-year-old car mechanic, wanted to know. A handful of female volunteers stood with him; they had kept vigil until 1am. Sevenko added: "I've lived all my life in Kramatorsk. The economic situation here is horrible. We're just defending our town and our property from fascists." Waiting to interview him was a young female journalist from Moscow. She was holding a microphone decorated with the logo of Lifenews.ru, the Kremlin's favourite website.

By late afternoon another stand-off was developing between a second Ukrainian armoured column in Pcholkino, near Kramatorsk, and an excitable, hostile crowd. Helicopters dipped low over shabby Khrushchev-era blocks of flats to see what was going on, then scouted along the line of the railway. Close to where the column was stuck, locals were building a checkpoint. "The helicopters keep us awake at night. We can't sleep," one complained. A van pulled up. It disgorged black tyres. A man wearing shorts and sunglasses, possibly drunk, began erratically directing traffic.

This febrile anti-Kiev mood has acquired a momentum that increasingly seems unstoppable. A vocal section of the population appears to support the protesters' key demand for a referendum on Ukraine's federalisation. A "people's governor" has been appointed – though it is not clear by whom. Many local politicians, the security services in key eastern towns and the police appear to have gone over to the anti-government side. Kiev's powerlessness in this fast-moving drama seems absolute.

On Wednesday another gang of armed youths seized control of the city hall in Donetsk. Other pro-Russian activists have occupied Donetsk's regional administration building since 6 April. (They have fortified it with a thicket of tyres. On one wall someone had scrawled in Cyrillic script: "F*ck America".) Youths lounged in the entrance lobby and ground floor of the city building. They wore white-and-red armbands bearing the name of a murky sporting organisation and fight-club, Oplot. In Kharkiv, Ukraine's other major eastern city, Oplot has been closely linked with pro-Kremlin groups. And with organised crime.

One Oplot member, Alexander, showed off his weapon. It was a US-made Remington 870 Express Magnum. "It's a hunting gun," he said. "It's my own. I've got a licence for it." Alexander said he had purchased his uniform himself: a light-coloured khaki top and trousers, a flat jacket, and a matching hat. He added: "I'm against America. But I have to say they make good guns."

Tiraspol, Transnistria (CNN) -- The previous night we'd been turned away by stern-looking border guards. A categorical "no entry" to Transnistria.
Trans-where?
Transnistria is a breakaway state, recognized by no sovereign nation. It's a sliver of land sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine and only a little larger than Rhode Island, the smallest state in the United States.
"You can't come in. Right now there is no permission for foreigners and no permission for journalists," said the Transnistrian border guard, clad in an oversized peaked cap with Soviet-style hat-badge.
It was past midnight and we were too tired to argue. To be honest, we had expected as much.
A week earlier, Transnistrian authorities had fast-tracked our request for a journalist visa to report inside their territory.

Transnistria: A land in limbo Transnistria: A land in limbo

Instead of waiting the normal 10 days' processing time, officials had responded within 36 hours. It was a speedy "no."
Transnistria split from the former Soviet republic of Moldova following a two-year war (1990-1992) that erupted as the Soviet Union collapsed. The Russians stepped in to back Transnistria -- located on the right bank of the River Dniestr -- but never recognized it as an independent state.
It became a land in limbo.
More than a decade later, and after Russian troops marched into Ukraine's Crimea region, NATO's top military commander Gen. Philip Breedlove warned Moscow may be eyeing other targets.

Western intelligence has shown tens of thousands more Russian troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border.
Breedlove suggested the force -- backed by tanks and attack helicopters -- was large enough to roll right through Ukraine from east to west and into Transnistria.
The general described this as one of Russia's "frozen conflicts" -- an unresolved political and territorial dispute -- which Moscow could reignite at any time in a bid to expand its influence across the region.
Like the generals in Moscow and Washington, we pored over our map, tracking backroads and alternate routes into the self-declared country.

We decided to try to visit as tourists; our target was the "Equator" a top nightclub in the Transnistrian border town of Bender.
Attempting our approach this time from Moldova, we sloshed a half bottle of local brandy on the floor of our minivan to give it a party smell.
Maybe they got bored of our incoherent fast-talk or perhaps bought the idea that Transnistrian nightlife was a big draw for international partygoers. After a long wait, we were waved through.
As we rolled past decaying heavy industry and tumbledown Soviet-era apartment blocks, it was clear Transnistria needed more than a fancy nightclub to give it a touch of glamor.
At the doors of the "Equator", we were informed that the night's planned event was body painting and a contest to win free cocktails. The rules did not seem entirely clear.

We headed instead for an early night in the capital Tiraspol.
My last foray into cocktail drinking in former Soviet states had ended badly.
A week earlier, up on the Ukraine's northeast frontier with Russia, a Ukrainian tank commander had cracked open a jar of pickled tomatoes, offered up some raw eggs and uncorked home-made vodka.
When the fruit vodka ran out -- we ended the chilly night, in a foxhole, drinking shots of a cloudy liquid from a plastic bottle.
Before he passed out, the gunner explained it was the cleaning fluid for the tank's electronics.
No desire to repeat that in Transnistria.

As we headed early Sunday into downtown Tiraspol, it was easy to see Transnistria is a place trapped in time.
The hammer and sickle is still proudly emblazoned on the Transnistrian flag. A Soviet star is perched atop the city council building and a few blocks down, a towering statue of Lenin rises like a guardian angel.
The roads are named after revolutionary icons: Marx, Engels, Lenin. There's also just plain "Communist Street."
At a flea market, old men traded Soviet army cap badges and shoulder flashes. Many here still hanker after the glory days of the Cold War.
"Of course it was good with the Soviet Union. We wanted to be with Russia and still want to be with Russia," one elderly lady told me. She wrapped her arms around herself as she explained how she had felt protected by the old U.S.S.R.

Viktor, one of the men selling old Soviet military mementos added: "It was good in those days but we know we cannot turn back time. But we want to join Russia now and set up a free-trade zone."
"We don't want to be part of Moldova. They only grab money for their own pockets," he added.
Talking to people here, it's hard to fathom why NATO chiefs would warn of an impending Russian invasion of Transnistria. The doors seem to be wide open and the welcome mat is out.
"Let them come. Here people are all for it. If the Russian military comes everybody will shout 'hooray,'" a chatty blonde woman said.
Transnistrians have repeatedly called to be allowed to join the Russian Federation.
Moscow has so far failed to recognize Transnistria's independence -- insisting that it should first resolve its dispute with Moldova.

