Ukraine crisis : Snipers filmed 'shooting at protesters' in Kiev

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

Ukraine crisis : Snipers filmed 'shooting at protesters' in Kiev

Footage emerges purporting to show snipers from the Ukrainian security forces shooting at protesters in Kiev

4:24PM GMT 20 Feb 2014

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Ukraine's brittle truce was left in tatters on Thursday by raging street battles between baton-wielding protesters and riot police that left dozens of people dead as the EU was meeting to consider sanctions.

Bodies of anti-government demonstrators lay amid smouldering debris after masked protesters hurling Molotov cocktails and stones forced gun-toting police from Kiev's Independence Square - the epicentre of the ex-Soviet country's three-month-old crisis.

More than 60 protesters died from gunshot wounds, according to an opposition medic, making it the bloodiest day of violence since Ukraine's independence.

Police fired live ammunition "in self-defence" when protesters threatened them, said the interior ministry, which also accused "radical extremists" of seizing 67 officers.

Footage emerged purporting to show snipers from the Ukrainian security forces shooting at protesters from behind rows of sandbags in Kiev.

Police said a sniper perched on a hotel roof had injured 20 officers with live ammunition fire, while protest leaders accused the city police of being behind the sniper attacks.

Sources:AFP/ Radio Svoboda

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

UPDATE: US Bans Visa Of 20 Ukrainian Officials And Few Other Individuals Citing Human Rights Abuses During Latest Ukrainian Protests That Claimed 26 Lives

At Least 22 More Killed In Fresh Violence Thursday

By Sneha Shankar
on February 20 2014 12:32 AM

Update as of 7:00 a.m.: Britain summoned Ukraine's ambassador to London on Thursday, Reuters reported, after violent clashes resumed for a second day in Kiev, killing at least 22 civilians. "We are calling in the ambassador and calling on him to stop the violence," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to BBC, that Ukrainian "extremists and hardliners are seeking to spark a civil war.” Lavrov had earlier equated the EU’s threat of sanctions to blackmail, Reuters reported, adding that it would only aggravate the confrontation, Reuters reported.

As protests raged on Thursday, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry and the Kiev city-state administration urged people not to travel to the center of the city for security reasons, Interfax-Ukraine, a local news agency reported. The agency also reported that seven dead protesters were lying side by side under white sheets on the marble floor in front of the reception desk of the Ukraine Hotel.

All bridges and gas stations are being closed down by military forces in Ukraine, according to Euromaidan PR, the public relations organization for the resistance. It also reported that President Viktor Yanukovych wanted to introduce an emergency state for the country in which televisions, phones and the Internet may be blocked. The agency estimated Thursday's death toll to be 35.

According to Associated Press, 22 people have been killed so far, taking the casualty total to 50 people over the past two days, including protesters and police troops.

Update as of 5:10 a.m.: The BBC reported, citing a Reuters report that quoted eyewitnesses, that at least 21 civilians were killed near Independence Square on Thursday in fresh clashes between protesters and government forces. Fighting moved from Independence Square to the Ukraine Hotel, where five bodies were reported lying in the reception area, BBC reported. An Al Jazeera report, on the other hand, reported that fighting had intensified at the hotel and 12 bodies were seen in the hotel lobby.

The BBC report added that trains carrying military servicemen were on their way to Kiev. And, in a statement released Thursday, President Viktor Yanukovych reportedly said: "They (the protesters) went on to the offensive. They are working in organised groups. They are using firearms, including sniper rifles. They are shooting to kill."

A joint opposition statement, reportedly posted on the website of Vitali Klitschko, read: "The resumption of clashes on the Maidan (Independence Square) at a time when a truce was called is a planned provocation by the authorities against peaceful protesters."

Ukrainian skier Bogdana Matsotska and her coach and father, Oleg Matsotskiy, pulled out of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in protest against the Ukrainian authorities' use of deadly force, the BBC report said, citing Agence France-Press reports.

The U.S. has imposed a ban on visas aimed at 20 senior Ukrainian officials and a few other individuals, holding them responsible for human rights abuses during violent protests over the past two days, even as President Viktor Yanukovych called for negotiations to stop the bloodshed in the country.

