Ukraine Conflict Flares as Government Fights ‘Oligarch’ Crisis
by Aliaksandr KudrytskiVolodymyr Verbyany
7:11 AM EDT March 23, 2015
(Bloomberg) -- Clashes between government troops and rebels intensified in southeast Ukraine, undermining a cease-fire as the country’s government vowed to prevent an “oligarch-supported political crisis.”
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said his government would crack down on “total corruption and smuggling,” and the cabinet gave private security services 24 hours to disarm after a group of men seized state-controlled oil company Ukrnafta. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, responsible for monitoring a Feb. 12 cease-fire signed in Minsk, Belarus, condemned a flare-up around the village of Shyrokyne, near the Sea of Azov port Mariupol.
“An outbreak of heavy fighting east of Mariupol over the last two days is unacceptable,” OSCE Chairman Ivica Dacic said in a statement on the organization’s website. The organization added in a separate statement: “Both sides in this area continue to violate numerous provisions of the Minsk agreements.”
The bloodshed continues to underscore the tenuous nature of the truce. While the cease-fire has checked the worst of the fighting, both sides are accusing each other of violations that are threatening to return the conflict to open war and deepen the worst standoff between Russia, the U.S. and Europe since the Cold War.
Ukrainian Wrangling
Ukraine’s government also vowed to tackle domestic dissent. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov announced tighter gun-control measures and referred specifically to Dnipropetrovsk Governor Igor Kolomoisky, who has served as a board member at Ukrnafta, Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov, second-wealthiest Viktor Pinchuk, and other tycoons.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-23/russia-says-ukraine-shooting-violates-truce-as-clashes-persist
