Ukraine steelworkers mobilise against pro-Moscow rebels threatening more unrest
The crisis in Ukraine took a new turn on Friday as steelworkers began joint patrols with police and started to clear government building occupied by pro-Russian rebels
Steelworkers from plants owned by Ukraine’s richest man retook government buildings from pro-Moscow insurgents, reversing the tide of rebellion and lawlessness that has gripped this industrial port and dealing a setback to anti-Kiev forces aspiring to merge with Russia.
“People are tired of war and chaos.”
Wearing overalls and hard hats, dozens of workers cleared away barricades of debris and tires outside the Mariupol city hall on Friday, scoring early successes against the pro-Russian forces, but threatening to open a new and dangerously unpredictable cycle of confrontation.
“People are tired of war and chaos. Burglaries and marauding have to stop,” said Viktor Gusak, a steelworker who joined in the effort to banish the pro-Russia militants from Mariupol, the Donetsk region’s second-largest city and the site of bloody clashes last week between Ukrainian troops and the insurgents.
About 120 kilometres to the north, armed backers of Ukrainian unity dressed in black seized control of a police station in a village just inside the troubled Donetsk region, vowing to expel the separatists through force if necessary.
The moves, which began on Thursday in Mariupol and the village of Velyka Novosilka, were a blow to the separatists who have seized control of government offices in this city and a dozen others in the east of the country.
“This is when power goes from Kiev to the regions. This is when authorities are not appointed but elected.”
Other similar and apparently unaccountable groups look to be emerging elsewhere in the region. Should they make substantial incursions, it is unclear whether they will be perceived as liberators or attackers acting on behalf of a little-liked government in Kiev. The latter could precipitate civil conflict.