Russia’s rep to OSCE hopes OSCE monitoring mission to be sent to Sloviansk immediately
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Andrei Kelin said that he has raised the issue of sending an OSCE monitoring mission to Ukraine’s Slovyansk and that he hoped it has already arrived there.
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“I raised the issue today in the morning during a meeting with a range of ambassadors to the OSCE that it is necessary to send monitors of the mission to Slovyansk immediately. I hope they are already there,” Kelin said on the Rossiya 24 (Russia 24) TV channel.
Monitors of the OSCE mission have visited Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the diplomat said.
“It should be said that for now I see quite an honest story regarding what they see and what is happening,” Kelin said.
Putin spokesman: Actions of Kyiv authorities cast doubt on coming presidential elections
21:15 — The Actions of the Kyiv authorities in eastern Ukraine cast doubt on the coming presidential elections in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“Such situational developments in Ukraine and such criminal actions of those, who are in Kyiv – even now they challenge a priori the legitimacy of the elections scheduled in May,” Peskov told reporters in St. Petersburg on Thursday, Interfax reported.
Putin spoke during a media forum of the All-Russia People’s Front on Thursday, Peskov said. “The main thing is namely the crime of using armed forces against the country’s ethnicities,” the spokesman said.
“What is happening in Slovyansk can be interpreted in two ways – on the one hand, as an attempt to disrupt the May elections, on the other, as an aspiration to hold them amid any conditions,” Peskov said. “Kyiv’s actions do not add legitimacy to the authorities in both cases,” he said. — Kyiv Post, Interfax
Chief editor of Russia Today tweets “Ukraine. R.I.P.”
8:57 p.m. — Margarita Simonyan, the chief editor of Russia Today, the Kremlin’s flagship English language news organization, tweeted “Ukraine. R.I.P.” early in the morning on April 24. — Isaac Webb
Vice News reporter Simon Ostrovsky has been freed
7:46 p.m. — Kevin Bishop, BBC’s acting bureau chief in Moscow, says that Vice News reporter Simon Ostrovsky has been freed after nearly two days of captivity in Sloviansk.
J-Francois Belanger, a foreign correspondent in Moscow for CBC television, says that Ostrovsky is currently in a CBC car traveling from Sloviansk to Donetsk.
Ostrovsky was taken hostage on April 22 by Russian-backed separatists in Sloviansk.
Vice News issued the following statement:
“VICE News is delighted to confirm that our colleague and friend Simon Ostrovsky has been safely released and is in good health. We would like to thank everyone for their support during this difficult time. Out of respect for Simon and his family’s privacy, we have no further statement at this time.”
At 8:45 p.m., Ostrovsky tweeted: “I’m out and safe. Thank you all for your support. Had no idea I had so many good friends.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Lubkivsky suggests Ukraine needs lethal aid to defend its borders
7:09 p.m. — Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. on April 24, deputy Foreign Minister Danylo Lubkivsky said that Ukraine “would definitely be interested to gain all necessary means to protect our country.”
When asked whether Ukraine is asking the U.S. to provide it with weapons to defend its eastern border against a Russian invasion, Lubkivsky said, “We have to protect Ukraine against the aggression. All possible means that may help in this case should be used.”
BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray first reported Lubkivsky’s remarks. — Isaac Webb
Video from Ukraine’s anti-terror operation today in Sloviansk
Turchynov: Ukraine will not yield to terrorists
6:26 p.m — Ukraine’s acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said in televised address to the nation on April 24 that Ukraine will not yield to terrorists and demanded that Russia move its troops away from the nations’ shared border.
“After Ukraine’s security forces took some successful steps in fighting terrorism, the Russian Federation…began to concentrate troops on the eastern border of our state. There is an ongoing deployment of those units, which pose a threat to the security of our state.”
“We will not step back from the terrorist threat and will continue taking measures to protect our people’s lives. We demand that the Russian Federation stop interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs, stop permanent intimidations and blackmailing, and redeploy their troops from the eastern border of our country.” — Oksana Grytsenko
Ukrainian Interior Ministry: More than 100 guards surround Mariupol city council building, armed individuals inside
5:02 — The Ukrainian Interior Ministry is reporting that more than 100 members of the National Guard have surrounded the Mariupol city council building to prevent an outbreak of separatist violence, which has erupted in other parts of eastern Ukraine.
The Interior Ministry’s press service reports that at about 3 a.m. on April 24, 20 people entered the city council building and demanded that the protesters vacate the premises immediately.
A clash then erupted between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters. Law enforcement officers soon arrived at the scene and were able to stop the conflict.
Interfax Ukraine is reporting that 5 people were injured in the violence
Currently, ten armed separatists are occupying the building. — Isaac Webb
Russian Defense Minister: Russia to begin military drills on Ukrainian border in response to violence in eastern Ukraine
4:32 p.m. — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on April 24 that the violence stemming from Ukraine’s anti-terror operation in eastern Ukraine has prompted Russia to launch military drills in western Russia.
“The forces are clearly unequal,” Shoigu said at a ministerial collegium meeting.
