Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine said today they are taking over scores of factories and mines in the region, many of them belonging to a tycoon whose foundation has been the largest provider of humanitarian aid to a war-battered population.
The moves came in the wake of a weekslong blockade of the east by Ukrainian nationalists and right-wingers. The blockade has seriously disrupted trade on both sides, cutting off much of the coal shipments to government-controlled territory and impeding shipments from the mills and factories that are the east's economic backbone.
The blockade has raised the already high tensions in Ukraine, where a war between government forces and separatist rebels has killed more than 9,800 people.
The Minsk agreement, a 2015 pact that has been consistently violated, envisions the rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk regions remaining within Ukraine, although with expanded local powers.
However, a recent surge in fighting, the blockade and Russia's decision last month to recognize passports and other documents issued by the rebels have threatened the goal of reintegrating the regions.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has spoken against the blockade, but taken no action to break it. Poroshenko faces considerable opposition from nationalists in parliament, as well as from a bloc descended from the party of the country's former Russia-friendly president, whose flight from power in 2014 prefigured the eastern conflict.
"We are proud that the blockade has hit the pockets of the occupiers. We should call a war and stop business in blood and all trade with the occupied territories," parliament member Semen Semenchenko, a blockade advocate, told The Associated Press.
Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko told local media today that in retaliation for Kiev's blockade the rebels have taken over the management of 40 factories and coal mines.
They include those owned by tycoon Rinat Akhmetov, who is regarded as Ukraine's richest person.
His Metinvest holding company announced last week that it had stopped operations at a steel mill and a coal mine because of the blockade. Stopping all of the company's operations could throw 20,000 people out of work, Metinvest said.
There were no immediate reports detailing how management was to be taken over by rebels.
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