Signs of Moscow involvement in Ukraine violence: Washington

WASHINGTON/SLAVYANSK, Ukraine: Attacks on police and security service buildings in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian gunmen bore “tell-tale signs of Moscow’s involvement,” the US envoy to the United Nations said Sunday.
Speaking on ABC television’s “This Week” program, Ambassador Samantha Power dismissed suggestions that the attacks, which have triggered gun battles with Ukrainian special forces, were the work of grass-roots militia groups.
“It’s professional, coordinated. Nothing grassroots about it,” Power said.
“The forces are doing in each of the six or seven cities they have been active in exactly the same thing. So, certainly, it bears the tell-tale signs of Moscow’s involvement.” Kiev said Sunday that several had been left “dead and wounded” in fighting to oust pro-Russian gunmen holed up in a police station in the restive east, as Washington warned Moscow to de-escalate the crisis or face the consequences.
Ukrainian security forces launched an operation on Sunday to clear pro-Russian separatists from a police headquarters in the eastern city of Slaviansk, with Kiev reporting dead on both sides as it combats what it calls an act of aggression by Moscow.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said both sides had suffered casualties in the offensive that threatens to further escalate tensions with Russia, which has 40,000 troops massed on Ukraine’s eastern border and has warned Kiev against the use of force.
Ukraine faces a rash of rebellions in the east which it says are inspired and directed by the Kremlin. But action to dislodge the armed militants risks tipping the stand-off into a new, dangerous phase as Moscow has warned it will protect the region’s Russian-speakers if they come under attack.
“There are dead and wounded on both sides,” Avakov wrote on his Facebook page.
“On our side, an SBU (Ukrainian Security Service) officer. On the side of the separatists, an unidentified number... The separatists have started to protect themselves using human shields.”
The West has expressed alarm that Russia is deliberately stoking tension in the heavily Russified east in order to justify a Crimea-style invasion.
In Washington, the White House expressed concern that the seizures of public buildings in eastern Ukraine could be a prelude to a Russian military incursion, though Moscow has strenuously denied any such intention.
“We call on President (Vladimir) Putin and his government to cease all efforts to destabilize Ukraine, and we caution against further military intervention,” said Laura Lucas Magnuson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.