Pro-Russian rebels seize Ukraine state bank in Donetsk

DONETSK, Ukraine – Ukraine’s new pro-Western leaders lost effective financial control over a vital eastern industrial region on June 16, Monday, when pro-Russian rebels seized the central bank building in the separatist stronghold city of Donetsk.

The surprise offensive by dozens of Kalashnikov-wielding pro-Russian gunmen further complicated Kiev’s deadly and thus-far inconclusive two-month campaign to reunify the fractured ex-Soviet state.

The riverbank city of nearly one million mostly Russian speakers has been under effective rebel control since early April.

But the gunmen had until now only occupied administration buildings and had no access to the vast sums flowing through the government’s tax collection service.  (READ: Pro-Russian storm gov’t building)

That threatened to change on Monday as frightened personnel steamed out of the National Bank of Ukraine in Donetsk with their hands in the air while masked guerrillas looked on.

“We have been preparing this for more than a month,” a rebel named Oleksandr Matyushyn told Agence France-Presse as five separatist gunmen stood guard at its main entrance and bank staff filed out of the building.

“We want the tax revenues to stay here instead of going to Kiev,” he added.

“Everything went peacefully. There were no excesses,” said another rebel adorned with a tattoo of crossed hammers on his neck.

The Ukrainian government’s press service said that the raid had interrupted the payment of “pension, social benefit and salaries to state employees.”

“We are not receiving tax payments of Donetsk enterprises,” the Ukranian government said in a statement.

‘Technical break’

A group of armed men in black masks guarded the main entrance of the Donetsk branch of the National Bank from which the Ukrainian crest had been torn down.

A sign announcing a “technical break” hung on the door.

“They are having a meeting. Inside are loads of armed men,” one woman said hurrying away without giving her name.

Agence France-Presse reporters saw the rebels take out of the building bottles of alcoholic drinks and a laptop in a pink case that appeared to belong to staff.

Matyushyn said his unit had entered discussion with local administrators about transferring control over the local treasury and tax collection service to the separatist leader of self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic.” (READ: Pro-Russians proclaim independence for Donetsk)

“We are gradually taken control of the banking system. Our specialists have been working quite a long time to come to this stage,” he said proudly.

Donetsk and the neighboring coal and steel producing region of Lugansk declared independence from Kiev in disputed May 11 referendums whose legitimacy was rejected by state authorities and decried as a sham by the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine’s new pro-Western leaders to listen closely to the opinions expressed in the referendums but also refused to recognized the two regions’ independence from Kiev rule.

Federal forces’ escalating campaign to regain control over the region of seven million people has now claimed the lives of more than 370 civilians and fighters on both sides. – Rappler.com