A statement released by the U.S. Department of State said that amid calls for negotiations from several countries including the U.S., and the European Union, or EU, violence still continued on the streets of Ukrainian cities. In response, a senior State Department official announced that the U.S. will "ban visa issuance to some 20 senior members of the Ukrainian Government and other individuals who we considered responsible for, complicit in, or responsible for ordering or otherwise directing human rights abuses related to political repression in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, President Barrack Obama reportedly welcomed the effort by Yanukovych to call a “truce” and defuse the clash.

"The sides announced a truce and the start of a negotiations process aimed at ending the bloodshed (and) stabilising the situation in the country for the benefit of civil peace," Yanukovych reportedly said in a statement after talks, Agence France-Presse reported. However, Yanukovych was seen to be sending mixed signals after he sacked the country's army chief who was backed by the opposition for refusing to attack protesters.

According to the AFP report, the Ukrainian government is facing diplomatic isolation after clashes between local police and protesters left 26 people dead in the last 48 hours.

The state department official, in a call with the media Wednesday, said that the U.S. would continue to collaborate with the EU in the coming days to try and end the violence in Ukraine. Meanwhile, foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and France tried to hold urgent talks with President Yanukovych, before the EU could make a decision about imposing sanctions.

The U.S. official also expressed concerns over Russia's stance after the country announced that it would send Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozing to Kiev on Thursday to “give a corresponding impulse to our (Russia-Ukraine) relations.”

Earlier, Russia had blamed the violence on “extremists (whose) actions can be seen and are seen in Moscow exclusively as an attempted coup d'etat,” prompting a telephone conversation between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a joint solution to the crisis, AFP reported.

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

Poland on standby to receive Ukraine's wounded

Polish prime minister says hospitals in his country are preparing for casualties

Slawomir Neumann, Poland's deputy health minister, said the government was cooperating with the "opposition in Miadan" in making plans to take in Ukrainian wounded Photo: DAVID ROSE

By Matthew Day, Warsaw
5:23PM GMT 20 Feb 2014

Poland is readying hospitals to take in Ukrainians wounded in the street battles of Kiev, the Polish prime minister has confirmed.

Donald Tusk said 11 people injured in clashes in Ukraine had already received treatment in Poland and that military and interior ministry hospitals were being prepared to handle more.

"We have at our disposal a large number of defence and interior ministry hospitals," said the prime minister. "We are preparing them. Anyone seeking aid in Poland will get help."

Slawomir Neumann, Poland's deputy health minister, said the government was cooperating with the "opposition in Miadan" in making plans to take in Ukrainian wounded.

Poland's interior ministry operates 22 hospitals around the country which, operating outside the constraints of the country's stressed national health service, have more flexibility when it comes to handling emergency cases from abroad, although just how many beds they have at their disposal remains unclear.

In addition hospitals in Poland's eastern provinces bordering Ukraine have also declared their willingness to take in Ukrainian injured.

"We have prepared all the infrastructure and logistics for receiving injured people, people in need and people who may want to apply for refugee status," said Malgorzata Chomycz-Smigelska, governor of Poland's Podkarpackie province. The Medical University in the eastern city of Lublin said that it and two other hospitals have about 85 beds ready.

A national association of private hospitals in Poland has also said its members will accept injured from Ukraine for free.

Although it is around 300 miles from Kiev to the Polish border wounded Ukrainians, it appears, are prepared to make the journey, spurred on by the fear of arrest or worse, if they went to a Ukrainian hospital.

"People are not going to public hospitals in Ukraine because there have been cases of the injured being kidnapped from them and tortured," said Father Stefan Batruch, the head of a Polish organisation helping injured Ukrainians.

He added that field hospitals in Ukraine manned by volunteers could only offer rudimentary care in "extreme conditions".

The priest's organisation has already helped one wounded Ukrainian receive treatment in the small eastern town of Leczna, which lies not far from the Ukrainian border, after he lost part of a hand to a grenade explosion during the clashes in Kiev.

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

Ukraine skier, coach quit Games in protest

AFP
February 20, 2014, 8:16 pm

Ukrainian skier Bogdana Matsotska intends to leave the Winter Olympics in response to the violence in her country. Photograph: Graham Dunbar/AP

A Ukrainian alpine skier and her coach have pulled out of the Sochi Games in protest over the authorities' deadly use of force against demonstrators in Kiev.

