Ukraine in bloody battle to oust pro-Russian gunmen

SLAVYANSK, Ukraine - At least one person was killed Sunday when Ukraine resorted to force to oust pro-Russian gunmen holed up in a police station in the restive east, as Moscow faced calls to defuse the crisis.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said a Ukrainian officer had died both sides had suffered casualties during the offensive in Slavyansk, which threatens to further escalate tensions with Moscow.

Russia has 40,000 troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border and has warned Kiev against using force.

"There are dead and wounded on both sides," Avakov wrote on his Facebook page, as unconfirmed Russian media reports said one protester had been killed.

"The separatists have started to protect themselves using human shields."

Helicopters hovered low over the poor mining town, where a thick column of black smoke could be seen, an AFP photographer said.

Residents, mostly women, huddled in the cold under light rain in front of barricades protecting the police building. Armed separatists have also set up a checkpoint at the entry to the town.

Avakov earlier announced that units from "all of the country's force structures" were taking part in the first stiff response from Kiev to the unrest sweeping the volatile eastern part of the country.

With military precision and dressed in unmarked fatigues, unknown gunmen on Saturday launched a series of attacks against security buildings in the tinderbox eastern rust belt.

This came after a week of soaring tensions as pro-Russians demanding greater autonomy, or to join nearby Russia, stepped up protests in the region ahead of May 25 presidential polls.

The protesters refuse to recognise the new pro-Western government in Kiev, which swept to power on the back of bloody winter protests against fallen president Viktor Yanukovych's decision to reject closer ties with the European Union and move closer to Russia.

'A dangerous escalation'

Moscow has kept up crushing pressure on the new leaders, first seizing Crimea then threatening to cut off gas supplies and trade with the heavily indebted nation all while keeping up a massive military presence along the eastern border.

The West has expressed alarm that Russia is deliberately stoking tension in the heavily Russified east in order to justify a Crimea-style invasion.

"Militants in eastern Ukraine were equipped with Russian weapons and the same uniforms as those worn by Russian forces that invaded Crimea," US ambassador to Kiev Geoffrey Pyatt wrote on Twitter.

Avakov said the events were seen in Kiev as an "act of aggression" by Russia, which has flatly denied any role in the unrest sweeping Ukraine's east.

Britain's Foreign Office said the wave of occupations of government buildings was "a dangerous escalation".

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"Assumptions that Russia is complicit are inevitable as long as Moscow does not publicly distance itself from these latest lawless actions.

"Russia must desist from steps which destabilise Ukraine and undermine" the possibility of talks, a spokesperson said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday phoned his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and "made clear that if Russia did not take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine and move its troops back from Ukraine's border, there would be additional consequences", a senior State Department official said.

A wave of US sanctions unveiled in March blacklisted officials and businesspeople close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to protest at Moscow's takeover of Crimea.

France said Sunday it would support new sanctions against Moscow if there was a military escalation in Ukraine, speaking on the eve of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg to discuss the crisis.

'Potential for violent clashes'

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon late Saturday called on all sides to "exercise maximum restraint" and engage in dialogue to calm a situation that has a "growing potential for violent clashes", a UN statement said.

The volatile situation in the east cast doubt on the planned direct talks between EU and US diplomats and their Moscow and Kiev counterparts in Geneva on Thursday.

Lavrov had warned that if Kiev used force against "residents of the south-east driven to despair", the talks would be in jeopardy.

The latest wave of unrest began when protesters last weekend seized the seat of government in Donetsk, followed by similar actions in Lugansk and Kharkiv.

In Donetsk the protesters heavily fortified the building as they announced the independence of the "Donetsk People's Republic", the flag of which has gone up over newly seized security buildings across the region.

Pro-Russian protesters in this region fear a loss of their rights to speak Russian, or the collapse of an already depressed economy if their government cuts ties with their close and historical ally.

A charm offensive by embattled Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who promised during a visit on Friday to grant more powers to the country's regions and protect the east's right to use the Russian language, is seen as too little, too late.

However despite the unrest, pro-Russian protests have only drawn crowds of a few hundred and local polls have shown that the majority of citizens in the Russian-speaking east would prefer to remain part of Ukraine.

The masked and uniformed gunmen, armed with Kalachnikovs and rifles, attacked the police and security buildings in Slavyansk as well as Kramatorsk. Similar raids were reported to have taken place in other towns, but they remain unconfirmed.

In Donetsk about 200 pro-Russian protesters armed with clubs and sticks stormed the city's police headquarters without meeting any resistance.