Kiev Says Russia Wants to Set Southeast 'on Fire' as Moscow Warns Ukraine 'on Brink of Civil War'

An armored column and buses filled with Ukrainian special forces stood Tuesday on a road leading to the eastern city of Slavyansk where pro-Kremlin gunmen had seized government building, as Moscow warned that Ukraine was “on the brink of civil war.”

An Agence France Presse reporter said the column of 20 tanks and armored personnel carriers was positioned in Izyum, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the city and flying the Ukrainian flag.

The convoy included seven buses filled with about 100 special forces and paratroopers who had set up a checkpoint on the road and were inspecting all vehicles moving toward Slavyansk.

Ukraine's Western-backed leaders had earlier Tuesday announced the launch of a "full-scale anti-terrorist operation" in the separatist region.

A source in Ukraine's interior ministry said a unit of the newly-formed National Guard was currently positioned near Izyum.

One of the paratroopers told AFP that the unit was sent to support interior ministry soldiers who were in charge of the operation in the area around Slavyansk.

"Our actions are aimed at protecting our country and preserving peace," the paratrooper said on condition of anonymity.

"We are not afraid. Everything is going to be done to make those people lay down their arms."

Kalashnikov-wielding militants seized the Slavyansk police station on Saturday and later also occupied its regional security service building.

One of the separatist leaders on Monday called on President Vladimir Putin to send Russian forces into the region to protect them from Kiev's rule.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine's Western-backed leader accused Russia of trying to inflame the separatist southeast but promised to proceed with caution against pro-Kremlin militias consolidating their hold on the flashpoint region.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov's impassioned charges against Ukraine's historical master came only hours after a "frank and direct" exchange on the crisis between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Putin.

But the heated phone conversation appeared to break no new ground as the Kremlin chief continued to reject any links to the Russian-speaking gunmen who have occupied town halls and police stations in nearly 10 cities across Ukraine's struggling rust belt since the start of the month.

European foreign ministers meanwhile held back on unleashing punishing economic sanctions against Russia in hopes that EU-U.S. mediated talks on Thursday in Geneva between Moscow and Kiev could help deescalate the most explosive East-West standoff since the Cold War.

Russia insisted that any sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine crisis would be "counterproductive" after the European Union expanded the list of those facing asset freezes and visa bans.

"We declare once again that any sanctions against Russia would be groundless and counterproductive," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Instead of scaring us with another set of sanctions, the European Union should focus on the joint search for a solution for Ukraine's internal crisis."

EU foreign ministers agreed on the additional sanctions Monday to punish Russia for increasing tensions in Ukraine's east which have seen pro-Moscow militants clash with Kiev authorities.

In Washington, the White House and the State Department also signaled that fresh sanctions could be aimed at Russia.

Washington and Brussels have already slapped sanctions on Russian officials including some of President Vladimir Putin's closest allies but stopped short of targeting the broader economy.

The Russian foreign ministry said repeated claims that Russia was involved in the confrontation in Ukraine's east were "absolutely unacceptable."

Moscow also accused Brussels of turning a blind eye to reports of attacks on presidential candidates set to run in May 25 elections in Ukraine, calling it "the height of cynicism."

Meanwhile, Germany's Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel called on Russia to publicly and clearly "distance itself" from any violence committed by pro-Moscow militias in eastern Ukraine.

"I have heard and read that the Russian government has denied responsibility" for the violence, said Gabriel, who is also Germany's economy and energy minister.

But he said there "is a whole range of indications that it is involved."

If Moscow really had played no role in the militants' seizure of government buildings, he said, "then the least to be expected is that it publicly distances itself" from their actions.

"We call (on Moscow) to clearly distance itself from the violence in the eastern Ukraine, in a way that all parties understand and so they cannot claim the consent of Moscow."

The Social Democrat stressed that "no-one wants economic sanctions" against Russia but warned that "Russia has to realize that Germany and Europe are ready" to impose them.

But the pressure that the ex-Soviet state's interim leaders are feeling from Moscow is now also starting to be matched by pushback from their supporters in Kiev who had toppled a detested pro-Kremlin regime in February after months of protests that sought to link up Ukraine firmly to the West.

Displeasure at Ukrainian forces' thus-far helpless efforts to reassert control saw several hundred nationalists set fire to tires outside the parliament building on Monday evening demanding the interior minister's resignation.

Turchynov appeared to address that discontent on Tuesday by stressing that efforts to dislodge the pro-Russian gunmen from their increasingly entrenched positions must proceed "gradually, responsibly and in a measured way".