Bogdana Matsotska and her coach Oleg Matsotskiy, who is also her father, said on Thursday they were outraged by the refusal of President Viktor Yanukovych to favour dialogue.

"In a sign of protest ... against the bandit-like actions against protesters, we are taking no further part in the Sochi Olympics in 2014," Oleg Matsotskiy wrote on his Facebook page in the name of himself and his daughter.

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams confirmed the pair had pulled out of the Games after the violence in Ukraine that has left at least 28 dead.

He said the head of Ukraine's Olympic Committee, former pole vault star Sergey Bubka, understood the decision of any Ukrainian athlete who wanted to leave.

But he added that Bubka thought the "best way is for the team to stay here" to show solidarity with those suffering at home.

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

Three EU ministers meet Ukraine's Yanukovich as clashes rage in Kiev

Reuters
February 20, 2014, 8:43 pm

KIEV (Reuters) - Three European Union foreign ministers were in talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Thursday and have not left the country as previously reported by diplomatic sources, other diplomats said.

"They are meeting him now," one diplomat said.

The three ministers - from Poland, Germany and France - were seeing Yanukovich in efforts to promote a political resolution to the crisis convulsing the country, now in its third month.

But less than two hours before they met, violent clashes broke out in Kiev between protesters and police and at least 15 bodies were seen on or near the city's central Independence Square by a Reuters photographer.

(reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

20 questions: What's behind Ukraine's political crisis?

By Saeed Ahmed. Greg Botelho and Marie-Louise Gumuchian, CNN

February 20, 2014 -- Updated 2126 GMT (0526 HKT)

A high-ranking police officer, left, and a representative for the protesters speak with each other near the Cabinet of Ministers in Kiev on February 20.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Ukraine has been rattled by anti-government protests since November
The trigger then was the President's decision not to sign a trade pact with the EU
Ukraine is split: Some want to align more with the West, others favor Russia
The opposition has also pushed to shift power away from the President

(CNN) -- For three months, they've staked their claim to Kiev's Maidan, or Independence Square, and to Ukraine itself. We will leave only when you pull closer to the European Union, when you change the constitution, when you alter the government's power structure, they have loudly insisted.

But why?

Why have thousands of protesters staked their lives, seemingly, on their desire for political change? And why has the government resisted their calls so vehemently?

Let's take a look:

1. What prompted the protests?

At the heart of the protests is a trade pact. For a year, President Viktor Yanukovych insisted he was intent on signing a historical political and trade agreement with the European Union. But on November 21, he decided to suspend talks with the EU.

2. What would the pact have done?

The deal, the EU's "Eastern Partnership," would have created closer political ties and generated economic growth. It would have opened borders to trade and set the stage for modernization and inclusion, supporters of the pact said.

3. Why did Yanukovych backpedal?

He had his reasons. Chief among them was Russia's opposition to it. Russia threatened its much smaller neighbor with trade sanctions and steep gas bills if Ukraine forged ahead. If Ukraine didn't, and instead joined a Moscow-led Customs Union, it would get deep discounts on natural gas, Russia said.

4. Were there any other reasons?

Yes, a more personal one. Yanukovych also was facing a key EU demand that he was unwilling to meet: Free former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his bitter political opponent. Two years ago, she was found guilty of abuse of office in a Russian gas deal and sentenced to seven years in prison, in a case widely seen as politically motivated. Her supporters say she needs to travel abroad for medical treatment.

5. What happened next?

Many Ukrainians were outraged. They took to the streets, demanding that Yanukovych sign the EU deal. Their numbers swelled. The demonstrations drew parallels to Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, which booted Yanukovych, then a prime minister, from office.

6. Who's heading the opposition?

It's not just one figure, but a coalition. The best known figure is Vitali Klitschko. He's a former world champion boxer (just like his brother Wladimir). Klitschko heads the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms party. But the oppositon bloc goes well beyond Klitschko and the UDAR. There's also Arseniy Yatsenyuk. (More on him later.)

