Armed Men Take Police HQ In Eastern Ukraine City

By Bill Chappell / NPR

Published April 12, 2014 at 2:21 AM PDT

This story was published more than 10 years ago.

More than a dozen armed men have seized a police station in the city of Sloviansk, near Ukraine's border with Russia. The pro-Russian group is one of several that have seized public government buildings in the past week. Ukrainian officials promise a "very tough" response.

Reuters describes the scene:

"Masked men in mismatched camouflage clothes armed with pistols and rifles stood near the building, a Reuters witness said. They were wearing orange and black ribbons, a symbol of the Soviet victory in World War Two that has been adopted by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine."

The news agency adds that a crowd has gathered outside the building; some of its members are helping to build a barricade around the police station.

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Saying that a special forces unit had been dispatched to Sloviansk, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his Facebook page today that the government's "response will be very tough because there is a difference between protesters and terrorists," according to Radio Free Europe.

Separatists continue to occupy buildings in Donetsk and Luhansk. Ukraine's top officials have said they view such acts as terrorism; they have also sought to reassure ethnic Russians that the new government will share political power and will not ban the Russian language.

The U.S. is widening its effort to punish those it says are responsible for Crimea's secession from Ukraine, with the Treasury Department targeting seven Crimean separatists with economic sanctions.

From NPR's Scott Horsley:

"The new sanctions are authorized under an Executive Order that President Obama signed last month. It freezes assets, limits travel to the U.S., and prohibits Americans from doing business with the sanctioned individuals. All seven people targeted are, including several who were involved in what the Administration calls the "unauthorized referendum" that led Russia to annex Crimea."The Treasury Department is also sanctioning a natural gas company with drilling rigs off Crimea's west coast."