WRAPUP 8-Ukraine forces kill up to five rebels; Russia starts drill near border

Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:30pm EDT

(Adds Kerry, Hagel comments, paragraphs 4-6, 17)

* Kiev Interior Ministry forces, army take rebel checkpoints

* Putin warns of consequences after "punitive operation"

* Kerry says Moscow's window to change course "is closing"

By Aleksandar Vasovic and Alexei Anishchuk





In unusually blunt comments, Kerry accused Russia of using propaganda to hide what he said it was actually trying to do in eastern Ukraine - destabilize the region and undermine next month's planned Ukrainian presidential elections.


Russian President Vladimir Putin said sanctions were "dishonourable" and destroyed the global economy but that so far the damage had not been critical.


"During the armed clash, up to five terrorists were eliminated," it said in a statement, adding one person had been wounded on the side of the government forces.

A rebel spokeswoman in Slaviansk said two fighters had died in a clash in the same area, northeast of the city centre. Slaviansk's separatist self-proclaimed mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, quoted on a local news site, said one man was shot dead and another badly wounded on the northeastern outskirts of the city. He said the dead had been unarmed.

The Kremlin, which says it has the right to invade its neighbour to protect Russian speakers, has built up forces on Ukraine's border - estimated by NATO at up to 40,000 troops.




In St Petersburg, Putin said that if the authorities in Kiev had used the army in eastern Ukraine, it would be a very serious crime against their own people.


U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel voiced concern about reports of Russian military activity, telling reporters during a visit to Mexico City: "This is dangerously destabilizing and it's very provocative."

Russia's Foreign Ministry responded that it was up to Washington to halt the Ukrainian military action, and "force the Kiev authorities, who are wards of the United States, to restrain themselves and not use force."


But two hours later, the troops pulled back and it was unclear if Kiev would risk storming Slaviansk, a city of 130,000 that has become the military stronghold of a movement seeking annexation by Moscow of Ukraine's industrialised east.




Under an accord signed by Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union in Geneva last week, illegal armed groups are supposed to disarm and go home, including the rebels occupying about a dozen buildings in the largely Russian-speaking east.

Washington accuses Moscow of sending agents to coordinate the unrest in the east, as it did before seizing Crimea last month. Russia denies it is behind the uprising and says the separatists are responding spontaneously to hostility from Kiev. Russia made similar denials over Crimea until Putin acknowledged last week his troops had indeed acted alongside local militia.

"At the state level, Russia is supporting terrorism in our country," Ukraine's acting president, Oleksander Turchinov, said in an address to the country on Thursday. "Armed criminals have taken over buildings, are taking citizens, Ukrainian and foreign journalists, hostage and murdering Ukrainian patriots."

Turchinov called for the eastern offensive this week after the apparent torture and murder of a pro-Kiev town councillor whose body was found on Saturday near Slaviansk.








But Moscow also flexed its economic muscles, with the government suggesting foreign firms that pull out of the country may not be able to get back in. A source at Gazprom said the Russian exporter had slapped an additional $11.4 billion bill on Kiev. Ukraine is negotiating to reverse east-west pipelines so that it can receive gas from Europe if Moscow cuts it off.



Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, said aircraft would fly increased patrols near the Ukrainian frontier as part of the new exercises. Two local residents in the area told Reuters they had seen attack helicopters flying in formation.

Kiev said the city hall in another eastern town, Mariupol, which had been seized, was back under central control. A separatist crowd later surrounded the building, patrolled by police but otherwise apparently empty.


The Ukrainian Defence Ministry confirmed its involvement in the operation around Slaviansk on Thursday, saying the troops involved were airborne units with experience of such tasks from international peacekeeping missions.


Reuters reporters have not been able to establish that any Russian troops or special forces members are on the ground, although Kiev and Western powers say they have growing evidence that Moscow has a presence. Masked gunmen in the east, widely referred to as "green men", wear uniforms without insignia. (Additional reporting by Alexander Reshetnikov and Gleb Garanich near Slaviansk, Alissa de Carbonnel in Donetsk, Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Richard Balmforth and Alastair Macdonald in Kiev, Denis Dyomkin in Birobidzhan, Russia, Mark Felsenthal in Tokyo, Alessandra Prentice and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, David Alexander in Mexico City, and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Christian Lowe, David Stamp, Philippa Fletcher, Peter Graff and Peter Cooney; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)