DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — The scruffy rebels who normally
wander about the headquarters of the separatist Donetsk People’s
Republic were mostly out of view on Friday, replaced by a disciplined
new faction who showed up a day earlier with an armored personnel
carrier and anti-aircraft gun.
The separatists’ so-called prime
minister said nothing has changed — but something has clearly shifted in
Ukraine’s troubled east.
The balance of power in the region has
teetered wildly this week. After Ukrainians elected Petro Poroshenko as
the country’s president and Russia said it would respect the vote, hopes
rose for a resolution to the conflict between the central government
and the insurgents who want Donetsk to be part of Russia.
But a
day later, the rebels launched an exceptionally bold assault, seizing
Donetsk’s airport. Ukraine’s military responded with previously unseen
ferocity, launching airstrikes and sending in paratroopers to retake the
airport.
To some, the rebel operation looked like a desperate
last stand. But on Thursday, insurgents shot down a Ukrainian military
helicopter, killing 12 soldiers, including a general. The same day, the
murky Vostok Battalion militiamen took over rebel headquarters in the
11-story Donetsk regional administration building, demanding it be
evacuated because of what they said was the presence of looters.
The
Vostok Battalion’s wrath was ostensibly about the ransacking of a
supermarket during the battle for the airport, but some interpreted
their move as a power grab.
The battalion is believed to consist
largely of Russians, bolstering fears that Russia is either directing
the unrest in the east or supporting it in order to destabilize the
country and seize regions bordering Russia.
Donetsk insurgency leaders were at pains to stress that the takeover of their building did not signify a
change of guard.
"No
coup has taken place. The whole terrible panic that was whipped up over
this, what you might call a police operation, is a panic that has been
instigated by our so-called friends in Kiev," said Alexander Borodai,
the self-styled prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
The
heavy contingent of Vostok Battalion militiamen had disappeared by
Friday morning, as had the armored personnel carrier and vintage
anti-aircraft gun. Inside, however, many members of the militia group
were spotted in civilian clothing.
Meanwhile, there were mixed
signals Friday on whether Moscow and Kiev were moving toward improving
relations, a key element in resolving the conflict.
At talks in
Berlin, Ukraine said it ordered a $786 million payment to Russia in a
first step toward paying off its gas debts, and another round of talks
aimed at resolving the two countries’ gas price dispute was set for
Monday.
Russia has stepped up pressure on Ukraine over gas,
demanding payment up front for deliveries starting in June. It has
threatened to restrict supplies starting Tuesday if no payment is made.
Moscow
has put Kiev’s gas debt since November at $3.5 billion, and the CEO of
Russian gas company Gazprom said this week that gas delivered in May
could raise that to $5.2 billion. Ukraine, which saw gas discounts
granted by Russia eliminated following the February ouster of
pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, has sought a price agreement
before paying up.
Moscow, meanwhile, fired a new legal salvo at
Kiev. A spokesman for Russia’s top investigative body, Vladimir Markin,
said a criminal case had been opened on whether to charge Ukrainian
authorities and servicemen with war crimes for the government’s
offensive against insurgents throughout the east. Russia has repeatedly
denounced the operation as a war against Ukraine’s own people and
demanded that forces be withdrawn from the east.
In Washington,
the White House announced that President Barack Obama plans to meet
Wednesday in Poland with Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president-elect. Obama’s
European trip includes a stop in Normandy to attend events marking the
70th anniversary of the Allied landing. Russian President Vladimir Putin
also plans to be in Normandy, but the White House said Obama has no
plans for any formal or one-on-one meeting with the Russian leader, even
though they will be at the same events.
Also Friday, the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it lost contact
with a five-member observer team in eastern Ukraine, where four members
of another OSCE mission are still being held by pro-Russian rebels.
The
OSCE said in a statement that it lost contact with the team, which
includes four international workers and a Ukrainian translator, in the
Luhansk region late Thursday. The OSCE has been out of contact with
another four-member team in the neighboring region of Donetsk since
Monday.
An insurgent leader in Donetsk confirmed Thursday that the
four-member team was in rebel custody. The rebels told journalists they
would "deal with this and then release them," but didn’t elaborate or
give a specific time frame. The OSCE’s teams are in Ukraine to monitor
the security situation following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the
rise of the pro-Russia separatist insurgency in the east.
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Associated Press writers Laura Mills in Kiev, Jim Heintz in Moscow and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed
to this report.