In what looks like a special Russian military operation that resembles the Kremlin's Crimean invasion, masked men in army fatigues and bulletproof vests, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, seized the police station and district Security Service of Ukraine headquarters in Sloviansk, a Donetsk Oblast city of 125,000 people. Gunmen also seized the Interior Ministry in Donetsk.
Gunmen also set up two checkpoints outside the city, on the roads leading to Artemivsk and Konstantinovka. The gunmen piled sand and tires in the median with a Russian flag on top; at one of the checkpoints, the Kyiv Post saw four armed men dressed similarly to Russian soldiers. They stopped trucks and mini-buses and appeared to be searching for weapons that could be brought in to Sloviansk, perhaps by the government.
The gunmen at the Sloviansk police station also forced two journalists from Echo Moskvy radio station inside the building. The station is known as one of the last independent news outlets in Russia.
Read the whole piece here.
'We are not allowing any cars from Kiev into #Slaviansk' say Pro-#Russia militia at checkpoint. #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/oa9bDjQaOL
— David Patrikarakos (@dpatrikarakos) April 12, 2014
Pro- #Russia militia at checkpoint they have set up on outskirts of #Slaviansk. ‘The police are with us!’ pic.twitter.com/FzPNKoHAEg
— David Patrikarakos (@dpatrikarakos) April 12, 2014
SBU arrest and alleged organizer of riots in #Kharkiv hired by #Russian Intel http://t.co/Fnm82XqCLG pic.twitter.com/WfFhiat9PC
— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) April 12, 2014
Armed pro-Russian extremists seize police station, SBU HQ in #Sloviansk, erect roadblocks http://t.co/a6ZhTq2HxU pic.twitter.com/X4oae0gIcZ
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April 12, 2014
On outskirts of #Slaviansk - Pro-#Russia have erected a Russian flag on a road sign #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/7uCb3XItvu
— David Patrikarakos (@dpatrikarakos) April 12, 2014
The base belonged to a contingent of Ukrainian border guards who had built it only the previous month, hauling Soviet-era tents out of storage and cleaning out old debris from what had been a storage lot. With Russian forces massed across the border and fears of intervention high, the men at the base had come to reinforce Ukraine’s first line of defense against the growing threat from its neighbor — and the mysterious men that night showed how murky it could be.
When they slipped back into the night, the border guards were left wondering just who exactly the two men were — locals angry at the sudden influx of troops? Separatist agitators on orders from Moscow? Or maybe even Russian spies? The men had said they were from a nearby Ukrainian town, but locals later said that no one matching their description lived there.
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Foto from Kramatorsk Donetsk oblast sign says "Donetsk get up off your knees" pic.twitter.com/jNJipK10es
— bruce springnote (@BSpringnote) April 12, 2014
The Ukrainian foreign minister's comments come the same day an armed group in military uniforms seized a police station in the city of Slovyansk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
Pro-Russian armed groups have been occupying the regional administration building in Donetsk and Security Service headquarters in the city of Luhansk since April 6-7, demanding the federalization of Ukraine.
Deshchytsya also confirmed his participation in the U.S-EU-Russia-Ukraine talks in Geneva scheduled for April 17.