Four years ago, on April 9, 2014, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced the arrest of Maria Koleda, 22, identified as a Russian citizen who was fulfilling intelligence tasks to destabilize the situation in Ukraine’s southern oblasts.
Ms. Koleda was identified as a participant in the April 7 clashes at the Mykolaiyiv Oblast State Administration, which resulted in 15 injured and 23 arrested, and she admitted to wounding three pro-EU activists with her firearms. She had reported to her Russian handlers that pro-Russian activists had unlimited access to explosives and arranged for them to receive rifles. The SBU stated, “She also reported on preparing two sabotage groups (seven individuals in Kherson and six in Nova Kakhova) for dispatch to Donetsk to participate in the mass unrest.”
Pro-Russian activists seized control of state buildings in several eastern cities during the first week of April 2014. In Donetsk, they declared an “independent republic” on April 7 and invited Russian soldiers to ensure a referendum on joining the Russian Federation. The Ukrainian government response used limited force to retake most of the buildings and avoided a pretext for a Russian invasion. More than 500 activists stormed the Kharkiv Oblast Council building on April 6 and 5,000 pro-Russian activists organized a demonstration.
Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov said that many of those involved in the unrest were paid provocateurs, including women and youngsters, and he vowed that the situation would be brought under control without blood. By April 7, the Kharkiv Oblast Council building was set on fire by the pro-Russian separatists, and they were evicted by the local police later that evening. The action resulted in 70 arrests, 64 of whom were confirmed residents of the Kharkiv Oblast.
In Luhansk, masked and armed pro-Russian separatists took over the local headquarters of the SBU on April 7, placing mines throughout the building, and took 60 hostages, whom they released by the next morning. By April 9, the Luhansk SBU office and the Donetsk Oblast State Administration building remained occupied by Russia-backed protesters. Volodymyr Landik, a Luhansk oligarch, said he suspected ex-President Viktor Yanukovych was financing the local separatists, led by Oleksandr Yefremov, the Luhansk Oblast organizing head of the Party of Regions. Mr. Landik said the SBU building was taken over by 30 to 50 activists who knew what the plan was ahead of time, while the rest were drunkards bused in from other regions, both in Ukraine and Russia. “I believe those people, who joined the storm yelling ‘Russia, Russia,’ were brought directly from Russia,” he said. “Most of them didn’t want any storming.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shared the view of the Ukrainian government that the Russian government was responsible for inflaming the violence. “These do not appear to be a spontaneous set of events,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on April 7, following Mr. Kerry’s phone call to Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov. Echoing the Ukrainian government’s position, that cited recent arrests of Russian intelligence operatives working in Ukraine, Mr. Kerry said, “this appeared to be a carefully orchestrated campaign with Russian support.”
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has now continued for more than four years and has claimed the lives of more than 10,300 people and internally displaced more than 1.5 million people.
This month, Russia has sent its 75th “humanitarian convoy” (40 trucks each are set to arrive in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk), having illegally crossed Ukraine’s border; the occupying forces have not allowed the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to inspect its cargo. It has been long suspected that Russia sends weapons and ammunition along with goods for civilians in these shipments.
Source: “Pro-Russian protesters seize state buildings in Ukraine’s east,” by Zenon Zawada, The Ukrainian Weekly, April 13, 2014.