After its annexation of Crimea, some political and military analysts believe Russia may be readying to redraw some of Eastern Europe's borders without further consultation.
Away from the flea market, stands "La Dolce Vita," an Italian-style pavement café that serves only instant coffee and dozens of varieties of sugary cakes.
Law student Katya and boyfriend Sergey, an IT student, were consumed in a very public show of affection. Their minds were more focused on love not war. But they paused briefly for questions.

"If the Russians come in it wouldn't be a tragedy at all. The Russian military is already here," Sergey said. The couple added that they intended to go to Russia once they'd graduated to look for well-paid work there. They said good jobs were hard to find in Transnistria.
When the Soviet star waned, a new star rose over Transnistria -- that of Wild West economics.
An ex-KGB agent and former president appears to be one of the biggest businessmen in town. He goes under the brand name "Sheriff" and has a chain of supermarkets, gas stations and even Tiraspol's top soccer club.

Other businesses here may not be so mainstream. International economists often describe Transnistria as a state whose fortunes are built on smuggling booze and tobacco and selling old Soviet weapons.
Out in the countryside, Anna Ivanna has no head for shady dealings. I find her hoeing weeds from her small vineyard. She says her land is perfect for growing organic grapes. Some of it goes to produce Kvint -- a Transnistrian cognac.
She believes becoming part of Russia would bring greater economic benefits like cheaper energy, especially Russian natural gas for heating her home and powering local industry. She's also heard Russian pensions are four times higher than in Transnistria.
"Why do we need Europe? It's good for us to be part of Russia. Maybe Europe is OK for the young people," she said.

Russian soldiers never left Transnistria, after its 1990-1992 independence war with Moldova.
A contingent of around 1,200 occupies bases and highway checkpoints here -- another indication Russian President Vladimir Putin would not need to invade since his troops are already here.
On the outskirts of the capital, we venture into another Soviet-era apartment complex.
On a wall, there's a starkly poetic line of graffiti scrawled in English. It could be the lament of star-crossed lovers or perhaps a sign of the political times.

"I love you. But why I love you?...I never know."
A message from Transnistria. To Russia with love.

The interim president of Ukraine Turchinov wants to beat the Russians into intervening and provoke war between NATO and Russia, as it’s the only reason he can hold power, foreign affairs analyst Daniel Patrick Welch told RT.

RT: Russia has called Kiev's action irresponsible and warned that it could trigger a full-blown civil war. How far do you see the situation going?

Daniel Patrick Welch: I think it depends completely upon whether Turchinov wants to push this to the end. The dangerous thing is that the point of it is that he wants to bait the Russians into intervening and spark of war between NATO and Russia because that’s the only reason Turchinov can hold power and not to scurry back to Italy.

RT: The White House has praised Kiev's crackdown of the protesters saying that the authorities were acting with restraint. Do you agree with that?

DW: No, of course, it’s silly. There is an old joke about the state secretary: “How can you tell that John Kerry is lying? Because his lips are moving.” He is paid to do that. I don’t blame him personally, but it’s hard to respond to lies when they are so huge and there are so many of them.

This is an absolute horror, it is a horrific thing to do to one's own people and there is nothing about restraint in this entire thing. Turchinov has taken the rump parliament of a rump state and a rump military. Anyone who is willing to still follow his orders and order them to kill their own people - it's abysmal, and Kerry is either shameless or has no short-term memory or both, because this is what they were trying to counsel Yanukovich to do just a several weeks ago.

RT: At the same time the US State Department says Kiev's actions are only aimed at bringing peace to the region. Do you think interim authorities will succeed with that?

DW: No, there is absolutely no question. What the fascists have done is cast the die that means the internal division of Ukraine. They have absolutely made the decision that they don’t care that the country will be split. The eastern population - and this is not just in the east, this is rumbling to the west as well, but more over in the east - they can’t pacify a region that doesn't want to be because they are dealing with a fallacy, they have allowed the CIA to tell them that this is just foreign agents, this is all Russian agents. And you can see it on YouTube, you can see it everywhere with people facing off against troops, saying "We are terrorists." “Are we terrorists? Are we foreign agents?” They can’t kill everyone, and this all is only going to get worse as far as they push.

RT: The CIA director visited Ukraine over the weekend. What do you think was the purpose of his visit?

DW: He gave Turchinov the go-ahead, basically. The string pullers of the junta told them what to do and now they are doing, that’s what I think the significance is, and that’s outrageous and immoral and a flagrant violation of the international law for them to say that Russia is interfering. The head of the Central Intelligence Agency just went, secretly by the way, under an assumed name, and met with the State Security Council and gave them the go-ahead to start this massacre. Then they have the gut to accuse another nation of interfering. You know, Orwell couldn’t have made a better script.

RT: Russia has called on the UN to condemn the escalation in the East of Ukraine. What response can we expect?

DW: We can expect nothing, unfortunately. The UN has shown itself through allowing itself to be manipulated in the crisis in Libya, in Syria and in Venezuela, as being virtual puppets of the Western regimes and they seem to be buying lock, stock and barrel. The notion that it was a peaceful demonstration that arouse to ouster dictator, so they have to protect the people – it’s standing history and truth on its head. Unfortunately, I don’t think the UN is going to help the situation at all.

RT: Would you like to see the UN more actively involved in brokering talks to end the crisis in Ukraine?

DW: Absolutely they should be. If the UN was a genuine body representing the world and its peoples and was truly interested in peace, then it would certainly be the form in which talks could proceed. They desperately need to, because the CIA-backed junta is not going to do it on its own, they are not going to come to the table. They are going to keep killing and keep destroying till something or someone makes them. It would be great if that would be the UN.

I think what they will do is side with the junta. That’s the impression that I’m getting. What is happening is that the junta is basically a bunch of lunatics and they need to be stopped, and the UN will refuse to do that, so anything that they will do if they try to intervene on the side of NATO, for example, and do what Turchinov asks that is to join his army in anti-terrorist operations (he thinks in 1950s and this is Korea), then Russia and China will probably pause with veto any such action. In other way the West will block it. So I see it as a stalemate at the UN.

Here’s What the CIA Director Was Really Doing in Kiev
The head of the CIA just made a secretive journey to Ukraine—to do what, he won’t say. But the answer could change the power equation in the hottest of geopolitical hotspots.

The Obama administration is now considering a new policy to share more real-time intelligence with the interim government in Kiev after pressure from some in the U.S. military, Congress and U.S. allies in Ukraine.

