KIEV , APR 23 -
Ukraine relaunched military operations against pro-Kremlin separatists,
hours after US Vice President Joe Biden ended a two-day visit to Kiev
in which he warned Russia over its actions in the former Soviet
republic.
The US Defence Department at the same time announced it was sending 600
troops to neighbouring Poland and to Baltic countries for "exercises".
Russia already has tens of thousands of its troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border.
The latest moves underscored the severity of the crisis that has
brought East-West relations to their most perilous point since the end
of the Cold War.
Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, late Tuesday said he
was ordering the military to restart operations against the rebels after
the discovery of two "brutally tortured" bodies in the eastern
rebel-held town of Slavyansk.
One of them, he said, was that of a recently kidnapped local councillor from a nearby town who belonged to his party.
In a further slide back towards violence, which many fear could tip
into civil war, a Ukrainian reconnaissance plane was hit by gunfire
while flying above Slavyansk.
The Antonov An-30 propellor-driven plane received several bullet
impacts, but safely made an emergency landing and none of its crew
members were hurt, said the defence ministry in Kiev.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has
monitors in the country, also said that rebels had abducted a police
chief in the town of Kramatorsk -- calling it the sort of "provocative"
action that "can only worsen the existing tensions and contribute to
further violence".
Pro-Moscow militants had taken over Kramatorsk's police station late
Monday, extending their grip from the already occupied town hall.
Kiev, Washington and many EU countries see Moscow as pulling the strings in the Ukrainian separatist insurgency.
Biden, in his news conference after meeting the Kiev authorities,
warned Russia of isolation if it continues to try to "pull Ukraine
apart", underlining a US threat to impose more sanctions on Moscow.
"We have been clear that more provocative behaviour by Russia will lead
to more costs and to greater isolation," said the vice president.
And, in a phone call late on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry
told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of his "deep concern over
the lack of positive Russian steps to de-escalate" the crisis in eastern
Ukraine, a State Department official said.
Kerry also called on Russia to "tone down escalatory rhetoric".
But Russia says Kiev's new leaders -- whom it regards as illegitimate -- are to blame for the collapse of the accord.
It says ultra-nationalists who were involved in months of protests that
ousted Ukraine's pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych in February
killed rebels in an attack Sunday near the eastern town of Slavyansk.
A funeral for the militants was held on Tuesday. Bells rung loudly from
Slavyansk's Orthodox church and women wept as three coffins were
carried out.
- Biden urges Russian pullback -
Biden called on Russia to pull back its forces from the border, and to
reverse its annexation last month of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
"We in the United States stand with you and the Ukrainian people,"
Biden said in a joint news conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister
Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
He added that the United States was stepping up to help Ukraine lessen
its dependence on Russian gas, fight corruption, and prepare for a May
25 election to choose a new president.
Yatsenyuk responded that Kiev valued the US support against what he said was a Russia "acting like an armed bandit".
The Pentagon, announcing the dispatch of 150 troops to Poland and 450
to Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia in coming days, said it was sending a
"message to Moscow".
Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters in Washington that "since
Russia's aggression in the Ukraine, we have been constantly looking at
ways to reassure our allies and partners".
In Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev dismissed the US threat of new sanctions.
"I am sure we will be able to minimise their consequences," he said in a televised speech to the Russian parliament.
However he acknowledged that Russia's economy was facing an "unprecedented challenge".
Russia's finance ministry said Monday the energy-rich nation could tip
into "technical recession" over the next three months. Last week it
warned Russia was facing the toughest economic conditions since 2009,
when a serious slowdown occurred.
- Divide over further sanctions -
The European Union, meanwhile, is divided on going further with its own
sanctions on Moscow, with some member states worried that increased
punishment could jeopardise supplies of Russian gas.
As the crisis deepens, the insurgents in Ukraine's east remain firmly
entrenched in public buildings they have occupied for more than a week.
In the town of Lugansk, close to the Russian border, protesters pledged
to hold their own local referendum on autonomy on May 11, the
Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.
Although highly trained military personnel, whose camouflage uniforms
are stripped of all insignia, are helping the rebels secure the some 10
towns they hold, Russian President Vladimir Putin denies they are
Russian special forces.
But the US State Department released images Monday it claims proves
some of the armed "separatists" in Ukraine are actually Russian military
or intelligence officers.
In a separate development, Sweden, which is not a NATO member,
announced Tuesday it was increasing defence spending because of the
"deeply unsettling development in and around Ukraine". It plans to boost
its fleets of fighter jets and submarines.
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