7. How did Yanukovych react?

In a way that inflamed passions further. He flew to Moscow, where he and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia would buy $15 billion in Ukrainian debt and slash the price Kiev pays for its gas. And then, when the demonstrations showed no signs of dying down, he adopted a sweepting anti-protest law.

8. What did the anti-protest law say?

The law barred people from wearing helmets and masks to rallies and from setting up tents or sound equipment without prior police permission. This sparked concerns it could be used to put down demonstrations and deny people the right to free speech -- and clashes soon escalated. The demonstrators took over City Hall for the better part of three months.

9. But wasn't the law repealed?

Yes, ultimately it was. Amid intense pressure, deputies loyal to Yanukovych backtracked and overturned it. But by then, the protests had become about something much bigger: constitutional reform.

10. What change in the constitution did they want to see?

The protesters want to see a change in the government's overall power structure. They feel that too much power rests with Yanukovych and not enough with parliament.

11. What did the government do?

In late January, the President offered a package of concessions under which Yatsenyuk, the opposition leader, would have become the prime minister and, under the President's offer, been able to dismiss the government. He also offered Klitschko the post of deputy prime minister on humanitarian issues. He also agreed to a working group looking at changes to the constitution. But the opposition refused.

12. Why did the opposition pass on the offer?

The concessions weren't enough to satisfy them. They said Yanukovych had hardly loosened his grip on the government, nor had he seemingly reined in authorities' approach to protesters. "We're finishing what we started," Yatsenyuk said.

13. But over the weekend, it seemed things were getting better, weren't they?

Yes. On Sunday, protesters vacated Kiev's City Hall, unblocked a major street and left other government buildings in exchange for the government dropping charges against those arrested. But any breakthrough was a distant memory by Tuesday.

14. Why? What happened Tuesday?

The opposition wanted to introduce amendments in parliament that would have limited the President's powers and restored the constitution to what it was in 2004. But the speaker of parliament refused to allow it. Bloody clashes followed.

15. Who was to blame for the clashes?

Depends on whom you ask. The government pointed the finger at protesters. The opposition, in turn, blamed the government. Regardless, it was the bloodiest day of protests up to that point; 28 people died.

16. Wasn't there a truce called?

Yes, the government and opposition agreed on a truce late Wednesday. But it barely took hold -- and blood was flowing again Thursday.

17. What caused the fresh clashes?

Gunfire erupted Thursday at Maidan, or Independence Square, which has been ground zero for anti-government protesters. At least 20 people died. It's unclear what prompted the gunfire. Again, finger-pointing followed: The government said protesters broke the truce; the protesters said the government did.

18. So, what happens next?

Top international diplomats have been trying to resolve the crisis. There's also been talk of sanctions.

19. Will sanctions help?

Analysts warn there's little that outside pressure could do, especially if the Ukrainian military gets involved on the side of the government.

20. What's the takeaway here?

Street protests that started in November over a trade pact have swelled into something much bigger -- a demand that the President loosen his grip on power and the constitution be changed. As a result, the eastern European country is in the midst of a wave of anti-government protests, the likes of which it hasn't seen in 10 years.

There's something else: Ukraine, the biggest frontier nation separating Russia and the European Union, is something of a pawn between Russia and the West. The EU and the U.S. think Russia wields a lot of influence. Russia denies it.

One open-ended question is how much worse it will all get.

"My own hunch," said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, "is this is going to continue to escalate."

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

Ukraine crisis: Footage emerges of police 'hostages'

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Published on Feb 20, 2014

An amateur video posted online appears to show a number of policemen taken hostage by anti-government protesters in Ukraine.

On Thursday, officials said that 67 police officers had been captured by protesters.

In the unverified video, the unknown cameraman claims to have seen several groups of hostages being marched through the city.

The 'hostages' - wearing blue uniforms with black collars - are seen holding onto each others' shoulders, being kept in a line by men in plain clothes.

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 21, 2014

Ukraine presidency says deal reached on crisis, opposition silent

Tribune wire reports

1:34 a.m. CST, February 21, 2014

KIEV — Ukraine's presidency said on Friday a deal had been reached at all-night talks on resolving the country's crisis after 75 people were killed in two days of the worst violence since Soviet times.

