Ukraine claims murder plot to start Russian invasion

Ukrainian soldiers sit on an armoured personnel carrier in Kramatorsk. Picture: Reuters

The reports apparently came from intercepted communications between Russians operating in areas of eastern Ukraine that are now the scenes of tense stand-offs between armed “pro-Russian” demonstrators and Ukraine’s armed forces.

“We have intercepted and documented conversations saying that you have to kill between 100 and 200 people, and then in 1½ hours you will have the tanks of the Russian army on Ukrainian territory,” Vitaliy Najda, a senior officer in the SBU, Ukraine’s counter-intelligence service, told a Polish television channel.

“We regret that a country that has declared its friendship has deployed its special forces with the goal of causing bloodshed on our streets,” the officer added. “The main objectives of the saboteurs and special forces is the maximum destabilisation of the situation.”

There was also speculation Russian troops may have been involved in the seizure of a number of Ukrainian armoured vehicles. They were seen parading down a street in the eastern town of Slovyansk, with uniformed troops sitting on them, and flying the Russian flag.

The SBU claims will reinforce suspicions that Russian forces are on the ground in Ukraine despite Moscow denying a number of times that it has troops in its neighbouring state.

In a blunt attack, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine’s acting prime minister, accused Russia of orchestrating the unrest.

“Russia has got a new export now, apart from oil and gas: Russia is now exporting terrorism to Ukraine,” Mr Yatsenyuk told a cabinet meeting.

“Russia must withdraw its sabotage groups, condemn terrorists and liberate all administrative buildings,” he said, adding that Moscow was intent on building a new Berlin Wall in Europe.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague accused Russia of sending “thinly disguised” armed groups into eastern Ukraine, while the US State Department has said that the seizure of buildings and facilities across Ukraine could only have been carried out with the direct involvement of Russian forces.

“In eastern Ukraine, Russia is now using the same tactics that it used in Crimea in order to foment separatism, undermine Ukrainian sovereignty, and exercise control over its neighbour in contravention of Russia’s obligations under international law,” the state department said.

A number of incidents may now appear to back up the claims of Russian military involvement.

In one case, a Russian radio station interviewing one of the commanders of a group of people who seized a building in Donetsk presumed he was from the town only for him to correct him by saying that he was from a town in Russia. He was in Ukraine, he explained, “helping my brothers assert their rights”.

A YouTube video has also surfaced apparently showing a man in uniform calling himself a Russian officer during a parade of police in the town of Gorlovka in eastern Ukraine.

Many have also pointed to the uniforms and high-level of military equipment carried by some of the pro-Russian demonstrators as evidence of Russian military involvement.

“The repeated appearance of persons with Russian weapons and wearing identical uniforms without identifying markings, which Russian troops wore during the illegal takeover of Crimea, is very convincing evidence,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary-general of Nato, in the Ukrainian press.