London, April 21 (IANS): Ukraine said Monday that it will launch an investigation into the shooting in the east of the country which has raised further tensions with Russia, a media report said.
A group of unidentified gunmen attacked a checkpoint controlled by pro-Russia protestors, resulting in the death of three protestors and two gunmen, BBC reported.
Russia condemned the incident and blamed the Ukraine's Right Sector nationalists for the attack.
The deputy secretary of Ukraine's national security council, Viktoriya Siumar, has said that it was too early to reveal who was responsible for the attack.
Siumar regretted that Russia had jumped to conclusions without actually probing the matter.
However, Artyom Skoropadskiy, a spokesman for the pro-Russian protestors group, denied that the man was a member of the Right Sector.
"Right Sector was not there, and whatever happened there was an obvious provocation from the Russian secret services," Skoropadskiy said.
The US, Russia, Ukraine, and the European Union (EU) concluded talks in Geneva Thursday after signing a statement, asking all sides to refrain from violence, intimidation or provocative actions as part of initial steps to restore order in the country.
But the protestors' spokesman in the city of Donetsk said that the Ukrainian government was illegal, and vowed that until the government stepped down, they wouldn't let go of the government buildings and would continue the protests.
Sloviansk rebel leader and self-proclaimed mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to send peacekeepers to the region.
He has also asked for food and weapons.
The crisis in Ukraine started with the ouster of president Viktor Yanukovych in February.
Russia then annexed Crimea March 18 following a regional referendum that approved joining the Russian federation.
The annexation provoked international outrage.
Pro-Russian protestors then began to occupy buildings in several eastern Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine suspended operations against the pro-Russian protestors over Easter.
The US has threatened additional sanctions against Russia in case it failed to help calm down the tense situation in eastern Ukraine.
Russia denies fomenting separatism in eastern and southern Ukraine.
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