But the opposition did not immediately confirm agreement had been reached and diplomatic sources described the talks brokered by three European Union ministers as "very difficult".

Three hours of fierce fighting on Thursday in Kiev's Independence Square, which was recaptured by protesters demanding President Viktor Yanukovich quit, left the bodies of civilians strewn on the ground close to where talks took place.

A few thousand people were occupying the square on Friday morning but there was no sign of any new violence after Thursday's bloodshed in Kiev, which is caught in a geopolitical tug-of-war between East and West.

Yanukovich's press service said in a statement that agreement had been reached at the talks and added: "The agreement will be signed at midday (1000 GMT)."

The three EU ministers, from Poland, Germany and France, did not immediately comment on the presidency statement

EU officials went into the talks on Thursday hoping a plan for an interim government and early elections could bring peace.

France's foreign minister said late on Thursday there was still no agreement over a proposed road map to ease the crisis, which began in November after Yanukovich spurned a trade deal with the European Union and turned instead towards Moscow.

Shortly before the presidency statement was released, the Standard & Poor's agency lowered Ukraine's credit rating, saying the future of the country's leadership looked more uncertain than at any time since the crisis began. This could affect the delivery of financial aid promised by Russia, it said.

The violence has hit the Ukrainian currency, the cost of insuring the country's debt has risen and a senior general dealt Yanukovich another blow by tendering his resignation over the bloodshed, saying he feared more.

PETROL BOMBS

On Thursday, riot police were captured on video shooting from a rooftop at demonstrators in the central plaza, also known as the Maidan. Protesters hurled petrol bombs and paving stones to drive the security forces off a corner of the square the police had captured in battles that began two days earlier.

The health ministry said 75 people had been killed since Tuesday afternoon, which meant at least 47 died in Thursday's clashes. That was by far the worst violence since Ukraine emerged from the crumbling Soviet Union 22 years ago.

Yanukovich's position was looking increasingly difficult, especially after the resignation of Lieutenant-General Yuri Dumansky, deputy head of the armed forces general staff.

"The armed forces of Ukraine are being drawn into a civil conflict. This could be the cause of a large number of deaths of civilians and servicemen," Dumansky told Channel 5 television. "I have decided to tender my resignation to avoid an escalation and bloodshed."

Standard & Poor's said the political situation in Ukraine had deteriorated substantially and this raised uncertainty about the financial aid promised by Russia under a $15 billion bailout package needed to help Kiev repay huge debts.

The second instalment, of $2 billion, is expected to be paid soon but Moscow has signalled that Yanukovich must first restore order in the country of 46 million to get it.

"We consider that the future of the current Ukrainian leadership is now more uncertain than at any time since the protests began in November 2013," the ratings agency said.

SANCTIONS

The trio of visiting foreign ministers met Yanukovich and the opposition after EU colleagues in Brussels imposed targeted sanctions on Ukraine and threatened more if the authorities failed to restore calm.

In further diplomatic efforts, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in turn discussed Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The White House said Obama and Merkel agreed it was "critical" U.S. and EU leaders "stay in close touch in the days ahead on steps we can take to support an end to the violence and a political solution that is in the best interests of the Ukrainian people". Earlier this month, bugged and leaked diplomatic phone calls exposed EU-U.S. disagreement on Ukraine.

Yanukovich has refused to consider calls to hold an early election, a year before his term is due to end.

In Kiev, demonstrators on Independence Square held a vigil after dark on Thursday for fallen comrades, lit by mobile phone screens held aloft. Medics carried bodies on stretchers through lines of protesters who chanted "Heroes, heroes" to the dead.

Though armed militants on the barricades tend to be from the far-right fringe, the opposition has broad support. But many Ukrainians also fear violence is slipping out of control.

Kiev residents emptied bank machines of cash and stockpiled groceries, with many staying off the streets. In further signs of faltering support for Yanukovich, his hand-picked head of Kiev's city administration quit the ruling party in protest at the bloodshed.

In an indication that Yanukovich is also losing support in parliament, the assembly late on Thursday adopted a resolution urging authorities to stop shooting, withdraw police from the centre of Kiev and end the action against the protesters.