Over the weekend, CIA Director John Brennan met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema to discuss the formation of new, more secure channels for sharing U.S. intelligence with the country now fighting pro-Russian secessionists in its eastern cities, according to U.S. and Western officials briefed on the meeting.

It’s a vitally important issue because the Ukrainians are badly outmatched by the Russian forces massed on their border and infiltrating their cities. If Kiev is going to have a hope of withstanding the pressure from Moscow, their intelligence on the Russian military’s activities will have to be exquisite.

The Daily Beast reported last week that Gen. Philip Breedlove had pushed to share more satellite imagery and other forms of detailed data about nearby Russian troop, but was rebuffed by the White House. U.S. intelligence agencies have long suspected Ukraine’s military and intelligence services to be entirely penetrated by the Russian government because until February the two countries were partners on security issues.

“That place has been run by the Russians for years,” a senior U.S. intelligence official told The Daily Beast. “They are very good at collecting any form of communications intelligence, they probably own their network there.” But this official added that nonetheless “there have been ways to communicate between the intelligence services that would be helpful for real-time sharing with Ukraine.”

And after pro-Moscow forces took control of government buildings in east Ukraine—with the apparent assistance of Russian special operators—the White House’s view of intelligence-sharing appears to be changing.

According to the intelligence official, the White House has approved the sharing of more detailed intelligence with Ukraine. However, the Obama administration was still considering a policy to give the kind of real-time data the Ukrainians have requested.

The Ukrainians’ encrypted communications channels are widely believed to be penetrated by the Russians, making it nearly impossible for Kiev’s military to have any element of surprise.

Spokespeople for the CIA and the White House declined to discuss any specifics about the Brennan meetings in Kiev. The intelligence official said, however, that the meeting was primarily to reassure Ukraine’s political leadership that the United States still supported them, and to convey the message about the new, limited intelligence-sharing policy. (Of course, there’s a second, subtler message.)

Traditionally and throughout the current unrest, the U.S. has given intelligence primarily to the Ukrainian armed forces. But the new leadership in Kiev is asking for a more crisis-oriented approach that would allow the political leadership to receive the information first.

One of the biggest problems facing the Ukrainians now is that their encrypted military communications channels are widely believed to be penetrated by the Russians. As a result, the crucial communications of Ukraine’s military divisions as they move into eastern Ukraine have been conducted over unencrypted lines, making it nearly impossible for the Ukrainian military to have any element of surprise.

The Ukrainian government is said to be requesting advanced secure communications equipment from the United States, one on a long list of items the U.S. government has not yet agreed to provide. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to say what if any non-lethal military equipment the U.S. might provide the Ukrainian armed forces, beyond the military rations that were delivered earlier this month.

“I just don’t have any new information to provide today about forms of assistance that we’re considering, except to say that we have—you know, we’re not discussing lethal assistance,” he said.

Russian media first reported the meeting with Brennan over the weekend and claimed that the CIA chief gave Ukraine’s political leadership the green light to begin operations against the separatists who had taken over government buildings in many of the nation's eastern cities.

On Monday, the CIA denied the Russian claims. “The claim that Director Brennan encouraged Ukrainian authorities to conduct tactical operations inside Ukraine is completely false,” a CIA spokesman said. “Like other senior U.S. officials, Director Brennan strongly believes that a diplomatic solution is the only way to resolve the crisis between Russia and Ukraine.”

For the last week, U.S. officials have publicly acknowledged what U.S. intelligence agencies have reported since late February: that Russian special operations soldiers and spies were infiltrating Ukrainian territory.

Speaking Tuesday on CNN, Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said, “What you see are Russian-trained special forces and intelligence operatives in eastern Ukraine fomenting” unrest. He added that the saboteurs operating in this region were a mix of Ukrainian and Russian nationals.

BERLIN, April 14 (Reuters) - The United States is considering supplying arms to Ukraine, where unrest in eastern cities bears the hallmarks of a Russian destabilization drive, an adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday.

Ukraine's president on Monday threatened military action after pro-Russian separatists occupying government buildings in the east ignored an ultimatum to leave and another group of rebels attacked a police headquarters in the troubled region.

Asked during a trip to Berlin whether the United States could arm Ukrainian forces, senior diplomat Thomas Shannon said: "Obviously we are looking at that as an option ... but at this point I can't anticipate whether or not we are going to do that."

Republican Senator John McCain has suggested providing weapons to the Ukraine government, which says the occupations that began on Sunday are part of a Russian-led plan to dismember the country.

"From our point of view what we are seeing in a series of cities mimics what we saw in Crimea both in terms of the tactics and in terms of the people involved," said Shannon, who holds the title of counsellor.

"From our point of view there is a very obvious Russian hand in all of this and we consider these actions to be destabilizing and dangerous."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed Western accusations that Moscow is destabilizing Ukraine, saying the situation could improve only if Kiev took into account the interests of Russian-speaking regions. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

They have fortified it with a thicket of tyres. On one wall someone had scrawled in Cyrillic script: "F*ck America".

Teenage girls posed coquettishly with the men in balaclavas. Small children lined up too. Someone put a cuddly toy next to a gun barrel. "We were very afraid. Now we are reassured. The tanks are here to protect us," Olga Yuriyevna said. She added: "I'm Russian-speaking. We have relatives in Russia. My husband fought in the Afghan war."

Children in the eastern Ukrainian town of Sloviansk were all smiles today posing with pro-Russian soldiers who have taken the town.

The festive mood was thanks to the victory scored by the pro-Russian forces during Ukraine’s “anti-terrorism operation,” in which Ukrainian forces were trying to take back areas seized by the pro-Russian forces in the eastern part of the country.

The Associated Press ‏@AP 12m

MORE: Interior Minister Arsen Avakov says around 300 men with Molotov cocktails attacked the base: http://apne.ws/1tcYh91

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Three pro-Russian militants have been killed and 13 wounded after Ukrainian troops repelled an attack on a National Guard base in the Black Sea port of Mariupol, Ukraine's interior minister said Thursday.

A crowd of around 300 men armed with Molotov cocktails attacked the base, in the south-east part of the country late Wednesday, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement.

He said they were repelled by the National Guard and police forces and 63 people had been arrested as a result of the operation. Most of the attackers were disarmed, he added.

