Ukraine Forcibly Removes Kharkiv Protesters; Other Standoffs Continue
Riot police and other Ukrainian forces are cracking down on pro-Russian demonstrators in eastern Ukraine, drawing a warning from neighboring Russia that also includes allegations that an American military contractor is helping Ukraine.
Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov says the troubled country has arrested around 70 demonstrators who had seized a regional administration building in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city. Forces also drove other activists out of the building, in what Avakov described as an "anti-terrorist" operation.
The crackdown drew a response from Moscow, as The Los Angeles Times reports. Here's the newspaper's quote of a warning issued by Russia's Foreign Ministry:
"According to our information, Ukraine Interior Ministry and National Guard troops including militants of the illegal armed group the Right Sector are being brought to the southeast regions of Ukraine," read a statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's official website Tuesday. "A special concern is connected with the fact that about 150 U.S. experts from the private military organization Greystone dressed in the uniforms of [Ukraine] special unit Sokol are involved in the operation."