Ukraine Suffers Setback in Bid to Confront Pro-Russian Militias

By ANDREW E. KRAMERAPRIL 16, 2014

The New York Times

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The opening phase of what the Ukrainian government has called a military operation to confront pro-Russian militants suffered a setback Wednesday morning when six armored personnel carriers flying a Russian flag drove into town here and parked in the central square.

Ukrainian news media reported that pro-Russian militias commandeered the vehicles from the Ukrainian Army. They parked in the central square of the town, where a crowd gathered to gape at the squat, tracked vehicles and at a red, white and blue flag flapping in the breeze.

About a hundred soldiers in unmarked green uniforms and bearing the equipment of professional infantry guarded the vehicles, but other than the single Russian flag, they showed no signs of allegiance. Some of the soldiers had grenade launchers slung over their shoulders.

If the vehicles were indeed seized from the Ukrainian Army, it was not immediately clear whether they had been taken by force or with the collusion of defecting Ukrainian troops. Either possibility, however, would signal an escalation by Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukraine.

Underscoring the humiliation for the Ukrainian Army, Tsenzor.net, a Ukrainian news portal, reported that militants seized the vehicles in a neighboring town, Kramatorsk, where the Ukrainians landed paratroopers Tuesday to secure an airfield, in what was intended to be a show of force.

The Ukrainian general who commanded the military operation, Vasily Krutov, stood near armored personnel carriers outside the town and warned loudly that gunmen who did not surrender their weapons would be “destroyed.”

It was unclear whether the vehicles that were used Wednesday were from this same contingent.

In the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, Parliament met in a closed session Wednesday morning with the heads of the Ukrainian military and security forces.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, government supporters and the police set up roadblocks outside the city of Odessa. Journalists were told that the roadblocks had been established to prevent Russian militants from entering the city and completing an arc of uprising from the east through the south of Ukraine, in the country’s predominantly Russian-speaking areas.

In Slovyansk, which is about 120 miles from the Russian border, the armored vehicles flying a Russian flag entered the town through a main checkpoint, coming from the direction of Kramatorsk, where they were reportedly seized, rather than from the highway to the border.

They rumbled through the city and parked outside City Hall. “People say these are the people’s militia,” one woman said, referring to the uniformed men carrying weapons that clearly had not been obtained from the town’s captured police station. “I don’t know these people. They are not locals.”

“I think we’ll live with the Russians now,” said another spectator near the armored vehicles, which resembled tanks.

The degree of support for seceding from Ukraine in the east is a matter of dispute. Surveys indicate that a minority supports secession from Ukraine, while more favor greater autonomy within Ukraine, the position supported by the Russian government. Talks between Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and the United States are scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.

The crowd on the central plaza of Slovyansk appeared stunned by the presence of the armed soldiers. Breaking the silence, one woman yelled “Russia! Russia!” but the crowd did not take up the chant.