Armed clashes in east as Ukraine counts down to election

Armed pro-Russian separatists and a Ukrainian militia group clashed in the east of Ukraine today, leaving at least two dead and heightening tension before a presidential election called to draw a line under six months of bloody upheaval.

Kiev's pro-Western leaders hope Sunday's poll will stabilise the former Soviet republic after street protests toppled Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich and pro-Russian separatists responded by seizing Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine.

European leaders will consider steps against Russia on Tuesday if they decide Moscow has hampered the election, ranging from restrictions on luxury goods imports to an oil and gas ban, although some are wary due to close trade ties.

The Ukrainian authorities have promised a suspension of anti-separatist operations on the day of the election, billed as the most important in 23 years of independence from Moscow, but today’s clash suggested violence may mar the event.

A Reuters correspondent saw two dead bodies after the three- hour fire-fight in the morning between Ukrainian self-defence fighters and separatists manning a checkpoint in a rural location west of the big industrial city of Donetsk.

The pro-Kiev fighters issued a Facebook statement late in the day saying four of their men were killed and nine wounded. Allied to Ukrainian billionaire Igor Kolomoisky, they are at the forefront of Kiev's efforts to prevent the country splitting.

"We are determined that honest and transparent elections will take place," interim prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk declared in talks with two European Union foreign ministers as the bloc's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton voiced support for Kiev and its election.

Mr Yatseniuk added that, despite separatist plans to disrupt the poll in eastern areas they control, he believed the majority of people there opposed the “terrorists” and condemned their actions.

But Russia's president Vladimir Putin, speaking in St Petersburg, said Ukraine was already in effect in the grip of civil war. "A civil war is raging through Ukraine. But why are we the ones who are being blamed for this?" he asked at an international business forum.

After Mr Yanukovich’s overthrow in February, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region and stationed thousands of troops in combat readiness near the border with Ukraine as armed pro-Russian rebels took over strategic buildings in the east.

It looks askance at Kiev's leaders and their pro-Europe policies, which could take the former Soviet republic out of Moscow's orbit and denies Kiev's charges that it has fomented the separatist rebellions in the Russian-speaking eastern areas.

Today, Moscow said it would pull back all forces from its border with Ukraine “within a few days”, a move that, if carried out, could ease tensions around the election.

Big observer team

While Germany's Angela Merkel appealed to Russia to accept the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) verdict on the vote, Mr Putin sent mixed messages, saying he would work with the winner and wanted better ties with the West but fiercely criticising US policy on Ukraine.

The OSCE watchdog has sent a team of more than 1,000 observers to monitor an election in which Ukraine’s leaders say they expect a huge turnout that will offset the loss of voters in annexed Crimea and separatist-controlled parts of the east.

The man tipped to win, confectionery magnate Petro Poroshenko, has urged voters to hand him an outright victory, suggesting that Ukraine's deteriorating security situation might otherwise derail the election before a second round can be held.

If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote on Sunday, a run-off will be held on June 15th, in all likelihood pitting Mr Poroshenko against ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The fierce firefight in the eastern Ukraine settlement of Karlovka underlined the fragility of the security situation.

“The main threat to the elections is the illegal carrying of weapons and the moving around of people. We do not see an end to this illegal activity,” state security chief Valentyn Nalivaychenko told journalists.

Underlining the logistical challenges of staging this poll, Konstantin Hivrenko of Ukraine's Central Election Commission said voters from five of 12 electoral districts in Donetsk now blocked by separatists would instead be able to travel to the city airport to cast their ballots as security there was good.

Today’s clash, which came a day after at least 13 Ukrainian servicemen were killed in another fire-fight, did not involve the army but instead two among several armed groups operating under various flags in the east.

Pro-Russian separatists, calling themselves the “Patriotic forces of Donbass”, were manning a checkpoint, one of many set up by the rebels who have proclaimed two “people’s republics”.

They clashed with self-defence fighters from a pro-Ukrainian militia called the Donbass battalion.

It was unclear who attacked first. But the fire-fight, in which the pro-Ukrainian militia said separatists used grenade launchers and machine guns, lasted more than three hours, local residents said.

Reuters