A well-armed, Russia-backed insurgency has sowed chaos in eastern Ukraine in the past weeks. Militants have seized police stations and administrative buildings in at least 10 towns in the region, including Mariupol.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia emphasized on Thursday that the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament had authorized him to use military force if necessary in eastern Ukraine, and also stressed Russia’s historical claim to the territory, repeatedly referring to it as “new Russia” and saying that only “God knows” why it became part of Ukraine.

Speaking in a televised question-and-answer show, Mr. Putin also admitted for the first time that Russian armed forces had been deployed in Crimea, the disputed peninsula that Russia annexed last month immediately after a large majority of the population voted in a referendum to secede from Ukraine.

Mr. Putin’s remarks on eastern Ukraine came as officials from Russia, the United States, Europe and the new government in Kiev were meeting in Geneva for four-way negotiations aimed at resolving the political crisis.

Russia has mobilized troops along the border with Ukraine and in recent days pro-Russian demonstrators have caused widespread unrest throughout the eastern part of the country, seizing police stations and other government buildings and forming roadblocks. There have been several outbursts of violence, including a firefight at a Ukrainian military base overnight in which at least three pro-Russian militiamen were killed.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke during a televised question-and-answer show on Thursday. Credit Alexei Nikolsky/RIA Novosti Kremlin, via Associated Press

During the question-and-answer show, Mr. Putin stressed that he had the authority to invade Ukraine, but that he hoped it would not be necessary.

“I remind you that the Federation Council has given the president the right to use armed forces in Ukraine,” he said, referring to the upper house of Parliament. “I really hope that I do not have to exercise this right and that by political and diplomatic means we will be able to solve all of the sharp problems.”

Mr. Putin said that Russia felt an obligation to protect ethnic Russians in the region, who are a sizable minority. “We must do everything to help these people to protect their rights and independently determine their own destiny,” he said.

“Can a compromise be found on the Ukrainian question between Russia and America?” Mr. Putin asked. “Compromise should only be found in Ukraine,” he said. “The question is to ensure the rights and interests of the Russian southeast. It’s new Russia. Kharkiv, Lugansk, Donetsk, Odessa were not part of Ukraine in Czarist times, they were transferred in 1920. Why? God knows. Then for various reasons these areas were gone, and the people stayed there — we need to encourage them to find a solution.”

Mr. Putin took questions from the studio audience in Moscow but also from various other locations, including Sevastopol in Crimea, where Russia maintains the headquarters of its Black Sea Fleet and where the cameras showed a large, cheering crowd, in which many people waved Russian flags.

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian security forces killed three pro-Russian protesters, wounded 13 and took 63 captive in a firefight overnight in the eastern city of Mariupol, the interim Ukrainian interior minister said on Thursday. The clash was the most lethal so far in the east of the country.

The minister, Arsen Avakov, said pro-Russian protesters had tried to storm a base used by troops in the newly formed National Guard, which has drawn from volunteers who took part in last winter’s protest movement against the government.

A crowd made up of civilians as well as militants formed outside the base, he said. Mr. Avakov’s description of the conflict indicated another challenge for the new government, as in other cases where pro-Russian groups have seized administrative buildings and police stations.
The events in Mariupol overnight, and in the towns of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk north of the provincial capital of Donetsk on Wednesday, underscored both the limits of Ukraine’s military and the difficulties of the tactical problems it faces in its attempt to dislodge armed separatists from eastern Ukraine.

Pro-Russian militants helped a wounded man at the National Guard base in Mariupol on Thursday. Credit Nikolai Ryabchenko/Associated Press

In a glaring humiliation for the government, a military operation to confront pro-Russian militants in the east unraveled on Wednesday with the entire contingent of 21 armored vehicles that had separated into two columns surrendering or pulling back.

The separatists are well armed and have been accompanied by bold local supporters, including unarmed civilians and elderly women, who mingle in front of and among the armed men.

Driving off the separatists in such a mixed crowd, or even trying to arrest them, would be a difficult task for a well-disciplined force with high morale. It would risk endangering civilians, potentially leading to bloodshed that might provoke a Russian military reaction.

But there are few signs that the Ukrainian military or the National Guard is trained or equipped for such crowd-control tactics. Ukraine disbanded the country’s riot police, the Berkut, after the uprising in February.

The methods appear to put the current government in the position of facing the protest and street fighting tactics that brought it to power just two months ago. The pro-Russians, however, are backing a different cause: Those in the east are not seeking the overthrow of a corrupt government and closer association with the European Union, but an expansion of Russian influence in Ukraine.

The eastern protesters are also accompanied by far more heavily armed groups, which Western governments say include Russian soldiers or soldiers equipped by Russia. In the Kiev protests that ousted former President Viktor F. Yanukovych, firearms appeared only in the final days of protests, and then only pistols and shotguns, though protesters said they possessed seized military weapons that were never brandished.

In Mariupol, the attackers threw Molotov cocktails and opened fire on the perimeter guards at the base, Mr. Avakov said. About 300 people were in the crowd. “After warnings, in accordance with our rules, and after repeat attacks, we opened lethal fire,” Mr. Avakov said in a statement.

The operation that the government said would confront pro-Russian militants in the east unraveled Wednesday with the entire contingent of 21 armored vehicles surrendering or retreating.

Though gunshots were fired throughout the day and continued sporadically through the evening in Slovyansk, a town about 120 miles from the Russian border that is occupied by pro-Russian militants, it was unclear whether anybody had been wounded.

One of the armored columns stopped when a crowd of people, many of whom were drinking or yelling taunts, gathered on the road before them. Later in the day its commander agreed to hand over the soldiers’ assault rifles to the very separatists they were sent to fight.

Another column from the same unit, the 25th Dnipropetrovsk paratrooper brigade, surrendered not only its weapons but also the tracked and armored vehicles it had arrived in, letting militants park them as trophies, under a Russian flag, in a central square.

A pro-Russian militant climbed into the driver’s seat of one of the vehicles and spun it around on its tracks, screeching and roaring, to please the watching crowd.

The events on Wednesday underscored the weakness of the new Ukrainian government as it begins critical talks about the country’s future with the United States, Russia and the European Union in Geneva on Thursday. Officials unable to exercise authority over their own military seem increasingly powerless to contain a growing rebellion by pro-Russian militants.

The Ukrainian soldiers on Wednesday had no accompanying force to control the crowds that formed around their advancing units. Their task, to confront armed militants intermingled with civilians, would be extremely difficult for any conventional army, but for this group, which apparently lacked the tools and the heart to carry it out, it proved to be impossible.

