Ukrainian government forces skirmished with separatist rebels around a major industrial town in the restive Donetsk region last night, as the country entered a tense countdown to next Sunday’s presidential election.
The fighting flared after the insurgents named a Russian political consultant as their “prime minister” and the leader of their fighters berated local men for failing to rally to their cause. Gunfire rippled yesterday around the outskirts of Kramatorsk, about 100km north of the city of Donetsk, where on Saturday the rebels reportedly captured an administration building of a major gas pipeline for the region.
Leaders of the pro-Moscow separatists, who last week declared independence from Ukraine, have vowed to prevent the presidential election being held in the neighbouring Donetsk and Luhansk regions that border Russia.
They reject the authority of Kiev’s new pro-western government and claim it includes and is supported by Russian-hating “fascists”. Moscow has said the election will be illegitimate unless all Ukrainians have a chance to vote.
No negotiation with rebels
The government is holding "round table" discussions with prominent figures from across Ukraine and says it is willing to make concessions to eastern regions with strong ties to Russia, but refuses to negotiate with rebel leaders.
The separatists' so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" unveiled as its "prime minister" on Saturday Aleksandr Borodai, a political strategist who admitted he was from Russia but claimed not to have been sent to Ukraine by the Kremlin.
He also acknowledged having worked in Crimea during Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula in March, and said he was a member of “one group of people” involved in recent anti-Kiev activities in Crimea and Donetsk.
Hundreds of men have taken up arms in Donetsk region, but there have been no major public shows of support for an insurgency that Kiev and the West claim is orchestrated by Russia, with the help of local political and criminal figures.
Shortage of support
The rebel fighters are led by so-called defence minister Igor Strelkov, who Kiev calls a member of Russian military intelligence. Mr Strelkov complained on Saturday about a distinct lack of local volunteers.
“If men are not willing, then we have no other option than to call up women and take them into the militias.”
About 20,000 Crimean Tatars rallied yesterday to mark 70 years since Soviet authorities deported them from the peninsula, but Russian authorities banned their traditional march through the centre of the region’s capital.
