Update | Gunmen seize security buildings in east Ukraine as pro-Russia protests spread
Pro-Moscow protests spread in Russia-leaning eastern Ukraine, underscoring volatility ahead of four-way talks on crisis Geneva on Thursday
Kalashnikov-wielding gunmen yesterday seized a police station and a security building in Ukraine's restive eastern industrial heartland amid spreading protests to press for the Russia-leaning region to join Kremlin rule.
The co-ordinated attacks and a subsequent raid by a few hundred pro-Russia protesters on the police headquarters of the local capital, Donetsk, underscored the volatility of the crisis ahead of peace talks between EU and US diplomats and their Moscow and Kiev counterparts in Geneva on Thursday.
Ukraine's interim leaders have been facing unceasing pressure from Russia since their February ousting of an unpopular Kremlin-backed president and decision to seek closer ties with the West.
Moscow has massed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's eastern border after annexing its Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and nearly doubled the rates it charges Kiev for gas. The seizures more immediately highlight how little sway Kiev's untested leaders have over pro-Russia citizens who have since April 6 controlled the Donetsk government seat and a state security building in the nearby eastern city of Lugansk.
On Friday, the US unveiled sanctions against six of Crimea's breakaway leaders, including the official who signed the deal with Moscow to split the peninsula from Ukraine. The sanctions targeted the former vice speaker of Ukraine's parliament, Sergei Tsekov, who now serves as Crimea's representative in the Russian parliament. The US Treasury also blacklisted Chernomorneftegaz, a gas company whose assets were seized by the Crimean parliament and are now managed by Moscow. The police station raid and a subsequent attack of the regional security service centre happened in Slavyansk, a riverside town of 100,000 about 60 kilometres north of regional capital Donetsk.
Ukraine's interior ministry said the first assault was led by 20 "armed men in camouflage fatigues" whose main purpose was to seize 20 machine guns and 400 Makarov guns stored in the police headquarters "and to distribute them to protesters".