The Ukrainian contingent that surrendered handed over their vehicles to men in unmarked green uniforms, who made their presence more public on Wednesday than it had been earlier. They drove them to the central plaza of Slovyansk and parked them there for all to see, the flags of Russia and the newly declared and wholly unrecognized People’s Republic of Donetsk flapping above them in the breeze.

In Kiev, the Ministry of Defense initially denied that the armored vehicles had been captured. Then Sergei Sobolev, the acting head of the Fatherland party in Parliament, claimed that the armored vehicles had flown Russian flags as part of an ingenious subterfuge to get through pro-Russian crowds.

Ukrainian news media quoted Mr. Sobolev as saying it was a “guerrilla approach” to infiltrate separatist-controlled areas through pro-Russian civilian mobs. Rather than a disastrous setback for Ukrainians, he said the appearance of Ukrainian military vehicles flying Russian flags was a “breakthrough” for the Ukrainian offensive, though it proved to be nothing of the sort.

Later, the Ukrainian military conceded that six vehicles had been captured but said nothing of the surrender of rifles from the other column.

Others struggled to understand why things had gone so badly wrong. “We try not to criticize our authorities, but it is obvious that we have more and more problems,” said Dmytro Tymchuk, a former military officer and director of the Center of Military and Political Research, a Kiev-based research group.

After the first column of six vehicles surrendered, the second, which consisted of 15 vehicles and a radio communication van, halted on the outskirts of the town of Kramatorsk south of here, and waited through the day as several hundred people milled about, drinking beer and fraternizing with the soldiers.

It was unclear by late evening what had happened to the vehicles of the soldiers who handed over their weapons; Colonel Shvets said they would not be given to separatists.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, armed pro-Russian separatists reportedly seized the City Hall building in the provincial capital of Donetsk; they had already controlled the regional administration building. Militants blockaded an administrative building in Yanakiyeve, a town east of Donetsk. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said an officer and an enlisted soldier had been kidnapped in the Luhansk region.

A Russian website, Regnum, citing an unnamed source identified as a Polish diplomat, reported that the deposed president, Mr. Yanukovych, intended to travel to eastern Ukraine over the weekend. Mr. Yanukovych has been living in Russia.

In Brussels, the head of NATO said Wednesday that the alliance would strengthen its military presence in Eastern Europe. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the alliance’s secretary general, said that NATO would immediately send forces to the region as a deterrent. He did not specify how many troops or aircraft would be involved or what kind of assets would be deployed.

Vladimir Putin says that current NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen secretly recorded and leaked a private conversation with him, when he was the head of the Danish government.

“During his time as Prime Minister he once requested an unscheduled meeting with me, and we met and talked. As it turned out, he had a voice recorder on him, and surreptitiously recorded our conversation, and leaked it to the press,” the Russian president recounted during his annual TV hotline.

“I couldn’t believe my ears and eyes – what nonsense!”

The Russian president didn’t specify when the meeting took place, but Rasmussen was his country’s Prime Minister between 2001 and 2009.

“He explained to me that he recorded the conversation for posterity. I am flattered, of course, but he should have warned me, or at least asked permission to make the content public,” continued Putin.

“How can you trust someone after an incident like that?”

Putin spoke about the leak when questioned on the relationship between Russia and NATO, frayed after a succession of contretemps, climaxing with the crisis in Ukraine.

“From interpersonal to official relations, there should be more transparency, stability, and partnership,” summed up the Russian leader.

Rasmussen, who has headed NATO for the past five years, has so far not commented on the allegations.

Putin on Kiev op: 'Tanks, jets against own people?! Are they nuts?!'
Putin has criticized Ukraine’s coup-appointed government for using tanks and jets against its own people, during a live Q&A session. Branding Kiev’s approach as a “crime,”

Putin asserts right to use force in east Ukraine
President says he hopes he does not have to exercise military force as he points out eastern Ukraine was once part of Russia

Amelia Gentleman
theguardian.com, Thursday 17 April 2014

Putin denies Russian forces at work in eastern Ukraine in live Q&A
A live TV broadcast with Vladimir Putin, watched by people on the seafront in Sevastopol. Photograph: Anton Pedko/EPA

Vladimir Putin has sought to mobilise history in support of Russia's designs on Ukraine, reminding the world that the east of the country was once part of Russia, and warning that his parliament had given him the right to intervene militarily if confrontation escalates.

In a four-hour, meticulously stagecrafted question and answer session with Russian citizens on live television, Putin denied that Russian forces are on the ground in the towns and cities of eastern Ukraine, parts of which have been taken over in recent days by armed men, but pointedly did not rule out sending in troops in future.

Accusing the Kiev authorities of pulling the country into an "abyss", he called on Ukraine to pull back its heavy artillery from the east of the country, asking: "Who are you going to use it against? Have you completely lost your marbles?"

"The Federation Council granted the president the right to use military force in Ukraine," he said, referring to the upper house of parliament. "I really hope that I do not have to exercise this right and that we are able to solve all today's pressing issues via political and diplomatic means," Putin said.

Putin referred to the region in question by its tsarist name "Novorossiya", or "New Russia", as it was referred to in the 19th century under tsarist rule, and suggested it was a historical mistake to hand it over to Ukraine.

"It's new Russia," he told millions of watchers "Kharkiv, Lugansk, Donetsk, Odessa were not part of Ukraine in tsarist times, they were transferred in 1920. Why? God knows. Then for various reasons these areas were gone, and the people stayed there – we need to encourage them to find a solution."

Asked on several occasions during the annual public address whether Russia had sent troops into eastern Ukraine over the past few days, Putin said: "It's all nonsense, there are no special units, special forces or instructors there." The bands of men, in unmarked green military uniforms, who have seized tanks from Ukrainian forces were local residents, he said.

But he admitted that Russian units had been involved in wresting Crimea from Kiev's control last month.

"Our servicemen stood behind the back of Crimea's self-defence forces," Putin said. "They acted politely, but resolutely and professionally. There was no other way to hold the referendum in an open, honest and honorable way and allow the people to express their opinion."

As talks opened in Geneva with representatives from the EU, US, Russia and Ukraine, he said that the talks were important but added that a resolution to the crisis would not emerge during compromise talks between US and Russia, but needed to be found in Ukraine itself.

He added: "I'm sure we will come to a mutual understanding with Ukraine. We will not be able to do without each other," he said.

