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On Monday, heavily armed pro-Russian forces took over another town in Eastern Ukraine by storming into its town hall, setting up barricades and attacking an anti-Moscow billionaire’s bank in the town.
Kostyantynivka has a population of 80,000 and is located between Donestsk and the town Slavyansk, both currently under insurgent control. Later in the day, around 300 masked pro-Russian troops, armed with baseball bats, attacked the town’s branch of a bank owned by oligarch governor of the region of Dnipropetrovsk Igor Kolomoisky, who has voiced his criticism of the Kremlin in the past. According to reports, the insurgents shouted slogans against Kolomoisky, accusing him of being a “fascist” and an “enemy of the people”.
Kolomoisky is considered a leader of the Jewish community in Ukraine; his net worth is estimated to be $2.4 billion. Kolomoisky has vocally criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin, describing him as “not normal”, and saying that Putin “has gone mad with his mission to re-establish the Russian empire”. He had also vowed that “separatism will not pass in Dnipropetrovsk”. Putin responded by calling him “garbage” and describing him as a “scoundrel”.
Kolomoisky had recently put out a bounty of $10,000 for every separatist handed over to Ukrainian authorities. Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairman and Swiss President Didier Burkhalter on Monday said that any plan to broaden the OSCE’s monitoring mission in Ukraine would depend on Kiev’s ability to ensure the safety of its monitors.
“Today we have a clear willingness not only to continue but also to strengthen the mission”, he said, adding that the OSCE planned to gradually increase the number of monitors from 122 to 500, and that the kidnapping of a team of international monitors in the country is making them unsure of the security situation in Ukraine.
“We don’t want to stop, but it is our responsibility to assess the situation steadily. If there is a change, then we will act. OSCE is really determined to continue the monitoring mission… but the security needs to be assured by the Ukrainian authorities. There are more and more people in this monitoring mission and we want their security to be assured. We know that this is a special situation… but there are at least a series of measures that have to be undertaken to ensure the security of these people”, Burkhalter said.
