Moscow accuses Kiev of issuing 'criminal orders' and warns of civil war

A pro-Russian gunman stands next to a barricade outside the police headquarters in Slaviansk, Ukraine, where there was fatal first gun battle on Sunday Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Moscow accuses Kiev of issuing 'criminal orders' and warns of civil war

Russia orchestrating latest violence in east Ukraine and is staging another Crimea-syle intervention, claims US and Nato

Paul Lewis in Washington and Alec Luhn in Slaviansk

The Guardian, Sunday 13 April 2014 / http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/13/moscow-accuses-kiev-criminal-orders-civil-war-east-ukraine-crimea

The crisis in Ukraine escalated dramatically on Sunday night as Russia accused Kiev of issuing a "criminal order" against protesters and warned of a civil war in the country, which has been hit by a wave of unrest that America believes has been orchestrated from Moscow.

The Russian statement came after unknown armed men attacked a convoy of Ukrainian troops in Slaviansk, about 100 miles from the border, launching the first gun battle in Ukraine since the standoff began, in which at least one person was killed. Both the US and Nato accused Russia of staging another Crimea-style intervention, with Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, saying events were following the same pattern as in Crimea, where unidentified military forces took over government installations before the peninsula was in effect annexed last month.

"[The unrest] is professional, it's co-ordinated, there is nothing grassroots-seeming about it," Power said. "The forces are doing, in each of the six or seven cities they've been active in, exactly the same thing. Certainly it bears the telltale signs of Moscow's involvement," she told ABC's This Week.

The Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, described the protests as "a concerted campaign of violence by pro-Russian separatists, aiming to destabilise Ukraine as a sovereign state".

He said the appearance of men carrying Russian weapons and wearing uniforms without insignia was a "grave development" and called on Russia to pull back its troops from Ukraine's border.

Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, went on television on Sunday night to announce that the army would take part in a "large-scale anti-terrorist operation" against the protesters, adding: "We're not going to allow Russia to repeat the Crimean scenario in Ukraine's east." He set a deadline of 6am GMT for the separatists to give up their weapons.

But the Russian foreign ministry said the west should bring its allies in Ukraine's government under control. "It is now the west's responsibility to prevent civil war in Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement on Facebook. "The situation in south-eastern Ukraine is taking on an extremely dangerous character. We decisively condemn attempts to use brute force against protesters and activists … We are particularly indignant about the criminal order [by Turchynov] to use the army to put down protest."

Alarm at Moscow's behaviour is certain to dominate discussions on Monday when EU foreign ministers, including Britain's William Hague, meet to discuss the crisis. Lady Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, said she was "gravely concerned".

Britain also called on Moscow to disown the rebels. "Assumptions that Russia is complicit are inevitable as long as Moscow does not publicly distance itself from these latest lawless actions," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

Washington and Moscow have maintained regular dialogue throughout the crisis and on Saturday John Kerry, the US secretary of state, spoke by telephone to Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

A senior state department official said Kerry expressed strong concern that attacks by "armed militants" in eastern Ukraine had been "orchestrated and synchronised". "The secretary made clear that if Russia did not take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine and move its troops back from Ukraine's border, there would be additional consequences."

Sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and western allies have so far been restricted to visa bans and asset freezes targeting senior officials in Moscow accused of undermining Ukraine's sovereignty. However, Washington has repeatedly warned those could be expanded to include far-reaching sanctions attacking Russia's banking, energy and mining sectors.

The White House announced at the weekend that the US vice-president, Joe Biden, will travel to Kiev this month in a show of solidarity with the country's new government, which is planning presidential elections in May.