Though the televised session was generally comfortable for Putin, with Ukraine dominating the exchanges, not all the questions were straightforward. One Crimean asked the president when he would sort out a currency and banking mess that has emerged as the territory shifts to Russian control. Putin promised that the process of switching Crimea's banking system to the rouble would be speeded up, and he promised a series of substantial rises for pensioners in Ukraine. "They will feel the advantage of joining the Russian federation materially," he said.

Another question broached his marital status following his divorce from his wife Lyudmila. His response was elliptical. "First I need to let my former wife, Lyudmila Alexandrovna, marry, and only then will I think about it myself."

Putin veered between wanting to appear conciliatory and retreating into hostile anti-American rhetoric. He said the annexation of Crimea was partly triggered by Nato expansion.

"We were once promised in Munich that after the unification of Germany no expansion of Nato would happen to the east. Then it started to expand by adding former Warsaw pact countries, former USSR countries. I asked: 'Why are you doing that?' They told me it is not your business; people and nations have the right to chose how they defend themselves.

"Will they drag Ukraine into Nato? If Nato goes there, Russia will be pushed out from the area around the Black Sea. This is pushing out Russia from this important part of the world. Let's not be afraid of anything, but we should take that into account, and respond accordingly."

The Russian news agency Itar Tass said 2m questions had been posed on the internet before the session and ranged in subject matter from the escalating crisis in Ukraine to the Russian economy, child benefits, housing and corruption. Most of the questions selected for Putin to answer on live television were gentle, and were often prefaced with messages of gratitude to the president for the way he was handling the situation in Ukraine.

There were moments of strange humour. Putin was asked if he was planning to "acquire Alaska". He reminded viewers that Russia had sold Alaska for a cheap price to the US in the 19th century, but said there were no plans to restore it to Russian territory. "What would you need Alaska for?" he asked.

Asked about Victor Yanukovich's decision to flee to Russia from Ukraine as unrest unfolded, Putin was asked whether he would have fought to the last drop of blood if he found himself in a similar situation.

"A person makes a decision in a critical situation, based on his life experience and values. I used to work in the KGB – we had our special training. Part of that training is that you have to be absolutely loyal to your country and state."

GuardianUS ‏@GuardianUS 34m

#Ukraine crisis: the key points of the Kerry and Lavrov news conferences http://trib.al/BwK3ZpW via @teemcsee pic.twitter.com/Wa9fMDSmoV

World War II on the Eastern Front was fought chiefly in what was then Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Belarus, not in Soviet Russia. Five percent of Russia was occupied by the Germans; all of Ukraine was occupied by the Germans. Apart from the Jews, whose suffering was by far the worst, the main victims of Nazi policies were not Russians but Ukrainians and Belarusians.

There was no Russian army fighting in World War II, but rather a Soviet Red Army. Its soldiers were disproportionately Ukrainian, since it took so many losses in Ukraine and recruited from the local population. The army group that liberated Auschwitz was called the First Ukrainian Front.

Both regimes oppressed Ukraine. Millions died under Soviet rule, and millions more died in a Nazi invasion. The Soviets destroyed the Nazi war machine—which aimed to eliminate Ukrainians as a people—and Ukrainians took disproportionate casualties doing it.

This means Ukrainians have moral rights to Soviet war imagery that doesn’t belong to Germans. And it’s understandable that many Ukrainians see Soviet symbols as a sign of a tyranny while at the same time rejecting Nazi ideology. These are not mutually exclusive positions.

"It's new Russia," he told millions of watchers "Kharkiv, Lugansk, Donetsk, Odessa were not part of Ukraine in tsarist times, they were transferred in 1920. Why? God knows. Then for various reasons these areas were gone, and the people stayed there – we need to encourage them to find a solution."

"It's new India," he told millions of watchers "Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tibet were not separate countries, they were lost after 1940. Why? God knows. Then for various reasons these areas were gone, and the people stayed there – we need to encourage them to find a solution."

Now Modi's turn
Quote:
"It's new India," he told millions of watchers "Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tibet were not separate countries, they were lost after 1940. Why? God knows. Then for various reasons these areas were gone, and the people stayed there – we need to encourage them to find a solution."

Russia, the United States and the European Union have announced a tentative deal to pull Ukraine back from the brink of a violent break up, but in a bullish statement just hours earlier President Vladimir Putin insisted he still had a right to send troops into the country.

Relations between Russia and the West are at their frostiest since the Cold War, with US and European politicians openly accusing Moscow of orchestrating the armed separatist uprisings breaking out across eastern Ukraine. All sides issued a joint statement calling on the groups to disarm, but the US was clear that the onus was on Russia to act quickly or face the debilitating economic sanctions they have been threatening for weeks.

“We fully expect the Russians to demonstrate their seriousness by insisting that the pro-Russian separatists they have been supporting lay down their arms, leave the buildings and pursue their political objectives through the constitutional processes,” the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said in Geneva after a day of talks with his EU, Ukrainian and Russian counterparts. “If we’re not able to see progress on efforts to implement the principle of the agreement this weekend, then we will have no choice but to impose further costs on Russia.”

Mr Kerry also expressed concern about reports that Jewish people in one Ukrainian city had received notes asking them to identify themselves to pro-Russians. Local press reported leaflets being handed out around a synagogue in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine demanding that the city’s Jews provide a list of property they own and pay a registration fee “or else have their citizenship revoked”.

His Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, commended the deal but denied any accusations that the Kremlin was behind the recent unrest. “We have no wish to insert our military forces into Ukraine,” he said. The ministers also agreed an amnesty for most of the separatist protesters and an increased role for a monitoring mission from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

The announcement came hours after Mr Putin’s annual question-and-answer session with the Russian public, in which he said he had the right to send troops into Ukraine and poured scorn on threats from the West to impose sanctions on Moscow.

There were also some conciliatory notes, with the President calling the Geneva negotiations “very important”. But his televised comments were laced with derision for European and American foreign policy. Mr Putin said claims that he was behind the unrest in Ukraine were “nonsense”, and reminded the world that Russian parliament had on 1 March authorised him to send troops into Ukraine if ethnic Russians were attacked.

“The Federation Council granted the President the right to use military force in Ukraine. I really hope that I do not have to exercise this right and that we are able to solve all today’s pressing issues via political and diplomatic means,” he said. “We must do everything to help these people [in eastern Ukraine] defend their rights and independently determine their own destiny.”

Asked about Transdniestria, a breakaway region of Moldova which Russia protects but has not tried to draw into its territory, Mr Putin said that “people should be allowed to determine their own destiny” – words that may concern some of Russia’s neighbours.

