MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) – The organizers of the Kiev regime’s crackdown on protesters in eastern Ukraine should be made to answer for their “bloody crime,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
“Today, this is just a retaliatory action [special operation], that has already left many victims. Some 160 tanks, 250 infantry fighting vehicles, and other heavy equipment, aviation are fighting their own people. This is a bloody crime, for which those who pushed the army to commit it will answer, I am certain, and they will be brought to justice,” Lavrov said.
While observing events in Ukraine, Western leaders have demanded that Moscow “stop interference into Ukraine’s affairs, draw off troops and withdraw some agents, allegedly caught in the southeast, who command the process,” the foreign minister added.
Kiev has ordered the Ukrainian army to launch a major crackdown on protesters in southeastern Ukraine involving thousands of troops and heavy military equipment, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday.
Reports say up to five civilians were killed or wounded in an army assault on a protester checkpoint in Slaviansk early Thursday.
Federalization supporters in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Gorlovka, Slaviansk and Kramatorsk have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the current Ukrainian government and are urging interim authorities to hold referendums similar to the one held in Crimea last month, which led to the republic's reunification with Russia.
