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2/19/14

Ukraine Leader Strains to Keep Grip as Crisis Grows Deeper - by Andrew Higgens and Andrew Kramer

Ukraine spiraled deeper into crisis on Wednesday as the government of President Viktor F. Yanukovych and several thousand grimly determined protesters — along with their supporters in Russia and Europe — prepared for an extended confrontation over the fate of this fractured country of 46 million.

As measures of the turmoil, the authorities announced a nationwide “antiterrorist operation” to keep guns and power from “extremist groups” and cashiered the country’s top general, then turned around late in the day and declared that a “truce” had been reached with political leaders of the opposition.

But it was clear that, with their bloody offensive to take back the center of Kiev stalled by a ring of fire — and even the deployment of paratroopers to help protect military bases — the Ukrainian authorities were concerned about maintaining control, particularly in the western part of the country.


“In many regions of the country, municipal buildings, offices of the Interior Ministry, state security and the prosecutor general, army units and arms depots are being seized,” Oleksandr Yakimenko, the head of the state security service, the SBU, said in a televised statement.

Read more: Ukraine Leader Strains to Keep Grip as Crisis Grows Deeper - NYTimes.com

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