Ukraine accuses Russia of starting cross border raid
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he speaks during a press conference after the 10th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on October 17, 2014 in Milan. Ukraine accused Russia of shelling from across the border November 21, 2014. PHOTO | VASILY MAXIMOV | AFP
KIEV
Ukraine accused Russia of
shelling from across the border Friday, stepping up tensions as US
Vice-President Joe Biden visited Kiev on the first anniversary of mass
protests which triggered a year of turmoil.
On a
frantic day of diplomacy, Ukraine’s leaders also announced the formation
of a five-party parliamentary coalition involving the groupings of
President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and former
premier Yulia Tymoshenko.
The coalition will, for the
first time, be strong enough to pass amendments to the constitution and
comes after elections in October.
Ukraine’s government
hopes Biden will use his visit to announce further US assistance for its
forces, locked in a drawn-out struggle with pro-Moscow separatists in
eastern Ukraine.
The US has so far limited its support
to non-lethal security assistance but Kiev wants it to go further and
offer weapons and ammunition.
TATTERED CEASEFIRE
As
Biden met Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk, Kiev claimed that shelling was
taking place from across the Russian border for the first time since a
tattered ceasefire was signed in September.
Ukrainian
military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that in the past day, artillery
was fired at a border post in Lugansk region from the direction of
Manotsky in Russia’s Rostov region.
In Kiev, dozens of
people gathered at the iconic Independence Square, known locally as
Maidan, laying flowers at shrines to the more than 100 people who died
in protests that started on November 21 last year.
Some
mourners wept or crossed themselves as they remembered the dead while
others said fresh protests were needed to bring real change to Ukraine,
where corruption is rife.
SEPARATIST UNREST
Petro Runkiv, a 58-year-old civil engineer, left his wife, children and grandchildren in western Ukraine to join the protests last year.
Petro Runkiv, a 58-year-old civil engineer, left his wife, children and grandchildren in western Ukraine to join the protests last year.
“Of
course, we are disappointed. Nothing changed,” he said. “We need
reforms and we are here to let our government know that we are ready for
one more Maidan.”
The protests started last year after then president Viktor Yanukovych suddenly scrapped a deal for closer ties with Europe.
They
eventually led to his ousting in February which prompted Moscow to
seize Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and later triggered separatist unrest
in the industrial east which has killed more than 4,300 people since
mid-April.
Poroshenko was heckled by relatives of the
Maidan dead shouting “Shame!” over authorities’ failure to convict
anyone in connection with the deaths when he laid a candle at the
shrines Friday.
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