拜登前往烏克蘭會晤烏領導人

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is on his way to Ukraine for talks with the acting president and prime minister as the situation in east remains violent despite a deal aimed at easing the crisis.

White House officials say Biden will discuss the international community's efforts to help Ukraine move forward on constitutional reform, and for what Obama administration officials say will be a free and fair presidential election on May 25.

The talks will also focus on the situation in eastern Ukraine where an Easter Sunday truce barely lasted a few hours before it was shattered by a gunfight at a checkpoint in the pro-Russian city of Slavyansk. Three people were killed. It is not clear exactly what happened.

Ukraine blames the attack on Russian special forces. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accuses the Ukrainian government of not wanting to control extremists who he says are shooting unarmed civilians.

Lavrov said Monday Ukraine is "crudely" violating last week's Geneva agreement calling on all armed illegal groups in the east to disarm and leave. The agreement also calls for a mission by European monitors.

However, pro-Russian demonstrators who have taken over government buildings in about a dozen eastern Ukrainian cities have so far showed no sign of backing down.白宮派副總統拜登正在前往烏克蘭的途中，他將與烏克蘭代總統及總理舉行會談。儘管簽署了一項緩解危機的協議，烏克蘭東部的局勢仍然充滿暴力。

白宮發官員說，與烏克蘭領導人討論國際社會如何幫助烏克蘭推行憲法改革以及在5月25日舉行的總統選舉。奧巴馬政府的官員說，這將是一次自由公正的選舉。

在會談期間，雙方還將重點討論烏克蘭東部地區的局勢。烏克蘭東部在星期日復活節實行停火，但停火僅維持了幾小時，之後親俄羅斯的烏克蘭城鎮斯洛文斯克的一個檢查站爆發了槍戰。三人被打死，目前還不清楚到底發生了什麼。

烏克蘭指責襲擊是俄羅斯特種部隊發動的。不過，俄羅斯外長拉夫羅夫指責烏克蘭政府不想對極端分子加以控制，他說極端分子對手無寸鐵的平民開槍。

拉夫羅夫星期一說，烏克蘭“殘暴地”違反了上星期在日內瓦簽署的協議。該協議要求烏克蘭東部的所有非法武裝分子繳械，並離開該地區。該協議還要求，向烏克蘭東部派出一個歐洲監督團。

但在烏克蘭東部十多個城市，親俄羅斯示威者繼續佔領政府建築，迄今沒有退卻的跡象。