The Ukrainian acting president has called for an anti-terrorist operation to be relaunched in the east of the country after the body of a local politician from his own party was found showing signs of torture.
Ukraine's security forces had largely suspended what was a fairly limited operation to respond to the takeover of eastern town by pro-Russian separatists after after the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and European Union signed a deal in Geneva last week intended to calm the crisis. Oleksander Turchynov's call for action could complicate the task of European mediators.
The acting president said in a statement that two "brutally tortured" bodies had been found near the city of Slovyansk, which is in the hands of pro-Russian militants. One was that of Volodymyr Rybak, a member of Turchinov's Batkivshchyna party, who had recently been abducted by "terrorists".
"These crimes are being carried out with the full support and indulgence of the Russian Federation," he said. "I call on the security agencies to relaunch and carry out effective anti-terrorist measures, with the aim of protecting Ukrainian citizens living in eastern Ukraine from terrorists."
"Terrorists who have effectively taken the whole Donetsk region hostage, have crossed a line, starting to torture and murder Ukrainian patriots," the acting president added. "They throw down an insolent challenge not only to our country but to the entire international community when they commit blatant outrages against the decisions taken in Geneva."
In a statement from regional headquarters in Donetsk, police said the body of a man who died a violent death had been found in the Seversky-Donets river and that it resembled Rybak, a local councillor in the town of Horlivka, near Donetsk.
Formal identification would need further work, police said. Local media said Rybak was abducted in Horlivka, a nearby locality, on Wednesday last week.
Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and great rival of the ousted Kremlin-backed Ukrainian president, was visiting Donetsk on Tuesday. She is running in the presidential election scheduled for May 25.
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