How separatism was tamed in Kharkiv

 

Ukrainian flags in front of the Kharkiv Oblast State Administration

The pro-Russian movement in Kharkiv is disorganized and blocked, local officials report. There is calm in the city. Leaders of the anti-Maidan, who are currently in hiding, claim the calm is but a temporary phenomenon.

Instead of several thousand people, only several dozen — a hundred at most — get together on a daily basis. Buses no longer arrive in the city from Russian Belgorod or from Crimea or Donbas filled with people used as “extras” in the aggressive crowds that as recently as March and April moved around with no opposition from law enforcement in the center of the city and attempted in various ways to pound the “banderite” idea out of the heads of the supporters of united Ukraine.

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Ukraine’s MIA believes mayor’s attempted assassination part of larger plot

Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes

Plans to destabilize the region are behind the attempted assassination of Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes, said the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Serhiy Yarovyy at a press briefing Monday, April 28.

According to Yarovyy, police are investigating several scenarios for the assassination attempt on Mayor Kernes. One scenario that is being explored is revenge by separatists for recent events in Kharkiv. On April 27, Kharkiv police arrested 13 radical individuals with Molotov cocktails, masks, clubs, containers of explosives and nails. Yarovyy believes the ultimate goal is destabilization of the region.

Butusov: Attempt on Kernes’s life is linked to shift in his political position

FB Post by Yury Butusov

April 28, 2014

No matter how you view [Kharkiv mayor, Hennadiy] Kernes, the attempt on his life is directly linked with the shift in his political position. For me, Kernes epitomized the criminal lawlessness that took place during the revolution, and for this he should by no means be absolved of responsibility. It is shameful that he was appointed in Kharkiv.

However, in the wake of the Russian invasion threat, his position changed drastically. Indeed, it was Kernes who, following negotiations with [governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ihor] Kolomoisky, disbanded the congress of the “First Ukrainian Front,” which was geared at legitimizing the Kremlin-orchestrated split in Ukraine. He and his friend [former governor of Kharkiv Oblast, Mykhailo] Dobkin were among the key figures in the Kremlin’s strategy, and the withdrawal of Kernes from the scheme significantly undermined Russian influence. Kernes should have become a notable player in the pro-Ukrainian movement of authoritative representatives from the south-east region of Ukraine, spanning Kharkiv to Odessa.

The reasons for the assassination attempt on Kernes were as follows:

‘Men in black’, the new defenders of Ukraine, announce mission to liberate Southeastern Ukraine from Russian terrorists

Today a video appeared on Youtube, in which ‘men in black’ sent a message to the world and to Ukrainians from Southeastern Ukraine, as well as proclaimed their hunt for the ‘green men’ [Russian terrorists]:

One of the separatist leaders is arrested in Kharkiv

Monday, April 21, 2014, 20:49

One of the organizers of the pro-Russian rallies in Kharkiv, Kostiantyn Dolhov, was detained and taken into custody for two months, his associates reported to UNIAN.

According to their reports, Dolhov was arrested on April 19 in the city center, then he was taken home while his residence was searched. In the evening of April 19, Dolhov was taken to the Kyivskiy District Court of Kharkiv for arraignment and pretrial detention.

Who needs Russia in Kharkiv?

One more point of view of a Kharkivite

Kharkiv, Svobody Square

All of the facts below are crucial to understand what has been happening these days in Kharkiv. The information is either based on my personal experience, or has been obtained from the witnesses and direct participants of the events.

There are three higher educational institutions in Kharkiv teaching staff for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They are: the Yaroslav Mudry National Law University of Ukraine, with its faculty of training for internal affairs bodies, the University of Internal Affairs, and the Higher Institute of Inner Forces. Because of the exterritorial principle violation, a large proportion of the graduates either lives, or stay in Kharkiv permanently to work. With the teaching staff, students and trainees in mind, the density of the Ministry of Internal Affairs workers is exceptionally high, which is why Kharkiv has been dubbed “the city of cops”.

Euromaidan activists attacked and beaten by police near Kharkiv

Hanna Sinkova, journalist at informator.su

activist Serhiy Bondar before and after meeting Avakov’s cops in the Kharkiv Region.

The first reports are coming in about those activists arrested near Kharkiv or in it.

In particular, these reports to INFORMATOR mention that law enforcement and separatists, armed with automatic rifles, were waiting for them at entrances to the Kharkiv Region on both sides of the road.

Ordinary police made up a majority of the law enforcement personnel, but soldiers from the disbanded Berkut special forces and soldiers from Sokil’ special forces also took part in the arrests. The latter, after breaking bus windows, leapt inside and took activists out onto the road, and then laid them out on the pavement.

Kharkiv residents detain Russian separatist – VIDEO with English subs

Russian separatist detained in Kharkiv claimed he lives in Kharkiv but doesn’t know in the name of the city district where he allegedly lives in Kharkiv! Bad training they have in the ‘Russian tourist’ school.

Updates from Eastern Ukraine, April 8, 2014

Separatists in Luhansk announce the arrival of reinforcements from Crimea

 Liga.Net – April 8, 2014  |  16:03 Kyiv time

The extremists who seized the Luhansk SBU office announced the arrival of reinforcements from Sevastopol and prepared the building for an assault by riot police. Luhansk separatists said that their associates from Sevastopol came to help them, reports local site 0642.

There are several cars with Crimean license plates near the Luhansk SBU office. The building’s invaders behave aggressively and snap threats to journalists. The separatists have also announced the creation of the Parliament of the Luhansk Republic. The extremists have elected themselves as deputies of this ‘Parliament.’  

Ukrainian police started to employ non-lethal bloodless measures to handle separatism in Ukraine

Compiled and translated by Vitalii Usenko

It is essential for the Ukrainian authorities to resort to non-lethal bloodless but effective measures to stop separatists and extremists unrest in Eastern Ukraine. It seems that the authorities are trying to do this, according to the latest news:

Special police unit “Yaguar” liberated Kharkiv Regional Administration without shooting and casualties – UNIAN – April 8, 2014 | 07:55 Kyiv time. Mykola Knyazhytskiy, MP Batkivschyna, informed about this in his FB account quoting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.