Nato members close to Russian borders have been calling for more military assistance in light of events in Crimea, which followed the ousting of the pro-Russian President, Viktor Yanukovych. The US also announced that it was sending non-lethal military support to the Ukrainian authorities.

Mr Putin was scathing of efforts so far to chastise Russia for the annexation of Crimea. Dozens of Russian and Ukrainian officials have been subjected to asset freezes and travel bans, and the EU and US have threatened to expand those lists or move on to the next stage of deeper economic sanctions if Russia does not make good on its promises.

Asked about the sanctions, Mr Putin said that the EU would not be able to manage without Russian gas. “They badly want to bite us, but their opportunities are limited,” he said. “If they try to punish us by putting us into a corner on our knees like naughty children, they will cut the branch they are sitting on.”
Read more: Putin asserts Russia's 'right' to invade Ukraine
Deals brokered in a distant land will not satisfy protesters

"It's new India," he told millions of watchers "Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tibet were not separate countries, they were lost after 1940. Why? God knows. Then for various reasons these areas were gone, and the people stayed there – we need to encourage them to find a solution."

Two of France's most famous actresses are engaged in a public war of words over President François Hollande’s affair with Julie Gayet.

The doyenne of the French screen, Catherine Deneuve, 70, has sprung to Mr Hollande’s defence. Sophie Marceau, 47, who has satreed in Braveheart and The World is Not Enough has called the French president a “coward” and a “jerk” for cheating on his former partner, Valerie Trierweiller.

In an article in GQ magazine, Ms Marceau said: “A man who behaves like that with women is a jerk… To cheat on your partner for a year and a half when you are President of the Republic! No one is asking him to be abstinent but he could leave it alone for a while. I said to myself: ‘What a coward’.”

Ms Deneuve responded by accusing Ms Marceau of being “very rude” – and lacking respect for the office of head of state.

“I find that very rude, extremely rude,” she said. “I am astonished at the casual way in which people, including journalists, speak about the President of the Republic.”

“A ‘jerk’ and a “coward”! You’d think she was talking about her best friend’s husband. It’s incredible. I wouldn’t talk about the President like that. Whether I supported him or not.”

Closer magazine revealed in January that Mr Hollande was having an affair with the actress Julie Gayet. He has since split with his unmarried partner, and First Lady, Ms Trierweiller.

Another actress, less well-known outside France, joined the battle yesterday. Charlotte Valandrey, 45, a friend of Ms Trierweiler, said that the former first lady had been “humiliated” by Closer’s revelations but was a “fighter” and had recovered well.

Asked about Ms Marceau’s attack on the President, she said: “She is on the right track, isn’t she? It wasn’t a great way to behave.”

Several Ukrainian politicians have announced the set-up of new military units for coping with the unrest in the country’s East. And one of them suggested bounty-payouts for giving up arms and handing in ‘mercenaries.’

The Dnepropetrovsk regional authorities have come up with the idea of offering money to anti-government activists in eastern Ukraine in return for giving up their protest activities.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about events in Donetsk and Lugansk,” Deputy head of the Dnepropetrovsk region, Borys Filatov, wrote on Facebook. “There’s only one conclusion – this is a revolution of the poor, the rebellion of tired and desperate people, unheard by the government.”

The politician refrained from saying the authorities should at least listen to those “poor” who do not support the new government in Kiev. Instead, he offered a way for the “poor” to get rich by handing in their weapons and getting cash compensation.

Filatov also came forward with a draft price-list for compensatory measures.

“For each gun handed in there’s a payout: US $1,000 for an assault rifle, US $1,500 for a machine gun, and US $2,000 for a grenade launcher.”

Filatov also announced a bounty of US $10,000 for mercenaries or the so-called “little green men,” the people in military uniforms without insignia who are Russian troops. President Putin dismissed as “nonsense” any such allegations at a Q&A session on Thursday.

The highest reward, according to the pricelist, will go to those who free government buildings from protesters – US $200,000.

Demonstrators wave Russian flags during a rally of pro-Russia supporters outside the regional government administration building in the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk during on April 5, 2014 (AFP Photo / Alexander Khudoteply)

Demonstrators wave Russian flags during a rally of pro-Russia supporters outside the regional government administration building in the center of the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk during on April 5, 2014 (AFP Photo / Alexander Khudoteply)

The Dnepropetrovsk region will be able to afford the payouts as it’s now headed by one of Ukraine’s oligarchs, Igor Kolomoysky.

Besides publishing the bounties pricelist, Kolomoysky’s deputy, Borys Filatov, announced that a special battalion “Dnepr” had been created in the region and Dnepropetrovsk was fortified with check-points.

The Dnepr battalion is just one of several military units recently created by the new Ukrainian authorities.

In mid-March Ukraine’s National Guard was formed from the Maidan self-defense squads which helped bring down President Yanukovich. It was announced back then that the Guard will number 60,000 personnel.

On Monday, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov announced the creation of yet another military entity – special police divisions to preserve public order. Avakov said he was ready to recruit 12,000 people throughout the country, supplying them with weapons and equipment.

The leader of the Batkivshchina party and presidential candidate, Yulia Timoshenko, said this week she was creating a “Movement of the people’s resistance” from retired servicemen, including task force veterans. She explained the move by the need to “fight Russian aggression.”

Timoshenko said the movement will be financed with the help of an international fund she is introducing.

Pro-Russian protesters, some holding Russian national flags, storm regional administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on April 6, 2014 (AFP Photo / Sergey Bobok)

Pro-Russian protesters, some holding Russian national flags, storm regional administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on April 6, 2014 (AFP Photo / Sergey Bobok)

So far efforts to quell protests in eastern Ukraine by means of a military operation have suffered some setbacks.

Armored personnel carriers (APCs) which entered the town of Kramatorsk on Wednesday were surrounded and blocked by local residents. Six of the APCs eventually switched sides and joined the protesters.

The defecting soldiers explained their decision by saying they were unwilling to go into battle against civilians.

People in eastern Ukraine, meanwhile, fear the worst is yet to come and insist it’s the locals, not Russian troops, who are trying to stop the tanks sent by Kiev.

“The National Guard is scary – those are the people who’ve gone through Maidan, who’ve used weapons,” a resident of Izyum in Kharkov region told RT.

“Who should these armies protect us from? They say it’s from armed separatists. But in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk people say they will lie down in front of the tanks. Ukrainian mass media is screaming that these are Russians, but no, they are locals.”

