adminABOUT 100 pro-Russian protesters armed with bats and rocks have stormed a police station in the east Ukrainian town of Gorlivka, smashing its windows and grabbing metal shields from police.
An AFP correspondent in the Donetsk region town of nearly 300,000 people said the local police force, which put up almost no resistance to yesterday’s attack, later swore allegiance to a pro-Russian commander who took charge.
The raid came as Ukraine’s interim president made a dramatic about-face aimed at defusing tensions in the separatist east by backing a national referendum on turning Ukraine into a federation with broader regional rights. European powers meanwhile sought to raise the pressure on Russia — which it blames for fomenting the tensions — with Britain calling for “further sanctions” on Moscow ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
And Germany signalled its own resolve to take a tougher stance against a partner from which it imports 40 percent of its gas by noting there were “many signs” that armed groups operating in eastern Ukraine were “receiving support from Russia”. Interim Ukraine president Oleksandr Turchynov’s U-turn came only hours after pro-Kremlin militants who reject the authority of the new Western-backed leaders ignored an ultimatum to end their occupation of strategic buildings or face a “full-scale anti-terrorist operation” involving both internal security forces and army troops. — AFP.
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