04/25/2014
KIEV – Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Thursday that “five terrorists” were killed in a military operation against pro-Russian militias in the southeastern city of Sloviansk.
“Five terrorists died in the armed clash,” the ministry said on its Web site.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry forces and military troops tore down three militant checkpoints set up northeast of the city center, the statement said, adding that one police officer was wounded in the operation.
Sloviansk, with close to 120,000 inhabitants, is one of the strongholds of an uprising against the central government in Kiev that erupted nearly three weeks ago in Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking southeast.
“We’re surrounded ... We have enough strength to offer resistance,” Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk and militia leader, told the Moscow-based Russia-24 news channel.
The Ukrainian government said Wednesday that it was resuming its anti-terrorist operation against illegal armed formations in the country’s southeast.
Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov made the decision after the discovery last weekend of the body of Volodymyr Rybak, an anti-separatist town councilor in eastern Ukraine who, according to Kiev, was kidnapped and murdered by Russian undercover agents.
Prior to his disappearance, Rybak was seen in video footage last Thursday being jostled by a pro-Russian crowd outside the city hall in the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlovka, located between the separatist strongholds of Slovianska and Donetsk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Ukrainian authorities that punitive operations against the population in southeastern Ukraine would have “consequences” for those who made those decisions and for relations between Moscow and Kiev.
Long-simmering tensions between pro-European western Ukraine and the country’s eastern region, which has close ties with Russia, were exacerbated by the ouster in late February of President Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally.
In the wake of his removal from office, Moscow sent troops to the strategic region of Crimea.
It subsequently annexed that peninsula last month – a move the West considers illegitimate – after its mostly Russian-speaking population voted in a referendum to break off from the Ukraine and rejoin Russia.
Moscow says Yanukovych was removed from office on Feb. 22 by far-right Ukrainian nationalists and that it moved to protect ethnic Russians and Russian interests in Crimea in the wake of that development.
source
“Five terrorists died in the armed clash,” the ministry said on its Web site.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry forces and military troops tore down three militant checkpoints set up northeast of the city center, the statement said, adding that one police officer was wounded in the operation.
Sloviansk, with close to 120,000 inhabitants, is one of the strongholds of an uprising against the central government in Kiev that erupted nearly three weeks ago in Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking southeast.
“We’re surrounded ... We have enough strength to offer resistance,” Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed mayor of Sloviansk and militia leader, told the Moscow-based Russia-24 news channel.
The Ukrainian government said Wednesday that it was resuming its anti-terrorist operation against illegal armed formations in the country’s southeast.
Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov made the decision after the discovery last weekend of the body of Volodymyr Rybak, an anti-separatist town councilor in eastern Ukraine who, according to Kiev, was kidnapped and murdered by Russian undercover agents.
Prior to his disappearance, Rybak was seen in video footage last Thursday being jostled by a pro-Russian crowd outside the city hall in the eastern Ukrainian city of Horlovka, located between the separatist strongholds of Slovianska and Donetsk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Ukrainian authorities that punitive operations against the population in southeastern Ukraine would have “consequences” for those who made those decisions and for relations between Moscow and Kiev.
Long-simmering tensions between pro-European western Ukraine and the country’s eastern region, which has close ties with Russia, were exacerbated by the ouster in late February of President Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally.
In the wake of his removal from office, Moscow sent troops to the strategic region of Crimea.
It subsequently annexed that peninsula last month – a move the West considers illegitimate – after its mostly Russian-speaking population voted in a referendum to break off from the Ukraine and rejoin Russia.
Moscow says Yanukovych was removed from office on Feb. 22 by far-right Ukrainian nationalists and that it moved to protect ethnic Russians and Russian interests in Crimea in the wake of that development.
source
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