Anti-terrorist campaign takes a different tack

In Kharkiv Oblast, especially around the city of
Kharkiv, they have begun inspecting more vehicles entering the region
for weapons, ammunition and explosives, while in Donetsk Oblast
security forces were creating a cordon between the civilian
population and the separatists, the State Security Service
spokeswoman said. There was no mention of a renewed offensive in the
anti-terrorist campaign.

“Slavyansk
remains the hottest point in the region,” SBU press officer Maryna
Ostapenko said. “However, we have conducted several meetings today
with the separatists.” No confrontations were reported overnight,
but the situation remains tense and uncertain.

Talks
were also held with militants in Mariupol, which produced no results.
The SBU mentioned that amongst their demands, the separatists wanted
the abolition of biometric passports, which the last Ukrainian
government introduced in 2013, and an end to vaccinations.

The
leadership of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic rejected the
agreement made during the four-party talks in Geneva on April 17,
whereby the separatists would lay down their weapons in exchange for
amnesty, local media reported.

In
addition, the security services are strengthening the border with
Russia by adding a second line of inspection at the border control
points. “To date, we have refused entry to over 13,000 men and
women of Russian citizenship,” Ostapenko stated. “However, there
is no truth to the rumors that either the Ukrainian or the Russia
side has closed the border.”

The
SBU also denied rumors that separatists had seized the small city of
Izium in southern Kharkiv Oblast and that the 25th
Dnipropetrovsk Parachute brigade, which had been sent to retake the
Kramatorsk airfield, had given their weapons to local citizens when
it abandoned its operation on April 17. “During negotiations
between the commander and locals,” Ostapenko explained, “the
commander agreed that they would not shoot, and to guarantee this he
had his men remove the bolts from their rifles, which he then
collected.”

On
April 16 acting President Oleksandr Turchynov ordered the 25th
Dnipropetrovsk Parachute brigade to undertake an anti-terrorist
operation against pro-Russia separatists holding the airfield at
Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast.

It
seems as though the infiltration groups organized by Russia have yet
to receive the message about deescalating the conflict in eastern
Ukraine in accordance with the Geneva agreement between Ukraine,
Russia, EU and U.S. on April 17, as the Security Service of Ukraine
continues to detain people entering the country with large amounts of
money and military gear. Late on April 17 at the Melitopol railway
station security personnel found hidden in a sacks of dirty laundry
245 rounds of ammunition of various calibers and explosive
substances. In Odessa Oblast the State Border Service seized three
boxes of hand grenades and fuses from a bus at the Slovyanoserbsk
border point near Tiraspol, the capital of the Transnistria Republic,
while at the Ukraine-Crimea border law enforcement stopped a postal
truck on its way to Kharkiv carrying ten bulletproof vests.

Kyiv
Post business journalist Evan Ostryzniuk can be reached at
ostryzniuk@kyivpost.com.