U.S. denounces planned referendum in Ukraine's east

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration denounced as illegal a planned weekend referendum by pro-Russian insurgents pushing for autonomy and independence for portions of eastern Ukraine.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday the referendum amid Ukraine's escalating crisis being planned for Sunday would be "bogus" and would not be recognized by the West.

"We flatly reject this illegal effort to further divide Ukraine," he told reporters after meeting at the State Department with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

"This is really the Crimea playbook all over again and no civilized nation is going to recognize the result," he said, referring to the Moscow-supported March 16 independence referendum in the strategic Ukrainian peninsula that led to Russia's annexation of the strategic Ukrainian peninsula.

Although Russia has de facto control over Crimea, few nations recognize the move and the United States and Europe have hit Russia with sanctions over the annexation, and Moscow's continued actions in the east.

U.S. officials have said all Ukrainians should vote on their future governance in nationwide elections set for May 25.

Thirty pro-Russia insurgents and four government troops were killed Monday in operations to expunge anti-government forces around the city of Slovyansk, Ukraine's interior minister said Tuesday. Rebels said 10 people - fighters and civilians - were killed by Ukrainian troops during clashes Monday. They would not elaborate and there was no immediate way to reconcile the figures.

Gunbattles on Monday around the city of 125,000 were the interim government's most ambitious effort to date to quell weeks of unrest in Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking east.

This nation of 46 million is facing its worst crisis in decades after its Moscow-leaning president, whose base was in the east, fled to Russia in February following months of protests. Ukraine's eastern regions, where armed insurgents have seized dozens of government buildings and police stations in recent weeks, are now at odds with western and central Ukraine, which seek closer ties with Europe and largely back the government in Kiev.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov gave the death toll on his Facebook page Tuesday, adding that 20 government troops were also injured during fighting in Slovyansk. He said about 800 pro-Russia forces in and around Slovyansk were using large-caliber weapons and mortars Monday.

By Tuesday morning, Ukrainian forces had taken hold of a key checkpoint north of the city, dealing a blow to insurgent lines of communication.

In Donetsk, a major city 75 miles south of Slovyansk, the airport was closed during the day to international flights following a government order but reopened later.

In the afternoon, about 30 pro-Russia militants armed with automatic rifles and grenade launchers surrounded an Interior Ministry base in Donetsk, demanding that the troops inside not join any government operations against pro-Russia forces. While it was unclear whether they would attack, besieging a government forces base marked an uptick in the offensive of the militants, who previously had focused on seizing police stations and government buildings.

The move over the predominantly Russian-speaking region came after 46 people died Friday, many in a building fire, after a pro-Ukraine march in Odessa turned into a melee of fighting.

The concern that Odessa could be the next region to fall to pro-Russia forces - particularly after 67 people detained in Friday's rioting were released by police Sunday under pressure from an angry crowd - has sparked concern in Kiev.

Russia has put the blame for the unrest squarely on the interim government in Kiev. During a Tuesday meeting in Vienna with the Council of Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanded that the Ukrainian government end its armed assaults on rebel strongholds. He said he was open to another round of international talks to ease the crisis, but only if pro-Russia rebels were included.

"Those who protest ... want their voices heard," he told reporters. "They want to have an equal voice when it comes to deciding the fate of their own country."

His Ukrainian counterpart rejected the proposal, saying the Kiev government already represents all the people of Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities have blamed Moscow for fomenting the unrest in the east, saying it's an attempt to derail Ukraine's May 25 presidential election. Lavrov repeated Moscow's claims that violence in Ukraine proved the country was unready for a vote, and that a constitution allowing for greater federalization should come before a presidential election.

"Scheduling elections in times when the army is used against parts of the population is not conventional," he said. "This is not Afghanistan."

Russia, Ukraine and European and U.S. leaders met in Geneva on April 17 and signed a deal calling for the dissolution of all illegal military formations in Ukraine. But the sides quickly accused each other of violating the agreement, which has done little to mitigate the turmoil in the country's east.