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| Russian President Mr. Vladimir Putin AFP |
Russian President
Vladimir Putin said Friday that his government would respect the will of
the Ukrainian people in Sunday's vote, but added Russia would closely
monitor events.
In a speech to an
international economic forum in Saint Petersburg, Putin also warned of a
"dangerous civil war" underway in Ukraine following what he called a
"state coup" carried out "with support of the West, the United States"
that ousted the country's pro-Russian leader earlier this year.
Latest fighting
At least 32 people were
killed and 44 injured in clashes between the Ukrainian military and
pro-Russian separatists in the Luhansk region, according to the
country's anti-terror office spokesman, Vladislav Seleznev.
The clashes took place Thursday afternoon and lasted for a few hours, Seleznev told CNN on Friday.
A total of 30 pro-Russian
separatists and two Ukrainian soldiers were among the dead, while the
injured included 37 separatists and seven Ukrainian soldiers, Seleznev
said.
Ukraine's defense ministry reported on its website that 20 separatists died in the Luhansk clash, with more than 30 wounded.
The reports could not be independently confirmed, and some previous casualty claims by Ukrainian sources have proven unreliable.
On Friday, pro-Ukrainian
militias heading to shut down a pro-Russian checkpoint in Donetsk
region came under attack, according to a regional Ukrainian authority
and the chief of staff of one of the groups called the Right Sector.
The Donetsk regional
authority said one person died and nine were wounded, while the Right
Sector official said four pro-Ukrainian fighters got trapped and may
have been killed or captured.
There were no further details on the affiliations of the casualties, and the reports also could not be independently confirmed.
Sunday's election will
choose a successor for ousted pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych in
the country riven by Russia's takeover of the Crimea Peninsula and
aggression blamed on pro-Russian factions in some eastern regions of the
country that have ethnic Russian populations.
Valentyn Nalyvaychenko,
the head of Ukraine's security service, said Friday that no military
operations were planned for the election. But alternative secure voting
places would be arranged for some people in the Donetsk and Luhansk
regions because of the separatist threat.
Showdown
The Ukraine crisis has
created a showdown between Putin and Western allies over what U.S.
President Barack Obama calls Russia's illegal expansionist moves.
Obama and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said disruption of the Ukraine vote by
#Russia would bring further sanctions targeting specific sectors of the
Russian economy. So far, U.S. and European sanctions have targeted
individuals and some banks and other entities.
On Friday, Putin
reiterated Russia's assertion that according to Ukraine's Constitution,
the ousted Yanukovych remains the nation's legitimate president. He also
questioned whether the election should be held now, given the current
violence in eastern Ukraine.
According to Russian
state media, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said Friday that
Russia would decide whether or not to recognize the Ukraine vote only
after it takes place.
"Let's wait for the
elections first. Naturally, when Russia considers this issue (on
legitimacy) we will take into account all factors," the official
ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Meshkov as saying.
The latest violence
extended increased unrest in recent weeks in eastern Ukraine, which
includes areas with ethnic Russian populations loyal to Moscow instead
of the Ukrainian government in Kiev.
After the Russian
takeover of Crimea, Putin massed an estimated 40,000 or more Russian
troops near the border with eastern Ukraine. This week, he said those
forces were starting to withdraw, as called for by Obama and NATO
allies.
On Friday, Pentagon
spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said the United States has seen small
numbers of Russian troops withdrawing back to their garrisons or home
bases from the border region.
Kirby described those
numbers as "not great" and said tens of thousands of Russian troops
remained near the border. According to Kirby, it was "too soon for us to
say this is the wholesale withdrawal" of troops that Putin indicated he
had ordered.
Donetsk violence
The Donetsk violence on
Friday involved an effort by pro-Ukrainian militias to take down a
pro-Russian checkpoint near Karlivka, according to Right Sector Chief of
Staff Andriy Denysenko. The pro-Ukrainian forces came under attack by
separatists and were forced back to a Ukrainian military checkpoint,
Denysenko told CNN.
Four of the
pro-Ukrainian militia fighters got trapped in a cafe and were presumed
by pro-Ukrainian militias to be dead or captured, he said.
According to the Donetsk state administration, the battle left one person dead and nine injured.
Disturbances also were
reported Friday in Slovyansk, a stronghold for the separatists in the
eastern Donetsk region. A CNN team in Slovyansk heard about 10
explosions in what sounded like the outskirts of the town, following
shelling overnight around a militant barricade.
The self-declared mayor
of Slovyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, has said that anyone who tries to
vote in the presidential election will be arrested.
On Friday, Ponomaryov
showed a CNN crew missile launchers known as man-portable air defense
systems (MANPADS) that he said were obtained on the black market in the
1990s and now could be used on Ukrainian military aircraft in the event
of civil war.
Matt Schroeder from the
Small Arms Survey, an independent expert who saw CNN images of the
weapons, confirmed they were for use with surface-to-air,
shoulder-launched, heat-seeking missiles. However, Schroeder said he was
unable to tell from the images what model they were and if they were
functional.
In another indication of the heightened tensions, Ukraine's
Border Service said Friday that its guards had thwarted another attempt
by armed men to illegally bring weapons and ammunition over the border
from Russia.
Attacks on media
Meanwhile, the
Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe released a report
Friday that detailed a deterioration of media freedom in Ukraine.
Dunja Mijatovic, the
group's representative on media freedom, said she was "alarmed by the
rapidly deteriorating conditions and climate for the media."
The 14-page report on
events from last November 28 until Friday cited more than 300 cases of
attacks on journalists including killings, kidnappings, detentions and
acts of intimidation, as well as cases of equipment being confiscated
and destroyed.
"The on-going attacks on
journalists are nothing short of gross and severe violations of
fundamental human rights," Mijatovic said. "Journalists are deliberately
targeted for doing their job, trying to tell the outside world of the
events that is taking place in Ukraine."
In his remarks to business leaders, Putin said he was "optimistic" the crisis in Ukraine could be resolved.
He defended Moscow's
recent disputed annexation of Crimea, saying its action had prevented
violence there and ensured the "possibility of free will for the people"
who chose to join Russia in a democratic referendum.
The United States and
its European allies have refused to recognize the Crimea annexation,
saying it remains an unresolved issue in their demand for Ukraine's
sovereignty and territorial integrity to be respected.
Unpaid gas bill
Putin also said Russia
had tried to help Ukraine in its difficult economic situation, but that
Kiev must pay off the hefty arrears owed to Russian energy giant Gazprom
for natural gas.
"The risks today of
delivery of the gas supply are not our fault but quite honestly,
everyone understands that this is because of the transit country
#Ukraine, which has abused its situation," he said.
"We provided Ukraine
with 10 billion cubic meters of gas for free," he added. "This is not
sensible; this is really stupid, and we must have limits."
Asked if he could work
with a Ukrainian government led by Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire
businessman and seasoned politician seen as a front-runner in Sunday's
election, Putin joked that he could -- if Ukraine pays the $3.5 billion
it owes.
Kiev and European Union leaders have urged Russia not to use the energy supply as a weapon.
Putin also called for
dialogue between Russia and the United States over the crisis in
Ukraine, suggesting Washington had not taken Russia's interests into
account until now.
He was critical of the
sanctions imposed on Russia by the West, warning that they would have a
"boomerang" effect and hurt the United States and the European Union.
The Russian President
also suggested the U.S. sanctions could be a ploy to give American
companies a competitive advantage in Europe.
Source: BBC News
Source: BBC News
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