The coordinated series of raids that began in the depressed industrial hubs of Donetsk and Lugansk and have since spread to nearby coal mining towns and villages have presented the untested leaders with a high-stakes challenge with no clear solution.

Inaction in the face the insurgents' aggression and tough talk by Moscow could potentially see the vast nation of 46 million break up along its historic Russian-Ukrainian cultural divide.

But a forceful military response -- its very feasibility in question due to poor morale and desertions riddling army ranks -- could prompt a counterstrike by some 40,000 Russian troops now poised along Ukraine's border and waiting to act on Putin's vow to "protect" his compatriots in the neighboring state.

Turchynov told an agitated session of parliament during which some of his old protest supporters questioned his leadership that Ukraine was facing an eastern enemy rather than domestic discontent.

"They want to set fire not only to the Donetsk region but to the entire south and east -- from Kharkiv to the Odessa region," the acting president said.

Turchynov also announced the formal launch of the army's campaign in the northern parts of Donetsk -- a push started on Sunday with the involvement of internal forces but then quickly abandoned when a senior commander was killed.

Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council chief Andriy Parubiy added that he had dispatched the first unit of the newly formed National Guard -- comprised in part of volunteers and this winter's more militant anti-government protesters -- "to the front".

But the United Nations issued a report on Tuesday urging the leaders in Kiev to temper their response and "immediately take initial measures to build confidence between the government and the people".

Kiev's news programs have spent much of the past day replaying footage from an attack by militants on a police station in the town of Gorlivka in which men in gasmasks pelted the building with Molotov cocktails before smashing its windows with rocks and bats.

One clip showed a green-uniformed man who identified himself as a Russian colonel telling the local police force that it now must obey his orders and must wear orange-and-black ribbons symbolizing Kremlin pride.

The Kremlin set nerves in Kiev further on edge on Monday by announcing that Putin had received "a lot" of requests from eastern Ukraine "to help, to intervene in some form".

The crisis was exacerbated further still by two episodes with a dash of Cold War-style intrigue: a confrontation in the Black Sea in which a Russian warplane "buzzed" a U.S. destroyer and a weekend visit to Kiev by CIA chief John Brennan.

This charged atmosphere witnessed Putin place a surprise call to the White House that both sides later said covered plenty of ground but appeared to chart no new course.

The White House said Obama accused Moscow of supporting "armed pro-Russian separatists who threaten to undermine and destabilize the government of Ukraine."

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday also urged Russia to "stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution."

A Kremlin account of Putin's call with Obama said the Russian leader blamed the unrest on "the unwillingness and inability by the Kiev authorities to take account of the interests of the Russian and Russian-speaking population".

The White House also took the rare step of confirming that Brennan had flown into Kiev over the weekend.

Moscow's Interfax news agency had quoted an unidentified source as saying Brennan recommended that Kiev use force against the pro-Russian militants.

But White House spokesman Jay Carney blasted claims that Brennan's travel was anything but routine.

Later on Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Ukraine was on the verge of civil war.

"I will be brief: Ukraine is on the brink of civil war, it's frightening," the country's former president was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Medvedev expressed hope that Ukraine's "de-facto authorities" would be reasonable and not to allow "this sort of terrible turmoil."

Russia does not recognize Kiev's pro-Western authorities who came to power after a popular uprising ousted Moscow-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.

Medvedev, who ruled Russia between 2008 and 2012 and stepped down to allow his mentor Putin to return to the Kremlin for a third term, also took issue with the Ukrainian authorities' appeal to bring United Nations troops to help calm tensions.

"As a rule, the arrival of peacekeeping contingents does not solve anything, unfortunately, it just puts the problem on ice," he was quoted as saying after talks with his Belarussian and Kazakh counterparts.

He also reiterated calls for the United States and the European Union to follow up their pledges of support with real action, saying promises of jam tomorrow were no longer enough for the ex-Soviet's troubled economy.

"All those who say that it is necessary to help Ukraine should finally do something for Ukraine," Medvedev said.

"I mean both our European partners and our partners across the ocean. Let them give at least a dollar. Endless promises: we will give a billion, we will transfer five billion. Let them give something."

By contrast, Russia has subsidized gas supplies to Ukraine which Medvedev estimated has managed to save some $100 billion since Kiev won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

"There are such calculations, these are not phantom figures, they are real figures."

His Belarussian counterpart Mikhail Myasnikovich for his part said Ukraine would be able to solve its problems alone.

"We believe that they will sort it out independently and solve the difficult tasks the country is now facing," he was quoted as saying.