Putin marks Victory in Crimea as Ukraine violence flares

A man holds a flag, which reads 'Lugansk Republic', during celebrations to mark Victory Day in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk May 9, 2014.

(Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin flew in to Crimea on Friday for the first time since it was annexed by Moscow, proclaiming as he marked the Soviet victory in World War Two that incorporating the former Ukrainian territory had made Russia stronger.
In east Ukraine, where pro-Moscow rebels plan a referendum on Sunday to follow Crimea in breaking from Kiev, at least seven people were killed and dozens were wounded in chaotic fighting in the center of the port of Mariupol.
One of the most serious clashes yet between Ukrainian forces and separatists, it edged the former Soviet republic closer to civil war.
The head of NATO, locked in its gravest confrontation with Russia since the Cold War, condemned Putin's visit to Crimea, whose annexation in March has not been recognized by Western powers. He also renewed doubts over an assurance by the Kremlin leader that he had pulled back troops from the Ukrainian border.
The pro-Western government in Kiev, labeled "fascist" by Moscow, said Putin's visit was intended to escalate the crisis.
Watching a military parade in Sevastopol on the Black Sea, Putin said: "There is a lot of work ahead but we will overcome all difficulties because we are together, which means we have become stronger."
Earlier in the day, he had presided over the biggest Victory Day parade in Moscow for years. The passing tanks, aircraft and intercontinental ballistic missiles were a reminder to the world - and Russian voters - of Putin's determination to revive Moscow's global power, 23 years after the Soviet collapse.
"The iron will of the Soviet people, their fearlessness and stamina saved Europe from slavery," Putin said in a speech to the military and war veterans gathered on Red Square.
The United States said the trip to Crimea was provocative, the European Union said Putin should not have used the World War Two commemoration to showcase the annexation and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called the visit "inappropriate".
The head of the U.S.-led defense pact was speaking in formerly Soviet Estonia, one of a host of east European nations that joined after the collapse of communism, seeking refuge from the power of Moscow, which many in the region regarded as having enslaved them following its victory in World War Two.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, in office since an uprising overthrew the Kremlin-backed elected president in Kiev in February, rejects Russian allegations that his power is the result of coup backed by neo-Nazi Ukrainian nationalists.
"Sixty-nine years ago, we, together with Russia, fought against fascism and won," he said after a Victory Day church service in the capital. Now, he added, "history is repeating itself but in a different form".
Where Russia and Ukraine stood shoulder to shoulder in the past against Germany, now Germany was "standing shoulder to shoulder with us", along with the United States and Britain.
Ukraine's SBU security service accused Russian saboteurs of setting a fire that briefly disrupted state broadcasts.
FIGHTING, BLAZE
In Mariupol, eastern Ukraine's main port on the Sea of Azov, regional authorities said seven people had been killed and 39 wounded in the course of an "anti-terrorist operation" - the term Kiev uses for its fight against the separatists.
Journalist Tetyana Ignatchenko said there was fierce fighting outside the police headquarters and video showed armored cars smashing barricades and soldiers exchanging fire with a gunman on the street while crowds milled around.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said about 20 "terrorists" were killed when pro-Russian militants tried to seize the city's police headquarters. A figure he gave earlier this week of 30 rebel dead in another city was not confirmed.
