Russia issues warning after fatal clashes in Ukraine city of Donetsk
Moscow declares right to 'protect compatriots' and accuses Kiev over violence between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protesters
Police stand between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian crowds on Thursday in Donetsk. A 22-year-old man was stabbed to death during clashes later on. Photograph: Alexander Khudoteply/AFP/Getty Images
Friday 14 March 2014
Russia said on Friday it reserved the right to protect compatriots in eastern Ukraine after clashes in the city of Donetsk in which one person was killed.
Russia's foreign ministry said the violence in the industrial city, where many people speak Russian, showed the Ukrainian authorities had lost control.
A 22-year-old man was stabbed to death during clashes between pro-Russian protesters and supporters of the new government in Kiev who denounce the seizure of Ukraine's southern region of Crimea by Russian forces.
"Russia is aware of its responsibility for the lives of compatriots and fellow citizens in Ukraine and reserves the right to take people under its protection," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Implying the pro-Russian protesters were not to blame, the ministry said peaceful protesters had been attacked by rightwing groups armed with pneumatic guns and batons who arrived from other parts of Ukraine.
Witnesses, however, said the pro-Russian demonstrators threw eggs, smoke bombs and other missiles and broke through a police cordon, attacking their opponents with batons.
The death was the first reported in recent Ukrainian violence outside the capital, Kiev. Police detained four people accused of fomenting the violence.
The rightwing party Svoboda, hostile to Russian policy, said the dead man was one of its local activists.
Donetsk, a city of one million people, was calm on Friday morning.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of supporting groups in the Donetsk region which favour Kremlin rule and sending militants across the border.
The Kremlin says its intervention in favour of ethnic Russians in Crimea was prompted by the removal of the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich in what Moscow describes as a coup staged by right-wing nationalists.
The Duma, Russia's parliament, has given Vladimir Putin the right to use the armed forces to protect Russians in Ukraine if necessary.
