Ukraine commandos refuse to storm buildings

 

Members of the self-proclaimed government called 'Donetsk Republic' vote during their meeting at the regional administration building that they had seized earlier in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Thursday. Photo:AP

Ukraine’s leaders appear to have backed away from threats to use force to crush pro-Russian protests in the country’s eastern regions amid reports that elite anti-terror commandos refused to storm the buildings seized by the protesters.

The deadline set by Kiev for the protesters to free the occupied government offices in Donetsk and Lugansk expired on Friday morning, with security forces making no attempt to storm the buildings. Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov had earlier pledged to clear the buildings within 48 hours.

According to Ukrainian media reports, the elite Alfa counter-terrorism group has refused to attack the protesters.

“We will act strictly according to law,” Alfa commandos were reported to have said. “Our group has been set up to free hostages and combat terrorism.”

Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk promised to grant more powers to the regions, including the right to hold local referendums.

“In the framework of the changed constitution, we will be able to satisfy specific requests of every single region,” Mr Yatsenyuk said at a meeting with the governors and other officials of Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions in Donetsk on Friday.

Mr Yatsenyuk did not spell out details of the proposed reforms and his vague promise is unlikely to mollify the protesters. The Ukrainian government plans to unveil the new constitution on April 15, but it has flatly rejected the protesters’ demand of federalisation of Ukraine.

Mr Yatsenyuk refused to meet with the protesters during his one-day visit to Donetsk on Friday but promised to have a televised call-in conference with its residents.

The protesters in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv initially demanded self-rule for Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, but after Kiev rejected their demands, they vowed to split from Ukraine and join Russia through a referendum similar to the one held in Crimea last month.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has offered immunity from prosecution for hundreds of protesters holed up in government offices in Donetsk and Lugansk if they clear the seized buildings but the activists refused to climb down. On Thursday they received reinforcements from local coal mines.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia has no plans to annex Ukraine’s southeastern regions.

“We do not and cannot have such ambitions. This would go against Russia’s fundamental interests,” Mr Lavrov said in a TV interview on Friday.

“We want Ukraine to be united in its current borders, but with full respect for its regions. We call it federation, but we do not insist on using this term. The main thing for Ukraine is to carry out a constitutional reform with the participation of all its regions and to hold presidential, parliamentary and local elections on this basis, so that the regions elect their own legislatures and governors,” the Russian Foreign Minister said.

He expressed the hope that Mr. Yatsenyuk will honour his promise of reforms.

“It’s a good thing Yatsenyuk has visited the southeast… He should have done it much earlier, as we’ve been telling your American and European partners,” Mr Lavrov said.

Ukraine commandos refuse to storm buildings

 

Members of the self-proclaimed government called 'Donetsk Republic' vote during their meeting at the regional administration building that they had seized earlier in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Thursday. Photo:AP

Ukraine’s leaders appear to have backed away from threats to use force to crush pro-Russian protests in the country’s eastern regions amid reports that elite anti-terror commandos refused to storm the buildings seized by the protesters.

The deadline set by Kiev for the protesters to free the occupied government offices in Donetsk and Lugansk expired on Friday morning, with security forces making no attempt to storm the buildings. Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov had earlier pledged to clear the buildings within 48 hours.

According to Ukrainian media reports, the elite Alfa counter-terrorism group has refused to attack the protesters.

“We will act strictly according to law,” Alfa commandos were reported to have said. “Our group has been set up to free hostages and combat terrorism.”

Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk promised to grant more powers to the regions, including the right to hold local referendums.

“In the framework of the changed constitution, we will be able to satisfy specific requests of every single region,” Mr Yatsenyuk said at a meeting with the governors and other officials of Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions in Donetsk on Friday.

Mr Yatsenyuk did not spell out details of the proposed reforms and his vague promise is unlikely to mollify the protesters. The Ukrainian government plans to unveil the new constitution on April 15, but it has flatly rejected the protesters’ demand of federalisation of Ukraine.

Mr Yatsenyuk refused to meet with the protesters during his one-day visit to Donetsk on Friday but promised to have a televised call-in conference with its residents.

The protesters in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv initially demanded self-rule for Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, but after Kiev rejected their demands, they vowed to split from Ukraine and join Russia through a referendum similar to the one held in Crimea last month.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has offered immunity from prosecution for hundreds of protesters holed up in government offices in Donetsk and Lugansk if they clear the seized buildings but the activists refused to climb down. On Thursday they received reinforcements from local coal mines.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia has no plans to annex Ukraine’s southeastern regions.

“We do not and cannot have such ambitions. This would go against Russia’s fundamental interests,” Mr Lavrov said in a TV interview on Friday.

“We want Ukraine to be united in its current borders, but with full respect for its regions. We call it federation, but we do not insist on using this term. The main thing for Ukraine is to carry out a constitutional reform with the participation of all its regions and to hold presidential, parliamentary and local elections on this basis, so that the regions elect their own legislatures and governors,” the Russian Foreign Minister said.

He expressed the hope that Mr. Yatsenyuk will honour his promise of reforms.

“It’s a good thing Yatsenyuk has visited the southeast… He should have done it much earlier, as we’ve been telling your American and European partners,” Mr Lavrov said.

Ukraine commandos refuse to storm buildings

LAS VEGAS: An Arizona woman accused of throwing a shoe some 60 feet (18 meters) toward Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared aware during questioning by U.S. Secret Service agents of the allegation against her, authorities said Friday.

Alison Michelle Ernst, 36, was given a misdemeanor disorderly conduct summons and freed after she was booked at the Clark County jail, according to a Las Vegas police arrest report.

"Ms. Ernst appeared to be in an agitated state but aware of what she had just done," the report said.

Ernst could face up to a year in the county lockup if she is convicted of violating a county ordinance during the Thursday incident at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino.

She is accused of bypassing security and walking quickly toward a rope line about six rows from the front of a conference audience.

Police say she reached into a purse, removed the shoe and threw it overhand toward the stage.

Clinton ducked and wasn´t struck. She appeared startled but quickly cracked a couple of jokes before continuing her keynote speech to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

The audience applauded. Ernst was ushered by security guards out of the ballroom with her hands in the air and sat calmly afterward on a sofa in a hallway.

She wore a blonde wig, blue dress and thong sandals. She told an Associated Press reporter she threw a shoe and dropped some papers but did not identify herself or explain the action.

Security officers ushered reporters and photographers away. A jail booking photo, taken later, shows Ernst with short brown hair.

She couldn´t immediately be reached Friday. It wasn´t clear if she had a lawyer.Brian Spellacy, Secret Service supervisory special agent in Las Vegas, said an orange and black athletic shoe was recovered from the stage.

Clinton has Secret Service protection because former presidents and their spouses are covered for their lifetime, Spellacy said.

Authorities said Ernst wasn´t a credentialed conference attendee and wasn´t supposed to have been in the ballroom, which had more than 1,000 people.

IAF's Super Hercules plane crashes near Gwalior, 4 commandos killed

GWALIOR: At least four commandos were killed as an Indian Air Force's newly-acquired C-130J Super Hercules special operations aircraft crashed near Gwalior, officials said.

The plane, carrying an unknown number of people, crashed 72 km west of Gwalior on the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border.

Four commandos have been killed as reported so far and rescue operations are underway.

India had signed a $1.2 billion contract with the United States in 2008 for buying six C-130J planes. The IAF has plans to place a follow-on order for six more.

The Super Hercules planes are operated by 15 countries including the air forces of the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark and Italy.

IAF had landed the C130J at the world's highest airstrip in northeastern Ladakh on August 20, 2013