Ukraina valde Ryssland före EU - stora protester som följd, länkar i inlägg2

More than four days have gone by since a crowd of protesters occupied the regional government office here in Kharkiv, bringing the Maidan revolution to the biggest city in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine.

But Maxim Kolenkov, assistant to the chairman of the Kharkiv regional council, is still showing up for work in the grandiose Stalin-era building in the city’s Freedom Square.

“I don’t know who they are. I don’t talk to them. I’m not interested,” he said, standing among the disabled fire extinguishers that litter the corridor outside his third floor office. “The government is not leaving the building.”

It looked as if Kharkiv might erupt in violence over the weekend when taxi drivers pushed away a crowd of some 2,000 protestors trying to decapitate the statue of Lenin that sits at the opposite side of freedom square.

The protestors then seized the regional government building. Many wear the red arm bands of the right wing Pravy Sektor movement that was the militant backbone of the Maidan uprising in the capital.

Freedom Square is now the scene of an uneasy stand-off between two rival camps: residents encamped at the Lenin monument and revolutionary protestors fresh from victory in Kiev.

To some extent the divide between the two sides is generational. The nationalists are predominantly disaffected youths who have been radicalized by the corrupt practices of ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s government.

Many of the supporters at the Lenin monument grew up in the harsh years of World War II and are scarred by memories of how western Ukraine collaborated with invading Nazi forces while the fiercely patriotic east battled through two years of enemy occupation.

Ukraine’s new leaders may have underestimated the challenges they would meet as the revolution was carried to the traditionally passive, pro-Russian eastern regions of the country or of how the growing strength of the Pravy Sektor would exacerbate tensions.

"You have right wing, the left wing, football fans, the Afghan veterans, various members of opposition parties, activists from civil society movements and people with no political affiliation," said Steffen Halling, a researcher specializing in Eastern Europe and Eurasia at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.

"They came together to defend Maidan and this unity could disappear in the near future if the situation stabilizes."---

A group called Right Sector joined the Maidan protest a month after it began in November. Now its members are spearheading investigations into the violence that erupted in the square on Feb. 19.

"Many people from the Right Sector are ex-police people - it's right to involve them," said Vladimir Usik, a protester present during last week's massacre of protesters by police. "They know how an investigation should work. We have to force this investigation to be as transparent, and they are the ones to do it."---

Right Sector leader Dimitri Jarosch wields significant loyalty among the street protesters. Some credit him with precipitating President Yanukovych's fall from power.

He is winning influence at the expense of the opposition leaders Europe supports. Many remain angry at Klitschko for a deal he made with Yanukovych late last week, which would have seen the president hold office until the end of the year.

"They were still bringing people in here when Klitschko came to Maidan to announce his deal," Pikar said. "Jarosch told him to take a hike, that there would be no deal. By the next morning, Yanukovych was gone."

Now, it's not clear whether Right Sector or the other groups will seek seats in a parliament slated to be elected in May.

"They have been kind of informal political groups," Halling said. "But after - let's call it the victory of Maidan - there is the possibility that they may try to get more influence."

In his statement Friday, Avakov said that 100 men that he said identified themselves as Cossacks attempted overnight Thursday to occupy the airport in Simferopol, which is 80 kilometers northeast of Sevastopol, but were repelled.
“The territory of the airport was vacated by the ‘Cossacks’ at one o’clock – they boarded covered Kamaz trucks and left,” he said.
He said that 119 armed soldiers in camouflage apparently belonging to the Russian armed forces arrived at the airport building at 1:30 a.m. and settled in an airport restaurant.
The soldiers refused to respond to queries from Interior Ministry officers about whether they were soldiers and if they had permission to be in the airport.
“I assess what is happening as an armed invasion and occupation. It is in violation of all international treaties and norms. This is a direct provocation to armed bloodshed on the territory of a sovereign state,” Avakov said.

Ukraine's interior minister says the Russian military are blocking an airport in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol in Crimea near the Russian naval base.

Arsen Avakov said in a Facebook post that the Belbek international airport in Sevastopol is blocked by military units of the Russian navy. Avakov called the blockade “military invasion and occupation.”

He said there had been no bloodshed or clashes when the armed men blocked the airport near Sevastopol where the Russian Black Sea fleet has a base.

"I consider what has happened to be an military invasion and occupation in violation of all international agreements and norms," he said, describing it as an armed provocation and calling for talks.

Separately, dozens of armed men in military uniforms without markings were patrolling the airport in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea as tensions in the country's Russian-speaking southeast escalated. It was not immediately clear who they were.

Som svar på Rysslands agerande i Krim, Ukraina kan återfå nukleära status. På denna, eftersom den "Navigator" , sade på sidlinjerna av Verkhovna Rada biträdande av den nationalistiska partiet "Svoboda" Mikhail Golovko.

More on the response from Russia’s Black Sea fleet to accusations that it has taken over or blocked the military airport near Sevastopol. In a statement, it said:

No units of the Black Sea fleet were deployed in the area of Belbek nor did they take place in blockading it.

But it said it had stepped up measures by its “anti-terror units” to protect areas where parts of the fleet were located in Crimea and the living quarters of service personnel and families “given the unstable situation”.

Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances was a international treaty signed in 1994, on Feburary, 5, in Budapest between Ukraine, USA, Russia, and Great Britain concerning nuclear dissarmmement of Ukraine and security assurances of her independence. According to the treaty Ukraine has abonded her nuclear arsenal to Russia, while Russia, USA, and Great Britian have promised (1) to respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignity within her borders; (2) to protect Ukraine from outer agression and not to conduct agression toward Ukraine; (3) not to put economic pressure on Ukraine in order to influence her politics; (4) not to use nuclear arms against Ukraine.

Ukraine’s parliament is asking the UN security council to call a session to consider the country’s current problems. It has also urged Russia to stop moves which it says undermine Ukrainian territorial integrity.

Russian foreign ministry refused to comment while a spokesman for the Russian defense ministry was not available for comment.