Posted on 04/20/2014 5:40:11 AM PDT by kronos77
Five people have been killed in a gunfight in Slavyansk, a city in eastern Ukraine held by anti-government protesters. The fatalities include three protesters and two attackers, who are believed to be from the Right Sector paramilitary.
Read RT's live updates on Ukrainian turmoil
The deaths came after a night attack on a protester checkpoint on the outskirts of the city. Four cars drove by the checkpoint and opened fire at the local residents manning it, killing two people and seriously injuring several others.
“They approached with their high beam headlamps on. Our man went to them and asked not to blind us, show IDs and open the trunk for inspection. Then an assault rifle got stuck out of the window and he was gunned down,” an eyewitness, Vladimir, told RT.
He added some of the people trying to flee the attackers were shot in their backs. One gunshot victim died later in hospital from a head wound, local medics confirmed. Two others are undergoing treatment.
The checkpoint was in the control of 26 civilians armed with bats. Their lack of firearms was due to a so-called “Easter truce” announced by both the Kiev authorities and the protest leaders to de-escalate tension.
Among the victims of the night attack is Sergey Rudenko, 53, who worked as a school bus driver, his wife told RIA Novosti. He lived in a village near Slavyansk and was guarding the checkpoint on Easter night together with his two adult sons.
As the civilians were pinned down, a group of 20 protesters with firearms came from the city. They opened fire on the attackers, killing two of them and sent the rest running. Five attackers were injured by the retaliating forces, protest leader, Vyacheslav Ponomaryev, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
It has outraged Russia. This is exactly the kind of provocation that threatens to undermine the Geneva agreement.
It will only harden the rift between the East and West of Ukraine.
John Bolton has made similar comments about the need to avoid provoking Russia to action (Or giving them an excuse as the case may be)
1. Send NATO allies Bosniaks/Albanians/Ukrainians to commit small but outrageous attack, preferably during truce or Christian holiday.
2. DO NOT REPORT OF THAT ATTACK in any of Western media
3. When slightest response by Serbs occur, report it at once as Serb attack.
Since they became Independent, the Ukraine has failed to rise above their prejudices. Foolish.
For over 20 years they did nothing. Just ,maintained status-quo in every sphere of life.
And Russian special forces quietly taking over Ukrainian police stations, government buildings, and transport terminals ISN’T a provocation??
Russia has zero cause for outrage, they started this whole pseudo-invasion.
Like heck they did. It was the coup that started this...and it is the same folks responsible for the 2004 revolution. They’re all cruds.
So now “taking over Ukrainian police stations, government buildings, and transport terminals” is a bad thing but a month ago it was ok?
Three pro-Russian militants were reported killed, along with two of the assailants, whose identity has not been ascertained.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/20/ukraine-crisis-geneva-deal-slavyansk
The Ukrainian people had every right to get rid of a Russian toadie - Yanukovich - that refused to work for the better interests of his country, and traitorously tried to weld Ukraine to Russia.
But that foiled Putin’s plan to subsume Ukraine, so now he hyas to do it by naked military invasion, always with that weak pretext - “the Russian people in the Ukraine are being threatened”.
Yeah right. The only people doing threatening are the Russians.
“It was the coup that started this...”
There was no coup. The Ukrainian parliament clearly stated there was no coup. The president was formally removed from power by a unanimous vote - even from those in his own party. https://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv/euromaidan-rallies-in-ukraine-feb-21-live-updates-337287.html
Russians get the hell out
It wasn’t a coup
the dude quit
the parliament then voted him out
The Easter Truce is offered by the Ukrainian government.
These were not government forces.
In a prior agreement, Russians agreed to vacate all government buildings.
Might have been a good idea to do this.
“So now “taking over Ukrainian police stations, government buildings, and transport terminals” is a bad thing but a month ago it was ok?”
Yes. A month ago it was Ukrainians taking those “Ukrainian police stations, government buildings, and transport terminals”. Now it is Russians. There’s a difference.
Wouldn’t you see a difference between Americans seizing control of American facilities to thwart the tyranny of a pro-Mexican president as opposed to pro-Mexican Mexican-Americans seizing control of American facilities to thwart American control of America? I dare you to tell me there’s no difference between those two actions.
Amen.
Remember Bubba was impeached but never removed by the Senate.
oh...thought this was going to be a Chicago headline....
Obama in Europe just recently said that Kosovo left Serbia by popular referendum.
He just didn’t mention the fact that NATO bombing forced most Serbs out of Kosovo first.
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