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Ukraine's acting president accused "Kremlin agents" on Saturday of fomenting deadly violence in eastern cities, in one of the most direct and highest-level criticisms aimed by Kiev at President Vladimir Putin.

From his speaker's chair in parliament, interim head of state Oleksander Turchinov referred to three deaths in two incidents this week in Donetsk and Kharkiv and told opposition lawmakers: "You know as well as we do who is organizing mass protests in eastern Ukraine - it is Kremlin agents who are organizing and funding them, who are causing people to be murdered."

Turchinov has warned of a risk of a Russian invasion of the east following Moscow's occupation of the Crimea peninsula.

Ukrainian officials have called on people in the mainly Russian-speaking cities of the industrial east not to rise to provocation that Russia might use to justify sending in troops.

First published March 15 2014, 5:40 AM

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Ukraine President Blames 'Kremlin Agents' for Violence

Ukraine braces for new demonstrations

Ukraine is bracing for new pro-Russian protests in the tense eastern city of Donetsk after Moscow threatened to stop crucial gas supplies to the country, further escalating hostilities with the West.

Donetsk, a focal point of the crisis engulfing Ukraine since the protests that toppled president Viktor Yanukovych, was expecting a large demonstration by activists demanding a secession referendum like the one planned for the Crimean peninsula.

The latest show of pro-Moscow sentiment in the largely Russian-speaking southeast comes after Russia threatened on Friday to halt gas supplies to Ukraine following Western sanctions to punish the Kremlin for seizing de facto control of Crimea.

The warning by Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom, which could affect supplies to other countries, raised the spectre of previous gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine that deeply rattled European economies in 2005-2006 and again in 2009.

Gazprom said the move was in response to unpaid bills, but the threat - made after the European Union warned it could toughen sanctions against Moscow - underscored the Kremlin's resolve to stand its ground in the biggest East-West crisis since the Cold War.

In a sign of the tensions racking Crimea, Ukraine's defence ministry said late on Friday that unidentified militants had smashed through the gates of a Ukrainian air force base in Sevastopol.

No shots were fired in the incident.

A convoy of foreign observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was earlier stopped at a checkpoint in Crimea guarded by pro-Kremlin gunmen.

Russia's foreign ministry accused the OSCE of attempting to enter the Black Sea peninsula uninvited and 'without considering the opinions and recommendations of the Russian side'.

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Ukraine braces for new demonstrations

Ukraine seeks US help, Putin talks tough

Ukraine has sought urgent Western backing after Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that Crimea had the right to join his country even while hinting at a readiness for dialogue.

The pro-European team in Kiev that rode the wave of three months of deadly protests to topple a Kremlin-backed regime is running against the clock to preserve the territorial integrity of the culturally splintered nation of 46 million.

The self-declared leadership on the predominantly ethnic Russian peninsula of Crimea has proclaimed independence from Kiev and set a March 16 referendum on switching over to Kremlin rule.

The decision has been condemned by Western powers who are also furious at Moscow's seizure of Crimea in a lightning but bloodless operation that began days after the February 22 fall and subsequent escape to Russia of president Viktor Yanukovych.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel - whose cautious approach to imposing sanctions on Russia has clashed with the more hawkish positions of Eastern European nations and the United States - bluntly told Putin on Sunday that the Crimean referendum was 'illegal'.

The most explosive East-West crisis since the Cold War was stoked further when the Kremlin said Putin told both Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron that he fully recognised the actions of the Crimean leaders - in power since an end of February seizure of the local parliament and government by pro-Kremlin gunmen.

The Kremlin said Putin stressed 'the steps undertaken by the legitimate authorities of Crimea are based on the norms of international law' - a comment hinting strongly that the Kremlin was ready to annex Crimea after handing the peninsula as a 'gift' to Ukraine when it was a part of the Soviet empire in 1954.

But Merkel's office also said Putin had promised to discuss with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday the creation of an 'international contact group' on Ukraine that he had resisted in the past.

Germany is pushing the group's creation as a way of avoiding an all-out war breaking out on the eastern edge of Europe that would see Ukraine call for Western help against its nuclear-armed neighbour.

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Ukraine seeks US help, Putin talks tough

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