Destabilization plan is put in place in eastern Ukraine - Ukraine's PM
KYIV. April 7 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said a plan to destabilize the situation is being put into place in the eastern part of Ukraine.
"I would like to address all residents of the eastern regions of Ukraine. It's absolutely clear to everyone that an anti-Ukrainian, anti-Donetsk, and anti-Kharkiv plan is being implemented. A plan to destabilize the situation, a plan for foreign troops to cross the border and take over the territory of the country, which we will not allow," Yatsenyuk said, opening the government meeting on Monday.
Yatsenyuk said he is confident that the people of those regions would like to live in a unified country.
"Any other calls for federalization are an attempt to destroy Ukraine's statehood and a scenario written by Russia, which is aimed at dividing and destroying Ukraine. It's not going to happen," he said.
Yatsenyuk said Ukraine can decide how to change its Constitution and what powers to give the regions. He called on the people of the eastern parts of Ukraine to be responsible and do everything to maintain the integrity of Ukraine.
Yatsenyuk also denied the information that Russian troops have left the Ukrainian border. "No one has removed the troops. The troops are within 30 kilometers of the Ukrainian border."
Yatsenyuk also said the rallies which were held in the eastern regions of Ukraine a month ago and which had thousands of participants are now "gone," but there is "a group of up to 1,500 radical activists" in every region "with a specific Russian accent, who organized riots on Sunday, took over administrative buildings and destabilized the situation, coordinating their activities with the foreign special services."
Yatsenyuk said Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema has left for Donetsk and Ukrainian Interior Minister Arseniy Avakov is now in Kharkiv.
In the early hours of Monday, the Ukrainian administration "came up with a plan of actions in connection with the attempts to destabilize the situation in eastern Ukraine" and officials have left for the eastern regions in conjunction with this plan, Yatsenyuk said.
Victoria Syumar, deputy secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, said on Facebook that National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy and Ukrainian Security Service Director Valentyn Nalyvaichenko are also immediately leaving for Luhansk.
Pro-Russian rallies protesting the actions by the current Kyiv administration took place in several large cities of eastern Ukraine on Sunday.
In Donetsk, some 150 protesters broke into the building of the region's administration, demanding an immediate convening of an extraordinary session of the region's council and a referendum on the inclusion of the region in Russia.
In the early hours of April 7, protesters took over the building of the Ukrainian Security Service's department in Donetsk. The Donetsk region's prosecutors are now investigating the riots.
Two rallies calling for a referendum on the issue of the federalization of Ukraine were conducted in Kharkiv's Freedom Square on April 6. According to information possessed by the police, 1,500 people took part in the rallies. In the evening of April 6, the pro-Russian activists took over the building of the Kharkiv region's administration, removed the Ukrainian flag from the building, and replaced it with a Russian tricolor. On Monday morning, Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Facebook that the building of the Kharkiv region's administration had been fully freed from separatists. However, witnesses denied that information.
On the same day, pro-Russian activists and people believed to be Right Sector activists clashed in Kharkiv. The clash began in front of the Shevchenko Theater, where a rally in support of the territorial integrity of Ukraine was conducted. Ihor Baluta, the head of the Kharkiv region's administration, called the incident a provocation, for which "a scenario was written outside of Ukraine."
In Luhansk, protesters stormed the building of the Ukrainian Security Service's department in the Luhansk region on Sunday. Nine people were injured. The city prosecutors opened a criminal case on the basis of mass riots. The police later said that the protesters had taken weapons in the building of the Ukrainian Security Service's department.