A member of Ukraine's parliament, Oleh Lyashko, gave a different account of Friday's events, saying eight rebels had been killed in clashes when Ukrainian forces attacked Mariupol's police headquarters to try to drive out pro-Russian militants.
A local photographer in Mariupol told Reuters the building was ablaze and that two bodies were lying in the street outside.
"One of them is definitely a police officer," he said.
Ukrainian forces later withdrew from the town, a major industrial center with a population of about half a million.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a telephone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday that Moscow hoped Washington would work with Kiev to end Ukraine's military operation against the separatists.
CRIMEAN DELIGHT
In Sevastopol, where Russia's Black Sea Fleet previously had to lease its base from Ukraine, servicemen and veterans marched in a parade before Putin's arrival that also included armored vehicles and anti-aircraft missiles. Banners read "Sevastopol without Fascists" and "It's our duty to remember".
"I'm here to prevent any provocations from the fascists. I served in a self-defense unit during March, and I consider it my duty to be here," said Natalya Malyarchuk, 52.
The ethnic Russian majority among Crimea's two million population broadly welcomed the Russian takeover that came in the wake of the Kiev uprising. Given by Soviet leaders to Ukraine only in the 1950s, many Russians long saw it as rightfully theirs. Western powers have imposed sanctions against Russia in response, but reactions have been muted.
Moscow says it has no direct control over the armed rebels in eastern Ukraine running Sunday's referendum on secession from Kiev for the mainly Russian-speaking region.
The European Union is likely to strengthen its targeted sanctions against Russia on Monday, Janusz Lewandowski, a member of the EU's governing commission, said on Friday. Diplomats said they would target about 15 people and several Crimean branches of Ukrainian companies taken over by Russians.
While Putin's redrawing of European borders has sparked great alarm across the continent, U.S. and European leaders are concerned not to harm their own economies by isolating Moscow.
And there is little popular support in the West for an armed conflict with Russia on behalf of Ukraine, a country that is not a member of NATO and where successive leaders have left a legacy of corruption, poverty and feeble state institutions.
In Sevastopol, factory worker Vasily Topol, 31, wearing a white T-shirt with an image of Putin in sunglasses and the words "Russia's Army", said life was better since Crimea became Russian.
"We have the greatest admiration for Putin, we are morally and materially better off since Crimea became part of Russia," he said, speaking on an embankment overlooking Russian warships.
EASTERN PARADE
In Slaviansk, the military stronghold of the separatists in eastern Ukraine, separatist "people's mayor" Vyacheslav Ponomaryov and a guard of militiamen led a march of around 2,000 people to lay flowers at a memorial to the World War Two dead.
Veteran Anatoly Strizhakov said: "Look at all these people - the children, the women, the pensioners... Today shows we've got the spirit to stand up to whatever the Ukrainians are planning."
Ponomaryov, who fired a pistol three times in the air during the ceremony, reassured people it would be safe to vote on Sunday. Voters in the two regions, with a combined population of over 6 million, will be asked to vote Yes to the secession of self-styled "People's Republics" in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Opinion polls in recent months have indicated that support for such a move is far from solid and it is unclear how many people will actually take part in voting. A referendum in Crimea in March, which many boycotted, backed secession by 97 percent.
(Additional reporting by Nigel Stephenson and Katya Golubkova in Moscow, David Mardiste in Tallinn, Ralph Boulton, Pavel Polityuk, Aleksandar Vasovic and Elizabeth Piper in Kiev and Alessandra Prentice in Slaviansk; Writing by Alastair Macdonald and Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Ukraine rebels ignore Putin call to delay self-rule vote

