Ukraine accuses Russia of starting cross border raid

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he speaks during a press conference after the 10th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) on October 17, 2014 in Milan. Ukraine accused Russia of shelling from across the border November 21, 2014. PHOTO | VASILY MAXIMOV |

What you need to know:

  • The US has so far limited its support to non-lethal security assistance but Kiev wants it to go further and offer weapons and ammunition.
  • In Kiev, dozens of people gathered at the iconic Independence Square, known locally as Maidan, laying flowers at shrines to the more than 100 people who died in protests that started on November 21 last year.

KIEV

Ukraine accused Russia of shelling from across the border Friday, stepping up tensions as US Vice-President Joe Biden visited Kiev on the first anniversary of mass protests which triggered a year of turmoil.

On a frantic day of diplomacy, Ukraine’s leaders also announced the formation of a five-party parliamentary coalition involving the groupings of President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and former premier Yulia Tymoshenko.

The coalition will, for the first time, be strong enough to pass amendments to the constitution and comes after elections in October.

Ukraine’s government hopes Biden will use his visit to announce further US assistance for its forces, locked in a drawn-out struggle with pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The US has so far limited its support to non-lethal security assistance but Kiev wants it to go further and offer weapons and ammunition.

TATTERED CEASEFIRE

As Biden met Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk, Kiev claimed that shelling was taking place from across the Russian border for the first time since a tattered ceasefire was signed in September.

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that in the past day, artillery was fired at a border post in Lugansk region from the direction of Manotsky in Russia’s Rostov region.

In Kiev, dozens of people gathered at the iconic Independence Square, known locally as Maidan, laying flowers at shrines to the more than 100 people who died in protests that started on November 21 last year.

Some mourners wept or crossed themselves as they remembered the dead while others said fresh protests were needed to bring real change to Ukraine, where corruption is rife.

SEPARATIST UNREST
Petro Runkiv, a 58-year-old civil engineer, left his wife, children and grandchildren in western Ukraine to join the protests last year.

“Of course, we are disappointed. Nothing changed,” he said. “We need reforms and we are here to let our government know that we are ready for one more Maidan.”

The protests started last year after then president Viktor Yanukovych suddenly scrapped a deal for closer ties with Europe.

They eventually led to his ousting in February which prompted Moscow to seize Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and later triggered separatist unrest in the industrial east which has killed more than 4,300 people since mid-April.

Poroshenko was heckled by relatives of the Maidan dead shouting “Shame!” over authorities’ failure to convict anyone in connection with the deaths when he laid a candle at the shrines Friday.