PM Yatseniuk accuses Putin of trying to destroy Ukraine

Ukrainian prime minister Arseny Yatseniuk today accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of seeking to destroy Ukraine as an independent country to recreate the former Soviet Union.

He added that  only NATO could defend the ex-Soviet republic from external aggression.

Moscow is facing accusations from Ukraine and its NATO backers that it was sending troops and tanks into eastern Ukraine to support pro-Russian separatists who are engaged in a conflict with Ukraine, that had killed over 3,000 people. Russia has denied the accusations.

A fragile ceasefire negotiated by envoys from Ukraine, Russia, the separatists and European security watchdog Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), had been in place in eastern Ukraine for over a week despite sporadic violations.

"We are still in a stage of war and the key aggressor is the Russian Federation ... Putin wants another frozen conflict (in eastern Ukraine)," prime minister Yatseniuk told a conference attended by European and Ukrainian lawmakers and business leaders.

According to Yatseniuk Putin would not be content only with Crimea, annexed by Moscow in March (See: President Putin reclaims Crimea as part of Russia), and with Ukraine's mainly Russian-speaking eastern region.

"His goal is to take all of Ukraine ... Russia is a threat to the global order and to the security of the whole of Europe," said Yatseniuk.

Meanwhile, even as their leaders in Kiev offer peace on the front lines, in Mariupol, Ukraine, the battle-scarred patriots engaging rebels, talk of giving Russian president Vladimir Putin an Ukrainian version of Chechnya's guerrilla war.

The Washington Post quoted a 40-year-old division commander in Ukraine's Azov Btallion, one of the several paramilitary units fighting the separatists as saying, every man in the battalion was ready to change tactics to liberate their homes.

Pro-Russian separatists first occupied government buildings, then solidified control of large swaths of territory in the east, that led to a bloody battle with Ukrainian forces, which had forced rebels to take to their heels by mid-August.

However, according to NATO and Kiev an infusion of Russian support to the rebels almost immediately reversed the course of battle.

President Petro Poroshenko is now seeking peace with the rebels -with Russia indirectly,  in a deal that could see Russia gain much Ukrainian territory. However voices supporting a protracted guerrilla war are growing louder.