Following a week of assaults on government buildings by armed, pro-Russia agitators, Ukraine is fighting back with a military campaign. Ukraine Acting President Oleksander Turchinov said they’ve kicked off their “anti-terrorist” in the northern Donetsk region, to push back pro-Russian forces.
Northern Donetsk has been the center of unrest since the Crimean referendum that saw 95 percent of voters support the Russian annexation of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin has amassed large troop forces just outside the border, which special forces and intelligence operations underway to cause civil unrest in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s acting president had called an emergency meeting after armed, Russian-backed agitators seized control of government buildings in eastern Ukraine last Saturday. Armed men took control of police headquarters in Donetsk, an eastern Ukraine city that has been ground zero for pro-Russia “protests.” But this one event was just one of many, and over the past 10 days, there have been more than a dozen government offices assaulted 10 eastern Ukraine cities by pro-Russian forces.
Now, the results of these incursions are developing into a militarized response by the new, pro-West government.
“Overnight, an antiterrorist operation began in the north of Donetsk. But it will be phased, responsible and balanced. The purpose of the actions, I stress once again, is to protect the citizens of Ukraine,” Turchynov told Ukraine’s parliament.
Yesterday, President Obama spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House said Obama told Putin Russia’s role and connection to the separatists’ activities in Ukraine were a “grave concern,” and Obama told Putin to tell the forces to vacate the government buildings they have seized.
“The president made clear that the diplomatic path was open and our preferred way ahead, but that Russia’s actions are neither consistent with or conducive to that,” the official said in an email. They also said that the conversation was requested by the Kremlin, not the United States.
