Ukraine PM says country 'at war' as pro-Russian militias storm police station in Gorlivka
Channel: news all the world
Date: 15/04/2014

BARACK Obama and Vladimir Putin have clashed over pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine during a tense phone call, bringing the tensions between Moscow and Washington to a new level.
The call came after Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov said the country was now "at war" with Russia which it blames for having troops arming and orchestrating local militia to rise up against authorities in the east.
A White House statement said the telephone call came at Russia's request and that Obama accused Moscow of supporting "armed pro-Russian separatists who threaten to undermine and destabilise the government of Ukraine."
Senior US officials worry that the separatists, who have seized government buildings, are using a playbook familiar from the run-up to the Russian annexation of Crimea.
A Kremlin account of the call said that Putin told the president that US charges of meddling eastern Ukraine were "unfounded."
Obama told Putin that all "irregular forces in the country need to lay down their arms".
He urged Putin to "use his influence with these armed, pro-Russian groups to convince them to depart the buildings they have seized," the White House statement said.BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has held emergency talks with European leaders over the deteriorating situation in Ukraine.
Mr Cameron was a day into a holiday in Spain with his family when he was forced to take a break to telephone other leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
Mr Hollande had earlier spoken on the telephone with Mr Obama after the US Foreign Secretary John Kerry declared the deteriorating crisis and separatist movement as a classic Russian "destabilisation drive".
The ring around between EU leaders and the US came after the Ukrainian government in capital Kiev threatened a large scale military strike against pro-Russian militia and anonymous troops in uniform with no insignias leading the revolution that threatens to break the country up.
The uniforms with lack of markings and the armaments the men are carrying are reportedly the same as the Russian troops had when they silently invaded and absorbed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula last month.
"The problem is it looks very, very similar to what happened previously in the Crimea so you know, if it looks like a horse and it walks like a horse, it's usually a horse and not a zebra," Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said.Russia has amassed 40,000 of its troops on the Ukraine border in Belgorod, 75kms from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and at Kuzminka close to the border of Donetsk, the centre of fighting for the past three days.
One hundred pro-Russian protesters armed with bats and rocks stormed a police station in the east Ukrainian town of Gorlivka, smashing its windows and grabbing metal shields from police.
The local police force in the Donetsk region town of nearly 300,000 people reportedly put up almost no resistance, later swearing allegiance to a pro-Russian commander who took charge.Ukraine has set several deadlines for the militia to surrender and quit the government buildings and police stations they occupy in at least three cities including the regional capital Donetsk and for Russian troops to leave their country.
But the deadlines pass much to the amusement of militia and the mystery troops. Violent clashes have already left a Ukraine military captain dead and five of his troops injured and scores of civilians loyal to Kiev injured.Washington also confirmed today a Russian fighter jet made several low passes near a US destroyer in international waters in the Black Sea where it was sent to show solidarity for NATO allies in Europe's east.
The Pentagon branded the jet's buzzing as "provocative". Both the US and EU said it would impose further bans on Russia over its behaviour in the crisis.
The Ukraine government has now asked that the UN send in peace keepers to the east of the country as it faces the dilemma of firing on its own people. That call came after footage showed Ukraine police in the east swearing allegiance to Russian officers and vowing not to take up arms against their own citizens. The separatist unrest threatens to engulf further regions of Ukraine.The European Union's foreign affairs chief Baroness Ashton was more cautious in pointing the finger at alleged Russian-inspired violence simply condemning the actions of "armed individuals" in the cities of the east.
"These attempts at destabilising Ukraine must stop," she said. "We strongly support the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. We call upon Russia to do so as well and pull back its troops from the Ukrainian border. Any further actions aimed at destabilising Ukraine have to stop."
She confirmed the list of individuals, Russian and pro-Russian Ukrainians, to be on visa bans and assets freezes would be expanded and called on restraint on all sides.