Pro-Russians blast Kiev 'bandits'

The outburst of pro-Russian sentiment in the strategic peninsula on the Black Sea, home to a Russian naval base, came amid fears of economic collapse for Ukraine as the fractious foes of President Viktor Yanukovych failed to reach agreement on forming a new national government and said the task of assigning posts could not be completed before tomorrow.

While Ukraine’s politicians struggled to reorganise themselves in Kiev, a Russian flag replaced the Ukrainian flag in front of the city council building in Sevastopol, 500 miles to the south. An armoured personnel carrier and two trucks full of Russian troops made a rare appearance on the streets, vividly demonstrating Russian power in the port city where the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet is based.

Some called on Moscow to protect them from the movement that drove Mr Yanukovych from the capital three days ago.

“Bandits have come to power,” complained Vyacheslav Tokarev, a 39-year-old building worker.

“I’m ready to take arms to fight the fascists who have seized power in Kiev.”

Mr Yanukovych’s whereabouts are unknown but he was reportedly last seen in the Crimea, the staunchly pro-Russian region the size of Massachusetts. An arrest warrant for him has been issued over the killing of 82 people, mainly protesters, last week in the bloodiest violence in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history.

His former chief of staff, Andriy Klyuyev, was wounded by gunfire on Monday and taken to hospital.

The pro-Moscow protesters gathered for a third day in front of administrative buildings in Sevastopol and in other Crimean cities. Protesters on Sunday numbered in the thousands.

“Only Russia will be able to protect the Crimea,” said Anatoly Mareta, wearing the colours of the Russian flag on his arm.

“I hope for the Ossetian way,” he added – a reference to the brief but fierce 2008 war in which Russian tanks and troops helped Georgia’s separatist provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to break free. Russia has recognised both as independence states, but few other nations have.

Russia, which has thousands of Black Sea Fleet seamen at its base, so far has refrained from any sharp moves in Ukraine’s political turmoil, but could be drawn into the fray if there are confrontations between the population in Crimea and the supporters of the new authorities.

US secretary of state John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in Washington that their countries opposed any attempt to partition or divide the former Soviet republic into pro-Western and pro-Russian territories.

A senior Russian MP promised protesters that his government would protect its Russian-speaking compatriots in the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine that tilt heavily towards Moscow.

“If lives and health of our compatriots are in danger, we won’t stay aside,” Leonid Slutsky told activists in Simferopol, the regional capital of Crimea.

Mr Slutsky’s statements followed more cautious remarks by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who said that Moscow had no intention of interfering in Ukraine’s domestic affairs but also warned the West against trying to turn the situation there to its advantage.

He nevertheless criticised the new authorities who assumed control after Mr Yanukovych fled, accusing them of failure to rein in radical groups.

Ukraine’s interim leader, Oleksandr Turchinov, met security chiefs yesterday to discuss the tensions in Crimea and elsewhere. Russian president Vladimir Putin also summoned his top security officials to discuss Ukraine, but no details were released.

Many in Russia have been dreaming about regaining the lush Crimean peninsula, which was conquered by Russia in the 18th century under Catherine the Great. Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred jurisdiction from Russia. The move was a formality until the 1991 Soviet collapse meant Crimea landed in an independent Ukraine.

Ethnic Russians make up the majority of Crimea’s population, and some, including retired navy officers and their families, have Russian citizenship. The peninsula’s nearly two million people includes 60% Russian speakers, as well as 12% who are Crimean Tatars, a minority group deported and persecuted in Soviet times, leaving them with little love for Russia.

Refat Chubarov, the head of the Tatar community, says the Tatars wanted new elections to the regional parliament and to remove any monuments to Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin.

At the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev, MPs delayed the formation of a new government until tomorrow, reflecting the political and economic challenges the country faces after Mr Yanukovych went into hiding.

Mr Turchinov is now nominally in charge of the strategic country of 46 million whose ailing economy faces a possible default and whose loyalties are sharply torn between Europe and long-time ruler Russia.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Ukraine’s new government to quickly work out an economic reform programme so the West could consider financial aid to keep Ukraine from bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, the Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based association of banks and financial companies, warned that Ukraine’s finances “are on the verge of collapse”.

Ukraine is battling to keep its currency, the hryvnia, from collapsing. Its acting finance minister says the country needs $35bn (€25bn) to finance government needs for this year and 2015.

After meeting interim authorities in Kiev, Baroness Ashton urged the new government not to exclude members of Mr Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. “It needs to be inclusive,” she said.

Protests in Ukraine erupted in November after Mr Yanukovych abruptly rejected an agreement to strengthen ties with the European Union and instead sought a bail-out loan from Moscow. But they grew into a massive movement demanding an end to corruption and greater human rights.