World press on Ukrainian crisis and Russia's commentary on the Geneva agreeement (April 21)

"Russia’s foreign minister accused the interim authorities in Kiev on Monday of flagrantly violating the international accord reached last week aimed at defusing the crisis in eastern Ukraine, in remarks that suggested Russia may be further preparing the groundwork for a military intervention," thus starts the article by Andrew E. Kramer published today by The New York Times.

"The accusations made by the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, came as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived in Kiev in a show of support for its increasingly besieged government, which the Kremlin regards as a result of a Western-backed coup that seized power in late February after months of protests," the article reads.

According to the article's author, Mr. Lavrov rejected accusations that Russia is covertly manipulating events in eastern Ukraine and subverting the accord reached in Geneva last Thursday between himself, Secretary of State John Kerry and representatives of Ukraine’s interim government and the European Union. “The authorities are doing nothing, not even lifting a finger, to address the causes behind this deep internal crisis in Ukraine," quotes the article Mr. Lavrov's words, adding that for him, the Geneva agreement “is not only not being fulfilled, but steps are being taken, primarily by those who seized power in Kiev, that are grossly breaching the agreement reached in Geneva.”

"Mr. Lavrov blamed the killings of three people in a shootout at a checkpoint in eastern Ukraine on Sunday on the interim government and its sympathizers. Mr. Lavrov’s criticisms came as new evidence emerged on Monday of violence aimed at pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine, with bodies of two members of a Moscow-backed militia pulled from the Donetsk River in Slovyansk," the article reads.

"At the same time, an international observer mission with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was unable to enter Donetsk, an epicenter of pro-Russia separatism, for reasons that were not clear. Russia agreed to the observer mission at Germany’s insistence, and the group’s inability to reach the area made it all the more difficult to determine why law and order seemed to be unraveling there," the article continues.

According to the article's auhtos, "Vyachislav Ponomaryov, the de facto mayor of Slovyansk appointed by militants, told the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that he had identified the two corpses pulled from the river as pro-Russian militants.They had died, he said, from stab wounds and been thrown in the river. Mr. Ponomaryov said the city was under attack by a Ukrainian nationalist group, Right Sector, and the Ukrainian Army, although there has been no clear sign of either since a Ukrainian armored column surrendered to the separatists in a humiliating setback for the central government last week."

"Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday dismissing the assertion by pro-Russian militants that attackers in and around the city were members of Right Sector. The group also denied any involvement," the article's author adds. He continues by explaining that the "shootout on Sunday at a roadblock run by pro-Russian militants near Slovyansk left at least three people dead, highlighting the fraying in eastern Ukraine of an agreement last week in Geneva in which the United States, Russia and others called on militants to stand down. Around 2 a.m. on a road lined with blossoming apricot trees, four cars drove toward the checkpoint, according to the pro-Russian militants who control the city. Their occupants opened fire, killing three local men who were standing guard, the militants said."

"It was unclear whether the shooting was an event staged by provocateurs, an accident or an attack on pro-Russian militants. The difficulty in determining what happened will resonate far beyond Slovyansk: The United States has said it will impose additional sanctions on Russian businessmen, and possibly on a bank or oil company, if the Geneva accord is not heeded. So far, militants have neither budged from the buildings they are occupying nor handed in their guns," the article concludes.