Blast Hits in Eastern Ukraine as Ceasefire Unravels
KIEV, Ukraine - Two people were killed and about a dozen injured in a bomb explosion at a march Sunday in Ukraine's second-largest city marking the first anniversary of the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych, the country's interior ministry said.
The Interior Ministry said the blast in the eastern city Kharkiv was due to an "unknown explosive device" and was being considered a terrorist act. A police officer was one of the dead, it said.
The violence comes as Ukraine continues to be riven by tension and bloodshed stemming from Yanukovych's fall a year ago. The Ukrainian parliament voted Feb. 22, 2014 to remove the Russia-friendly president, following months of increasingly violent protests in the capital, Kiev.
The Crimean peninsula, where residents largely regarded his downfall as a coup, was annexed by Russia a month later.
Then armed rebels opposed to the new authorities in Kiev took over large parts of two regions bordering Russia, setting off a war that has killed more than 5,600 people.
A peace plan envisioning a cease-fire and pullback of heavy weapons was signed 10 days ago, but cease-fire violations continue.
The U.S. and Britain on Saturday discussed new sanctions against Russia as the week-old cease-fire unravels, though it was unclear if the allies were on the same page about increasing pressure on an economy that means far more to Europe.
As Ukraine's military and Russia-backed separatists blamed each other for the continued attacks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond held Moscow responsible. Kerry accused the Russians of "land-grabbing" in Ukraine while cynically speaking of peace.
The top American diplomat pointed specifically to the strategic port of Mariupol, which Ukrainian forces say is threatened by a buildup of rebel military equipment. If the rebels seize the city, they would establish a land corridor between mainland Russia and the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
"What's happening with respect to Mariupol even now is just simply unacceptable, so we are talking about additional sanctions, additional efforts," Kerry told reporters.
The message to Russian President Vladimir Putin's government, he said, would be: "We're not going to play this game. We're not going to sit there and be part of this kind of extraordinarily craven behavior at the expense of the sovereignty and integrity of a nation."
An agreement reached by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France last week called for the guns to go quiet Sunday, followed by a retreat of heavy weaponry from the front lines. International monitors have reported no such activity.
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