BBC Online :
Ukraine will not prosecute pro-Russian activists occupying official buildings in two eastern cities if they surrender their weapons, Ukraine’s acting President Olexander Turchynov says.
The separatists are holding buildings in the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk. The Kiev authorities say their actions could give Russia a pretext to invade.
Ukraine has accused Russia of stirring up the unrest. Moscow has denied that.
Nato says up to 40,000 Russian troops are massed near Ukraine’s border.
‘Presidential order’
The crisis began in November when Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych – an ally of Russia – refused to sign a far-reaching partnership treaty with the EU. That triggered huge anti-Yanukovych demonstrations and violence which led to him fleeing to Russia in February.
Ukraine has launched what it calls an “anti-terrorist operation” to tackle the separatists in the east. On Wednesday Kiev said the stand-off must end within 48 hours.
Turchynov told parliament in the capital Kiev there would be “no criminal prosecution of people who give up their weapons and leave the buildings”.
“I am willing to do this by presidential order,” he said.
Ukraine fears that the Russian separatist actions are a provocation similar to the protests that gripped Crimea days before Russian troops annexed the peninsula last month.
The separatists in the east – a mainly Russian-speaking region with close ties to Russia – are demanding referendums on self-rule. In Donetsk they have declared a “people’s republic”.
After pro-Russian forces spread out across Crimea last month the new authorities there held a referendum which Moscow said legitimised its return to Russia. But the referendum was denounced internationally.
On Wednesday US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed on the need to resolve the security situation in eastern Ukraine peacefully, officials said.
The EU, Russia, US and Ukraine are to meet next week for talks on the crisis.
