Eastern approaches | Eastern Ukraine

A rising Russian tide

More towns fall to pro-Russian mobs

By T.J. | GORLIVKA

TOWN by town, eastern Ukraine is falling under the control of men hostile to the Ukrainian state. On April 14th it was the turn of Gorlivka (also known as Horlivka), a 45-minute drive from the regional capital of Donetsk. A couple of hours earlier a deadline had expired, set by Ukraine's president, Alexander Turchinov, who demanded that men occupying government and police buildings leave them. The previous day Mr Turchinov had warned that the army would be deployed to regain control of the east.

Gorlivka is a mining town and has strategic value as an important railway junction. Other towns where police buildings have been seized in the past few days—including Slaviansk and Kramatorsk—lie on the main highway to Kharkiv, in the north, through which Russian troops based in Belgorod would have to pass in case of a fully-fledged invasion.

To the south this road leads to Mariupol, on the Black Sea coast and close to the Russian border. Here the police building has also fallen into the hands of pro-Russian rebels. To the west of Donetsk, on the main road to Kiev, at Krasnoarmiysk, an attempt to take the police building has so far failed. Whoever controls this has access to arms and the police officers who, willingly or not, have mostly gone over to the side of rebels.

On the evening of April 12th a film showed a military-style unit seizing the police building in Kramotorsk. Ordinary but organised locals were then left in charge. The taking of the Gorlivka police building was far more chaotic. Groups of thuggish-looking men with baseball bats, stones, helmets and Molotov cocktails tried to gain access but were initially held at bay. Stun grenades were thrown out of the building, in no apparent direction.

As the morning wore on, a man with a Russian flag on a fishing rod clambered up the side of the Gorlivka police building, took down the Ukrainian flag from the covered entrance and replaced it. As he began to climb back down he either fell off the building or was pushed. A policeman then climbed out of the window of the building and tore down the Russian flag. A policewoman could be seen throwing a piece of paper out of the window which appeared to be a list of people surrendering.

Ugly scenes ensued as the mob armed with truncheons and iron bars pushed into the building and resistance began to crumble. Towards the end only the commander and his deputy were left fending them off. Once they too were overpowered, the deputy was beaten and made to kneel before being allowed into an ambulance, according to an eyewitness.

When two men appeared on the roof of the building to raise the flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic, some began to laugh as it was held aloft triumphantly, but upside down. Inside the building two British journalists were assaulted but escaped unscathed after they had handed over the memory card from their camera.

A man in military uniform then announced from the stairs of the building that the police had switched sides. He demanded that there be no looting or lynching and asked for people to bring tyres and wood to build barricades. People around the building applauded, saying that either the Donetsk Republic should be independent, or part of Russia.

On the other side of the road from the police station, men were giving orders to other groups of men whose faces were covered with ski masks. Some had helmets and some had body armour.

After watching the violence, a man called Pavel, who walked to talk at a safe distance from the mob, said he was a member of the Fatherland party of Arseniy Yatseniuk, the prime minister, and Yulia Tymoshenko, a presidential candidate. He said he believed the seizure of the building was designed to “provoke conflict” which would then lead to a Russian invasion.

Ms Tymoshenko herself was reported as calling on foreign leaders for help. “I ask leaders of the world to provide direct military help to Ukrainian people who have been fighting for their freedom and dying for it. I ask the leaders to act.” Unless Ukraine starts to fight for its own survival, that help seems unlikely to come.

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