Russia expels Ukrainian diplomat

MOSCOW: Moscow has expelled Ukrainian diplomat in retaliation for Kiev’s expulsion of a Russian diplomat, RIA news agency on Tuesday quoted a source at the Russian foreign ministry as saying. It gave no further details.
Ties between Moscow and Kiev hit rock bottom over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March, 2014. Unrest then started in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east and Kiev and the West accuse Moscow of driving a separatist rebellion there. Moscow denies that.
Meanwhile, Ukraine was in shock on Tuesday after fierce clashes outside parliament killed three policemen and wounded 140 people as tensions flared over controversial legislation giving more autonomy to pro-Russian rebels.
It was the worst unrest in Kiev since a bloody uprising ousted a Moscow-backed president in early 2014, unleashing a separatist insurgency in the industrial east that has killed thousands of people.
The proposed reforms, which were given initial backing by MPs in a stormy session that set off Monday’s violence, are a key part of a faltering Western-backed peace deal signed in February.
The government — struggling to prevent the former Soviet state from splitting in two — blamed ultra-nationalists for the unrest, saying activists had thrown a live grenade near the parliament where police were out in force.
“At a time when Russia and its bandits are seeking to destroy the country but are unable to do this on the front line, the so-called pro-Ukrainian political forces are trying to open a second front inside the country,” said Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
President Petro Poroshenko described the violence as a “stab in the back” and said the culprits would face “severe punishment”.
Hundreds of people had massed in Kiev on Monday to protest at a bill branded “un-Ukrainian” by critics and which observers say may ultimately struggle to win final parliamentary approval.
The chaotic scenes with swirling black smoke, and riot police confronting baseball bat-wielding protesters carried echoes of the worst clashes of the Maidan uprising that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych in February and saw him flee to Russia.
Kiev’s Western allies see the reforms as a chance to end the armed conflict in the east that has claimed more than 6,800 lives over the past 16 months.
Kiev and the West accuse Russia of backing the rebels with weapons and troops, a claim the Kremlin denies.
The February truce deal calls for Kiev to implement “decentralisation” by the end of this year — something deeply opposed by Ukrainian nationalists who see it as an attempt to legalise the rebel seizure of the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Ukrainian authorities pointed the finger of blame for Monday’s unrest at activists from the ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party.
Kiev police said a number of politicians suspected of organising the clashes, including firebrand Svoboda leader Oleg Tiagnybok, would be questioned.