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LIVE from Mariupol (Ukraine)
Live from Mariupol, where protesters captured the administrative buildings. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly LiveL...
By: RuptlyTV
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Pro-Russia supporters rally outside a seized building in eastern Ukraine.
HONG KONG (CNNMoney)
The central bank raised the discount rate from 6.5% to 9.5% late Monday, a move that should help support the country's floundering currency and curb inflation.
Ukraine's currency, the hryvnia, has lost more than a third of its value against the U.S. dollar since Jan. 1, complicating efforts to stabilize the country's economy.
Exports have declined dramatically as the country's new government tries to avoid collapse, and foreign exchange reserves are down sharply.
The International Monetary Fund has approved an $18 billion loan for Ukraine, but its not clear the action will calm investors unnerved by a widening conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
Related story: Russian ruble rattled by renewed Ukraine unrest
Ukraine and Western nations are accusing Russia of deliberately trying to destabilize parts of eastern Ukraine ahead of national elections in late May. Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has denied that Russian forces were active in the east.
Protesters forced police officers out of their four-story headquarters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlivka on Monday, extending gains made by demonstrators.
Kiev has responded with ultimatums that have demanded the pro-Russian activists give up, but its calls have been ignored.
Here is the original post:
Pro-Russia supporters rally outside a seized building in eastern Ukraine.
HONG KONG (CNNMoney)
The central bank raised the discount rate from 6.5% to 9.5% late Monday, a move that should help support the country's floundering currency and curb inflation.
Ukraine's currency, the hryvnia, has lost more than a third of its value against the U.S. dollar since Jan. 1, complicating efforts to stabilize the country's economy.
Exports have declined dramatically as the country's new government tries to avoid collapse, and foreign exchange reserves are down sharply.
The International Monetary Fund has approved an $18 billion loan for Ukraine, but its not clear the action will calm investors unnerved by a widening conflict between Kiev and Moscow.
Related story: Russian ruble rattled by renewed Ukraine unrest
Ukraine and Western nations are accusing Russia of deliberately trying to destabilize parts of eastern Ukraine ahead of national elections in late May. Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has denied that Russian forces were active in the east.
Protesters forced police officers out of their four-story headquarters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlivka on Monday, extending gains made by demonstrators.
Kiev has responded with ultimatums that have demanded the pro-Russian activists give up, but its calls have been ignored.
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HORLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) The fuel is local, but the matches are Russian. That in a nutshell is how the insurgency threatening the survival of Ukraine as a unified state is increasingly unfolding.
Over the past 10 days, more than a dozen government offices in eastern Ukraine have been taken over by pro-Russian forces, with most of the seizures following the same pattern. Aggressive gangs, sometimes carrying firearms and wearing military fatigues, storm the buildings. The Ukrainian flag is replaced with a Russian one. Then local men move in to hold them.
Those capturing the buildings insist they are carrying out the will of the people and have demanded a referendum on autonomy for the eastern Donetsk region. Relatively small numbers have hit the streets in support, however, and it is increasingly evident the purported uprising is far from spontaneous and is being carried out with unerring coordination.
Russia has tens of thousands of troops massed along Ukraine's eastern border. Western governments accuse Moscow of fueling the unrest and worry that the specter of bloodshed could be used as a pretext for a Russian invasion, in a repeat of events in Crimea a few weeks ago.
The Ukrainian government's inability to quash the pro-Russian insurgency was highlighted by acting President Oleksandr Turchynov's call Monday for the deployment of United Nations peacekeeping troops in the east of his country. He said the presence of Russian meddling was clear in the unrest gripping his country.
"The Russian Federation is sending special units to the east of our country, which seize administrative buildings with the use of weapons and are putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens in danger," Turchynov said, according to the presidential web-site.
Peacekeepers, however, would have to be authorized by the U.N. Security Council, where Russia holds a veto.
Pro-Russian activists point to what they say is an aggressively nationalistic government as justification for their actions. The Cabinet in charge since the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych in February includes some nationalist figures, but there is no substantive evidence the Russian-speaking population has been subject to any widespread intimidation in recent weeks.
The relative ease with which pro-Russian groups have been able to overwhelm resistance was in full display Monday in the Donetsk region city of Horlivka.
Hundreds of local people gathered in a square in front of the local police station. Oleksandr Sapunov, who described himself as the head of a public self-defense unit in Horlivka, said the crowd was fighting against appointees of the Kiev government, including the local police chief.
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HORLIVKA, Ukraine The fuel is local, but the matches are Russian. That in a nutshell is how the insurgency threatening the survival of Ukraine as a unified state is increasingly unfolding.
Over the past 10 days, more than a dozen government offices in eastern Ukraine have been taken over by pro-Russian forces, with most of the seizures following the same pattern. Aggressive gangs, sometimes carrying firearms and wearing military fatigues, storm the buildings. The Ukrainian flag is replaced with a Russian one. Then local men move in to hold them.
Those capturing the buildings insist they are carrying out the will of the people and have demanded a referendum on autonomy for the eastern Donetsk region. Relatively small numbers have hit the streets in support, however, and it is increasingly evident the purported uprising is far from spontaneous and is being carried out with unerring coordination.
Russia has tens of thousands of troops massed along Ukraine's eastern border. Western governments accuse Moscow of fueling the unrest and worry that the specter of bloodshed could be used as a pretext for a Russian invasion, in a repeat of events in Crimea a few weeks ago.
The Ukrainian government's inability to quash the pro-Russian insurgency was highlighted by acting President Oleksandr Turchynov's call Monday for the deployment of United Nations peacekeeping troops in the east of his country. He said the presence of Russian meddling was clear in the unrest gripping his country.
"The Russian Federation is sending special units to the east of our country, which seize administrative buildings with the use of weapons and are putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens in danger," Turchynov said, according to the presidential web-site.
Peacekeepers, however, would have to be authorized by the U.N. Security Council, where Russia holds a veto.
Pro-Russian activists point to what they say is an aggressively nationalistic government as justification for their actions. The Cabinet in charge since the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych in February includes some nationalist figures, but there is no substantive evidence the Russian-speaking population has been subject to any widespread intimidation in recent weeks.
The relative ease with which pro-Russian groups have been able to overwhelm resistance was in full display Monday in the Donetsk region city of Horlivka.
Hundreds of local people gathered in a square in front of the local police station. Oleksandr Sapunov, who described himself as the head of a public self-defense unit in Horlivka, said the crowd was fighting against appointees of the Kiev government, including the local police chief.
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