@THIS IS NOT THE COMPLETE ARTICLE PRESENTED BY ANDREW E.KRAMER@
Europe|NYT Now
Ukraine Falters in Drive to Curb Unrest in East
By ANDREW E. KRAMER - APRIL 16, 2014
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine
— A military operation that the Ukrainian government said would confront pro-Russian militants in the east of the country unraveled in disarray on Wednesday with the entire contingent of 21 armored vehicles that had separated into two columns surrendering or pulling back before nightfall. It was a glaring humiliation for the new government in Kiev...
-One of the armored columns stopped when a crowd of men drinking beer and women yelling taunts and insults gathered on the road before them, and later in the day its commander agreed to hand over the soldiers’ assault rifles to the very separatists they were sent to fight...-The events of the day underscored the weakness of the new government in Kiev entering critical talks with the United States and Russia in Geneva on Thursday over Ukraine’s future. Unable to exercise authority over their own military, officials increasingly seem powerless to contain a growing rebellion by pro-Russian militants that has spread to at least nine cities in eastern Ukraine....
-Just placing the conventional army forces near this darker, more insidious mix of unconventional tactics risked such a setback. “You are fulfilling criminal orders,” one local resident yelled at a Ukrainian soldier sitting on an armored vehicle.. The soldier said he was not, and showed that he had removed the magazine from his assault rifle.“You are saying ‘Come over to the side of the people,’ ” he said. “I am a soldier. I protect the people. I won’t shoot you.”Ukrainian military helicopters buzzed over the scene but were of no help to the soldiers’ quandary below.
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