Ukraine forces, pro-Russian rebels clash as election looms
By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets
// 2 hours ago
Pro-Russian activists guard a checkpoint outside the eastern Ukranian city of Luhansk May 21, 2014. REUTERS/Valentyn …
With tensions
rising ahead of Sunday's presidential election in Ukraine, security
sources said eight soldiers had been killed in fighting at the
checkpoint, while some border guards were hurt when "dozens" of gunmen
tried to enter Ukraine from Russia.
The election is meant to stabilize Ukraine after mass street protests
toppled Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February, but the
separatists have vowed to prevent the poll going ahead in eastern towns
where they have seized control.
The United States and European Union say they will impose broad
sanctions on Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March
after Yanukovich's fall, if it tries to derail the election.
The
pro-Western interim government in Kiev urged people across the country
to take part in the election in order to "defeat" Russian President
Vladimir Putin and the rebels.
Top Ukrainian security official Andriy Parubiy told a news conference he expected more separatist violence in the coming days "because their whole concept is aimed at disrupting the presidential elections".
"I would like to appeal to all citizens of Ukraine, not only to those in the east: on Sunday ... we must all go and vote ... Going to the elections, holding the elections means defeating Putin," Parubiy told a news conference.
Security sources said that along with the eight killed, at least 18 Ukrainian security personnel were wounded in clashes with the separatists, who have declared "people's republics" in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after referendums this month.
The main clash took place about 20 km (12 miles) south of the city of Donetsk, an industrial hub of one million people.
.
RUSSIA ACCUSED
In the Luhansk region, Ukrainian border guards repelled a cross-border incursion by dozens of separatists armed with grenade launchers and rifles, the border service said.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said a Russian helicopter had also violated Ukrainian airspace late on Wednesday.
"Russia continues to violate its international obligations and
principles of international relations, hypocritically ignoring the
Geneva agreement (designed to reduce tensions in Ukraine), deliberately
choosing tactics to further aggravate the situation in Ukraine," the
ministry said in a statement.
Moscow, for its part, accused Kiev on Thursday of stepping up military operations in eastern Ukraine and of failing to implement measures aimed at ending the crisis.
NATO has accused Russia of amassing tens of thousands of troops across
the border from eastern Ukraine. On Thursday, Moscow announced it had
moved some troops and military equipment from the Ukraine border area
but NATO's top military commander said Russia's forces in the region
remained "very large".
Kiev
says Sunday's election cannot be held in parts of the Donetsk and
Luhansk regions and says Moscow is deliberately seeking to undermine
Ukrainian democracy, a charge echoed by the United States and the EU.
Russia denies the legitimacy of the current Kiev government and has
asserted its own right to intervene on behalf of Russian speakers
outside Russia's borders.
Election front-runner Poroshenko has urged voters to hand him victory in
Sunday's first round of voting, suggesting that Ukraine's deteriorating
security situation might otherwise derail the election before a second
round can be held.
If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote on Sunday, a second round will be held on June 15.
A poll watchdog has said it expects a turnout of at least 70 percent of
voters nationwide in Sunday's election, despite the loss of Crimea and
the turmoil in the east.
(Writing by Gareth Jones; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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