“If this military machine is not stopped today, it will lead to a large number of dead and wounded,” he continued.
“The announcement of the drills of NATO troops in Poland and the Baltic States” is only worsening the situation, said the Defense Minister.
“We have to react to such developments. As of today, our battalion tactical combined-arms groups from the southern and western military districts have begun drills in areas bordering Ukraine. The troops will practice marches and tactical deployment…as necessary. Additionally, our aviation units will perform flights to practice operations near our national border,” he said. — Isaac Webb
Video: Russian tanks, APCs, trucks mobilizing 10 kilometers from eastern border
4:15 – Citizen journalists purportedly located in Novoshakhtinsk, a Russian city 10 kilometers from Ukraine’s eastern border in Rostov Oblast, shot footage of Russian military mobilizing. Columns of armored personnel carriers, artillery weapons, tanks and trucks, presumably transporting Russian soldiers are seen driving in the city’s main highway. – Mark Rachkevych
Anti-terror operation temporarily halted, government reformulating plan
16:00 p.m. – The original plan for Sloviansk today was to recapture the town from separatists, including all government buildings they had taken over, a senior security official told the Kyiv Post. The operation, however, has been halted for the moment as the government is reformulating the plan based on their latest intelligence from the eastern border, the official said.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, the risk of Russian troops crossing the border has increased dramatically, according to a senior security official in the government. The government also confirms that there are seven people dead as a result of the operation. “The separatists are panicking,” the official said.
Meanwhile, AFP and Russia Today, citing the Russian defense ministry, report that Moscow has ordered new military exercises to be conducted on its border with Ukraine. — Katya Gorchinskaya, Christopher J. Miller
Civil war has started, says leader of Donetsk People’s Republic
15:10 p.m. – According to Interfax Ukraine, the leaders of the Donetsk People’s Republic have announced a general mobilization of separatist forces in eastern Ukraine in response to the anti-terror operation that Ukrainian authorities launched outside the city of Sloviansk on April 24.
The leadership of the self-proclaimed republic told Interfax that “a combined arms operation has been launched in Sloviansk. This means only one thing: a civil war.” — Isaac Webb
SBU releases Russian
military chatter over killing of Horlivka lawmaker (VIDEO)
2:30 p.m. –
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has released a YouTube video it says implicates
high-ranking Russian Military Intelligence officers in the April 17 abduction
and subsequent killing of Horlivka City Councilman Volodymyr Rybak.
Rybak that day tried raising the Ukrainian national flag
atop the local legislature building. His dead body was found in a river near
Sloviansk – 65 kilometers from Horlivka – on April 19, along with an
unidentified corpse. An Interior Ministry criminal investigator said his body
had signs of torture and his belly was ripped open.
The first part of the video allegedly shows a recording of
Russian Military Intelligence Lieutenant Colonel Igor Bezlier ordering a
subordinate to abduct Rybak, tie his hands and blindfold him while driving him
away to a remote place so that he could rendezvous with the captors.
In the second part of the recording, Russian Military
Intelligence Colonel Igor Strelkov – who the SBU says is coordinating the
Kremlin-backed separatist movement in eastern Ukraine – calls Vyacheslav
Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk, “to come and pick up (Rybak’s)
body because it is starting to stink.”
In response, Ponomaryov complies, and says he will come to
take and “bury the punk.” – Mark
Rachkevych
Putin calls Ukraine’s anti-terror operation “a serious crime against its people”
Speaking at a Media Forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that “If today’s regime in Kiev has actually begun using its army against civilians within the country, then that, without a doubt, is a serious crime against its people,” according to Voice of Russia, a Russian state-controlled news website.
He said that the use of force against Ukrainians is “very serious” and will have “consequences.” — Isaac Webb
Interior Ministry urges people in Sloviansk not to leave their homes
1:40 p.m. — The Ukrainian Interior Ministry has released a statement telling people in the beseiged city of Sloviansk not to leave their homes as the military’s anti-terror operation continues in northern Donetsk Oblast.
The statement requests that parents “do not let unattended children in the streets,” and encourages citizens “not to succumb to provocations and not to carry out the criminal orders of representatives of the self-proclaimed government.”
Ukrainian forces distributed leaflets to residents of Sloviansk encouraging them to remain peaceful.
The Ministry has reported on its website that the “self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk Ponomarev” announced that anyone seen with the leaflet will be “shot on the spot.” — Isaac Webb
Five killed, one wounded as Ukrainian troops descend on Sloviansk
1:16 p.m. — Ukrainian troops have taken control of three checkpoints surrounding the city of Sloviansk in northern Donetsk Oblast.
According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, five insurgents have been killed and one police officer has been wounded in the attack.
In the video below, a Ukrainian tank passes through a checkpoint on the road to Sloviansk.
The barricades at the checkpoints have been set on fire, and large plumes of smoke can be seen billowing over the city.
In this video, Ukrainian troops are seen at a checkpoint:
Ukrainian helicopters have been spotted flying over the city.
The Interior Ministry is requesting that people do not leave their homes. — Isaac Webb
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