Saturday, July 5, 2014

Pro-Russian Fighters Routed From Stronghold, Ukraine Says - New York Times

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KIEV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian government said Saturday that it had routed pro-Russian fighters from Slovyansk, a long-blockaded rebel stronghold where some of the fiercest fighting has occurred during the more than three-month separatist insurrection.


Though it was not yet clear if the loss would be decisive blow against the rebels in eastern Ukraine, the recapture of Slovyansk showed that Ukrainian forces were finally gaining traction four days after President Petro O. Poroshenko ended a 10-day cease-fire and ordered the military to resume efforts to crush the rebellion by force.


On Tuesday, after the resumption of full-scale fighting, the Ukrainian military retook control of an important checkpoint at a border crossing with Russia, one of at least three that had been seized by rebels and that the Ukrainian government and its Western allies said were then used to allow Russian tanks, weapons and fighters to cross into the region.


A spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Lysenko, said that government forces had ousted the rebels from Slovyansk and that those fleeing on Saturday included the well-known commander, Igor Girkin, who the Ukrainian authorities say worked for the G.R.U., the foreign intelligence directorate of the Russian military. In east Ukraine, he identified himself as Col. Igor Strelkov, which means shooter or gunman.


“Run!” the Ukrainian interior minister, Arsen Avakov, wrote in a Facebook post on the retaking of Solvyansk. “The terrorists are bearing losses, surrendering.”


Mr. Lysenko said that as the insurgents fled Slovyansk, the Ukrainian military destroyed a tank, two combat vehicles and two armored personnel carriers.


In an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda news site, the head of the national security council, Andriy Parubiy, said that the government’s goal was to force fighters out of the city to limit the risk to civilians.


“The terrorists are fleeing in panic, through fields along the roads,” Mr. Parubiy said. “The fact that the Ukrainian military forced the fighters to flee is positive because it minimizes civilian casualties. We let them go outside the city, and they meet fire at checkpoints.”


By midday, government troops were sweeping through neighborhoods of Slovyansk in search of any remaining fighters, officials said.


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