NEWSLINK: Separatists fly Russian flag over Ukrainian armoured vehicles

[Separatists fly Russian flag over Ukrainian armoured vehicles – Gabriela Baczynska & Thomas Grove – April 16, 2014]

Reuters covers emerging events in eastern Ukraine, including separatists hoisting a Russian flag … efforts by the Ukrainian government to reclaim buildings from armed rebels … and upcoming talks between Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union … even as Russia speaks of civil war and Ukraine accuses Russia of exporting terrorism.

Pro-Russian separatists hoisted the Russian flag on Ukrainian army armoured vehicles in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, mocking the pro-Western Kiev government’s attempt to reassert control on the eve of crucial talks in Geneva on the country’s future.

Amid escalating rhetoric between Moscow and Kiev, the incident highlighted defiance by pro-Russian separatists, undermining central government efforts to push armed rebels out of captured buildings in 10 eastern towns without bloodshed.

Government troops had driven armoured personnel carriers flying the Ukrainian flag into the town of Kramatorsk in the early morning after securing control of a nearby airfield from the rebels on Tuesday, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to warn of the risk of civil war.

Some Ukrainian military vehicles apparently have ended up in rebel hands, as some Ukrainian soldiers reportedly turned deserter or claimed that they were relying on local people for food:

A soldier guarding one of six troop carriers now under the control of the rebels told Reuters he was a member of Ukraine’s 25th paratrooper division from Dnipropetrovsk.

‘All the soldiers and the officers are here. We are all boys who won’t shoot our own people,’ he said, adding that his men had had no food for four days until local residents fed them.

A spokesman for the separatists and a witness in Kramatorsk said the Ukrainian troops had given up their vehicles to the rebels after talks.

The Ukrainian government reportedly wants to move slowly and without bloodshed.  Meanwhile, on Thursday there will be direct talks between the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers, along with representatives of the United States and European Union, despite the fact that the Kremlin has denied the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government:

The Kiev government is seeking to reassert control slowly and without bloodshed before Thursday’s Geneva meeting at which the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers are due to meet for the first time in the presence of the United States and the European Union.

Russia, which has refused to recognise Ukraine’s pro-Western government since Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted by mass protests in February, sought to dramatise instability in its neighbour ahead of those talks.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk has accused Moscow of “exporting terrorism to Ukraine”.

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