Deadly Shootout Underscores Fragile Truce in Eastern Ukraine

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine - A shootout at a checkpoint run by pro-Russian militants near this town in eastern Ukraine, which left at least three people dead on Sunday highlighted the fragility of a truce reached days earlier by diplomats in Geneva.

Around 2 a.m., on a road lined with blossoming apricot trees, four cars drove toward the checkpoint when their occupants opened fire, killing three local men who were standing guard, according to pro-Russian militants who control this town.

'We thought nothing would happen because it was the holy night,' said Yevgeny Bondarenko, 62, who said he had been there to celebrate Easter with the people at the checkpoint. 'Who can we trust now?'

It was unclear whether the shooting was an event staged by provocateurs, an accident or an attack on pro-Russian militants. The difficulty in sorting out what happened will resonate far beyond Slovyansk, the linchpin of a string of midsize towns north of the regional capital, Donetsk, that are controlled by pro-Russian militants.

A diplomatic settlement reached on Thursday by the European Union, Russia, Ukraine and the United States called for illegally armed groups to lay down their weapons, though the chances that real peace would be accomplished seemed slim from the beginning.

Within hours, pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine said they had no intention of disarming in accordance with the agreement, which they did not sign. Russia's Foreign Ministry said the provision calling for disarmament covered 'in the first place' the Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector, which has its base in western Ukraine.

The United States has said it will impose additional sanctions on Russian businessmen, and possibly on a bank or oil company, if the Geneva agreement falls apart. So far, militants have not budged from the buildings they have occupied, nor have they relinquished their guns.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday assailing the Russian ministry's assertion that the attackers had been members of Right Sector. Right Sector also denied any involvement.

'The Russian side must be reminded about their obligations under the Geneva agreement to bring all necessary influence to bear on separatists to clear illegally held buildings, unblock roads, lay down arms and prevent any bloodshed,' the Ukrainian statement said.

Life News, a Russian tabloid television channel, reported that the defenders of the town had found a business card of the leader of Right Sector, Dmytro Yarosh, in the belongings said to have been left behind by one of the attackers, along with stacks of dollars and guns.

The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that 'as a result of an attack by insurgents of the so-called Right Sector, innocent civilians have died.' It added that pro-Russian fighters had found 'aerial photographs of that district' and Right Sector emblems in cars seized from the attackers. 'The Russian side is indignant at this provocation of the insurgents, which shows the Kiev authorities' unwillingness to rein and disarm the nationalists and extremists,' the ministry said.

The authorities in Kiev, Ukraine's capital, ridiculed and rejected the Russian statement.

The checkpoint was a confused scene after the shootout. The remains of a pickup truck and a sport utility vehicle sat in the center of the road, incinerated except for two unscathed out-of-town license plates.

Bullet holes in the pickup truck's driver-side door suggested the truck had been fired on from the side or from behind as it faced the checkpoint. Those manning the checkpoint, however, claim to have been fending off an attack.

Journalists saw two bodies near the scene of the shooting, and officials in the town morgue said three people had died of gunshot wounds. The Ukrainian police said three people had died and four were wounded. Pro-Russian militants said three of their members and two attackers had died.

Following the attack, the mayor of Slovyansk, Vyachislav Ponomaryov, who was appointed by the pro-Russian militants, imposed a curfew and asked President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to send Russian peacekeepers.

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