A pro-Kiev oligarch offered a $10,000 (£6,000) bounty on Thursday for the capture of any Russian "saboteur" and promised another half-million hryvnia (£27,000) to the national guardsmen who successfully repelled an attack by pro-Russian militia last night, killing three.

Igor Kolomoisky, an energy tycoon who was appointed governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region in eastern Ukraine last month, also offered rewards for handing in weapons belonging to insurgents: $1,000 for each machine gun turned in to the authorities, $1,500 for every heavy machine gun and $2,000 for a grenade launcher.

Several hundred protesters stormed a Ukrainian national guard base in the eastern port city of Mariupol on Wednesday night, but Ukrainian soldiers turned them back with gunfire, killing three. Ukraine's interior minister, Arsen Avakov, said the attackers had fired at the troops, but protesters said they had been armed only with clubs.

The attack was the first significant defeat for anti-Kiev forces, which have seized government buildings in at least 10 cities in eastern Ukraine over the past two weeks. Soldiers deployed to the Donetsk region as part of an anti-terrorist operation that was announced by Kiev last weekend, have been turned around by angry locals, and militia men captured six infantry fighting vehicles in the city of Kramatorsk on Wednesday. Officials in Kiev and Washington blame the unrest on Russian agents.

The rewards for weapons and saboteurs, which were announced by Kolomoisky's deputy, Boris Filatov, were offered around eastern Ukraine on Thursday afternoon. A local man outside the anti-terrorist operation's staging point at the Kramatorsk airfield, which has been partially blocked off by angry residents, told the Guardian on Thursday that the airfield director had offered $10,000 for a captured Russian agent. He declined to provide his name.

This is not the first time Kolomoisky has put his own money toward the country's defence. Last month, the oligarch spent "several million dollars" buying car batteries for military vehicles. Ukraine's army has suffered years of neglect, with a reported 6,000 battle-ready troops at the moment.

Kolomoisky has a personal feud with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who derided him as a "unique impostor" last month. In return the oligarch called Putin "a schizophrenic, short in stature".

Meanwhile, tensions continued to rise in the east between residents supporting and opposing the new Kiev government. Protesters gathered outside police headquarters in Stakhanov to demand the local police chief's resignation. They attempted to storm the building but were reportedly repelled by residents who formed a human shield in front of the station.

Hundreds gathered in Donetsk to demonstrate for Ukrainian territorial integrity. The rally ended peacefully, unlike similar demonstrations in previous weeks where pro-Russian protesters beat up participants.

Dima Balakai, a student, said he was there to oppose the Russian-backed "bandits" occupying the regional administration building.

"There are no violations against the Russian language here," he said, referring to pro-Russian protesters' tendency to blame Kiev for oppressing Russian speakers. "If I speak Ukrainian at institute, they could soon kick me out." He said he was beaten by a crowd of young men at a similar rally on 4 March.

Also on Thursday evening, activists from the "people's republic" occupying the administration building went to the Donetsk airport to demand negotiations with airport and border control officials. They told the Guardian that they wanted to prevent any military flights from landing, as well as ensure that Russian citizens could arrive freely.

A spokesman for Aeroflot, the Russian airline, said on Thursday that the Ukrainian border service had placed an entry ban on Russian men aged 16 to 60. The Russian foreign ministry said it had requested more information from its Ukrainian counterpart, but journalists at Kiev's Borispol airport reported seeing Russian male passengers turned back.

Donetsk activists said such an entry ban has already effectively been put in place in eastern Ukraine. Dima Prokopshuk said two friends from Russia whom he had invited to his recent wedding were turned back at the Ukrainian border three times even though they tried to enter from Crimea, Belgorod and Rostov-on-Don.

"Some Russians may come here for separatist activities, but others are just coming to visit," Prokopshuk said.

BBC News (World) ‏@BBCWorld 2h

Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk refuse to leave #Ukraine government building, snubbing Geneva deal http://bbc.in/1ePU0Vv

The Guardian ‏@guardian 30m

Pro-Russian groups to stay put in east Ukraine until referendum takes place http://gu.com/p/3zhxg/tw

Pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine have accused the authorities in Kiev of violating an agreement to defuse tensions across the country, adding that they have no intention of leaving buildings they have occupied.

On Thursday Russia, Ukraine, the EU and the United States signed an agreement in Geneva that was supposed to see illegal groups withdraw from municipal buildings and give up their weapons.

At a press conference on Friday, however, Denis Pushilin, the self-styled leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, said his supporters would stay put until a referendum on the region's future status took place. The current pro-western government in Kiev was illegitimate, he said.

Referring to Ukraine's interim prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and president, Olexsandr Turchynov, he added: "We understand that everyone has to leave buildings or nobody does. Yatsenyuk and Turchynov should vacate theirs first."

Pushilin – speaking from the occupied regional administration building in central Donetsk – said that Kiev had already violated the Geneva deal by refusing to withdraw its military units from eastern Ukraine. "They have not pulled their forces out from Slavyansk," he said, referring to the town taken over by armed separatists a week ago. Ukrainian troops currently occupy an aerodrome close to Slavyansk and the neighbouring town of Kramatorsk.

pankajs wrote:

BBC News (World) ‏@BBCWorld 2h

Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk refuse to leave #Ukraine government building, snubbing Geneva deal http://bbc.in/1ePU0Vv

The Guardian ‏@guardian 30m

Pro-Russian groups to stay put in east Ukraine until referendum takes place http://gu.com/p/3zhxg/tw

Pro-Russian groups in eastern Ukraine have accused the authorities in Kiev of violating an agreement to defuse tensions across the country, adding that they have no intention of leaving buildings they have occupied.

On Thursday Russia, Ukraine, the EU and the United States signed an agreement in Geneva that was supposed to see illegal groups withdraw from municipal buildings and give up their weapons.

At a press conference on Friday, however, Denis Pushilin, the self-styled leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, said his supporters would stay put until a referendum on the region's future status took place. The current pro-western government in Kiev was illegitimate, he said.

Referring to Ukraine's interim prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and president, Olexsandr Turchynov, he added: "We understand that everyone has to leave buildings or nobody does. Yatsenyuk and Turchynov should vacate theirs first."

Pushilin – speaking from the occupied regional administration building in central Donetsk – said that Kiev had already violated the Geneva deal by refusing to withdraw its military units from eastern Ukraine. "They have not pulled their forces out from Slavyansk," he said, referring to the town taken over by armed separatists a week ago. Ukrainian troops currently occupy an aerodrome close to Slavyansk and the neighbouring town of Kramatorsk.