Russia said on Friday it reserved the right to protect compatriots in eastern Ukraine after clashes in the city of Donetsk in which one person was killed.The Foreign Ministry said Thursday's violence in the industrial city, where many people speak Russian, showed the Ukrainian authorities had lost control
.A 22-year-old man was stabbed to death in the clashes between pro-Russian protesters and a crowd favoring European integration and denouncing Russian forces' seizure of Ukraine's southern region of Crimea."Russia is aware of its responsibility for the lives of compatriots and fellow citizens in Ukraine and reserves the right to take people under its protection," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.Implying the pro-Russian protesters were not to blame, the ministry said peaceful protesters had been attacked by right-wing groups armed with pneumatic guns and batons who arrived from other parts of Ukraine
.Witnesses, however, said the pro-Russian demonstrators threw eggs, smoke bombs and other missiles and broke through a police cordon to beat their opponents with batons.
So it seems Russia is after Eastern Ukraine as well
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