Reuters) -

Pro-Russian separatist leaders hold a news conference inside a regional government building in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine May 8, 2014

Pro-Russian separatist leaders hold a news conference inside a regional government building in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine May 8, 2014

Russians and Ukrainians living in Greece hold Ukrainian and Russian national flags during a protest outside the European Union office in Athens May 6, 2014. REUTERS-Alkis Konstantinidis

 Pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine ignored a public call by Russian President Vladimir Putin to postpone a referendum on self-rule, declaring they would go ahead on Sunday with a vote that could lead to war.
The decision, which contradicted the conciliatory tone set by Putin just a day earlier, caused consternation in the West, which fears the referendum will tear Ukraine apart.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said Russia was heading down a "dangerous and irresponsible path" and the situation in Ukraine was "extremely combustible".
Denis Pushilin, a leader of the self-declared separatist Donetsk People's Republic, expressed gratitude to Putin but said the "People's Council" had voted unanimously on Thursday to hold the plebiscite as planned.
"Civil war has already begun," he told reporters. "The referendum can put a stop to it and start a political process." A man holding a Kalashnikov stood behind him.
Political analysts said Putin may have expected the rebels to go ahead with the referendum, showing that they were not under his orders. By distancing himself from a process that will not be recognized by the West, Putin may also hope to avoid further sanctions as earlier measures begin hitting the economy.
His spokesman said the Kremlin needed more information about the rebels' decision. He also said the rebel statement came only after the Western-backed government in Kiev had declared it would press on with its military operation, implying that Ukraine was to blame for the rebels' refusal to heed Putin.
Russian financial markets sank after surging on Wednesday when Putin unexpectedly called for the vote to be delayed and declared that troops were withdrawing from Ukraine's border.
NO SIGN
NATO and the United States both said they saw no sign of a Russian withdrawal from the frontier.
When NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen tweeted as much, the Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted back that "those with a blind eye" should read Putin's statement.
NATO has accused Moscow of using special forces in the separatist takeover of mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine after annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March.
Putin acknowledged his troops were active in Crimea after initially denying any role there but says they are not involved in eastern Ukraine, a densely populated steel and coal belt responsible for roughly a third of Ukraine's industrial output.
About 40 armed men attacked a Ukrainian border post on the Russian frontier on Thursday and tried to seize it, but were beaten off by Ukrainian forces, the border guard in Kiev said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Putin's conciliatory remarks made him suspect Moscow was planning some form of "skirmish" to discredit Kiev when the country celebrates Victory Day on Friday.
Ukraine had tightened security for the May 9 anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, Yatseniuk said.
Russian state TV has portrayed Ukraine'e pro-Western government as fascists, and Yatseniuk said he feared Moscow would stage an incident involving veterans who fought with the Soviet army in defeating the Nazis.
"There is no doubt about this ... and Russian television will show footage of rampant nationalists beating up veterans. Russian propaganda," he told "Fifth Channel" television, quoted by Interfax-Ukraine.
Putin's call to delay the referendum, followed so quickly by the rebel decision to go ahead with it, have complicated U.S. and European efforts to agree a common policy that might lead to tighter economic sanctions on Russia.
The European Union said shortly before the referendum announcement that the plebiscite "would have no democratic legitimacy and could only further worsen the situation".
The EU has laid the groundwork for possible sanctions against Russian companies, including energy giants, over Ukraine and diplomats said they could decide which on Monday, but that, if any, they would only be those linked to Crimea.
Last month's U.S. and Canadian sanctions were tougher than the EU's and Moscow said on Thursday it had retaliated by expanding the list of U.S. and Canadian officials barred from Russia but would not give details.
ROUND TABLE
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed by phone on Thursday joint efforts to defuse the crisis, which also involve the EU and OSCE European security organization, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said.
In Washington, the State Department said Kerry had also spoken to Yatseniuk, who proposed with Ukraine's interim president the creation of a "Round Table" to resolve the conflict. This would draw in political forces and civil groups in all regions, with international mediators asked to help.
The mediators took their peace proposals to Kiev on Thursday. The draft "road map", seen by Reuters, takes no direct view on the referendum but said national elections planned by the Kiev leadership for May 25 were vital to stabilizing the country.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said the plan, drawn up by the Swiss chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had "some common ground" with its own proposals.
The referendum has become seen as a vital step by many in Ukraine's industrial east, fired up over what the rebels, and Moscow, call the "fascist" government in Kiev that took over after street protests ousted a pro-Moscow president in February.
"You have no idea how many armed people there are in Donetsk right now," Roman Lyagin, the 33-year-old head of the self-proclaimed republic's election commission, told Reuters at his headquarters behind barricades of tyres and car bumpers in the occupied regional administration in Donetsk.
"There is no man who can move this referendum," he said.
Ballots, printed in Donetsk, have been distributed across the rebel zone, smuggled through Ukrainian army checkpoints. Lyagin says more than three million people are eligible to vote.
Artyom, a rebel at a roadblock in the rebel-held eastern town of Slaviansk, said of the referendum decision: "This is great news. We need to have our say."
GREATER AUTONOMY
While many Russian speakers in Ukraine fear discrimination under the new leadership, the extent of support for the separatists - many of whom say their ultimate aim is to join Russia - is not so clear. Opinion polls say a majority wish to remain in Ukraine, but with a far greater degree of autonomy.
Putin said his call for the vote's postponement would open the way to negotiations on cooling down a crisis that has led to dozens of deaths in clashes between troops and separatists in eastern Ukraine and rival groups in the southern port of Odessa.
On Thursday he again blamed Kiev, saying its "irresponsible politics" had caused the crisis while in the Ukrainian capital, officials said the government would not talk to "terrorists" - their word for the separatists.
Maria Lipman, an expert at the Carnegie Center think-tank in Moscow, said Putin would have known that his request for the referendum to be postponed would be rebuffed.
"But this can be used to show that the people in Ukraine's east are not Russians, take no orders from Russia, that Russia exercises no control over them because they only do what they want to do," she said. "He has also distanced Russia from the referendum, which has a completely unclear status and will not be recognized by the West."
Western leaders have threatened more sanctions if the presidential election on May 25 is disrupted. Putin said on Wednesday it was "a step in the right direction"; on Thursday, Lavrov said the election would be "senseless" if Kiev did not end its military operation against the separatists.
(Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice in Slaviansk, Ralph Boulton in Kiev, Steve Gutterman, Vladimir Soldatkin and Thomas Grove in Moscow, Fredrik Dahl in Vienna, Lionel Laurent in Paris, Adrian Croft in Brussels, David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Giles Elgood and David Stamp)