But core loyalists were still talking tough. Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko said on Thursday police had been issued with combat weapons and would use them "in accordance with the law" to defend themselves.

Reuters

ULike2CarryModBalls · Feb 22, 2014

Opposition leaders sign peace deal with Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych

President Yanukovych makes concessions, including a reduction in his powers and early elections, while parliament votes to free Tymoshenko

PUBLISHED : Friday, 21 February, 2014, 6:23pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 22 February, 2014, 3:52am

Reuters in Kiev

Viktor Yanukovych signs the deal to end the dispute. Photo: EPA

Ukraine's opposition leaders signed an EU-mediated peace deal with President Viktor Yanukovych yesterday, aiming to resolve a political crisis in which dozens have been killed and opening the way for an early presidential election this year.

In a fast-moving day that could significantly shift Ukraine's political destiny, the newly empowered parliament also fired the country's despised interior minister and voted to free Yuliya Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who has spent more than two years in jail for what supporters say are politically tainted charges.

Under pressure to quit from mass demonstrations in Kiev, Russian-backed Yanukovych made a series of concessions to his pro-European opponents.

"There are no steps that we should not take to restore peace in Ukraine," the president said. "I announce that I am initiating early elections."

He said Ukraine would revert to a previous constitution under which parliament had greater control over the make-up of the government, including the prime minister.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, one of the EU mediators, said the deal provided for a presidential election this year, although no date had been set. The vote had been due in March 2015.

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Within hours of the signing, the Ukrainian parliament voted to revert to a 2004 constitution that strips the head of state of some of his prerogatives.

The parliament then voted to fire the interior minister, Vitali Zakharchenko, who is widely despised and blamed for ordering police violence. The next order of business was Tymoshenko. Legislators voted 310-54 to decriminalise the count under which she was imprisoned, meaning she is no longer guilty of a criminal offence.

"Free Yuliya! Free Yuliya!" legislators chanted after the vote. It was not clear when she might be released.

Anti-government protesters man a barricade in Kiev. Photo: Reuters

With Ukraine caught in a geopolitical tug-of-war between Russia and the West, at least 77 people have been killed this week in the worst violence since the independent country emerged from the wreckage of the Soviet Union in 1991.

There was a thunderous silence from the Kremlin, where President Vladimir Putin's spokesman declined comment.

Alexei Pushkov, the head of Russia's State Duma foreign affairs committee and a member of Putin's United Russia party, said the accord was positive if it ended the violence.

"But I don't think it resolves any of the core problems which Ukraine is facing: economics, ethnic relations and governability," he said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said implementing the accord would be crucial and would be "very challenging".

Anti-government protesters remained encamped in Kiev's central Independence Square.

Many activists were suspicious.

"He gave the order to kill, so how can we live with him now until December?" said Vasily Zakharo, 40.

__________________________________________________________________

Pentagon's phone calls to Ukrainian defence ministry go unanswered

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has been unable to get anyone on the phone at Ukraine's defence ministry over the past several days as violence flared and Kiev named a new head of the armed forces general staff, the Pentagon said.

Spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news briefing: "Here in the Pentagon, we've been trying to [connect with them] pretty diligently this whole week."

Kirby said he was also unaware of any successful military-to-military contacts between the United States and Ukraine, and acknowledged it is usually not so difficult for Hagel to get a foreign counterpart on the phone. Hagel and the Ukrainian defence minister spoke in December, Kirby noted. "I'd say it's pretty unusual," he said.

The Pentagon has been warning the Ukrainian military to stay out of the country's political crisis, calls echoed by President Barack Obama on Wednesday.

Kirby said reports from US embassy personnel in Kiev indicate that, so far, Ukraine's military is not involved in clashes between security forces and protesters.

Instead, the Ukrainian armed forces were being used to protect military facilities, including weapons and ammunition storage facilities, Kirby said. He renewed US calls to keep them out of the mix.

"[Hagel] urges the Ukrainian armed forces to continue to refrain from participating in the conflict, a conflict that can and should be resolved politically," Kirby said.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych appointed a new head of the armed forces general staff on Wednesday. His presidential decree gave no explanation for the change.

Reuters

Ukraine crisis : Snipers filmed 'shooting at protesters' in Kiev

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