Fighting broke out early Friday
around an eastern city in Ukraine that has become the focus of a pro-Russian
insurgency as government troops attempted to retake control.
The fighting, confirmed by both
sides, appeared to be the first major assault
against the insurgents who have
seized police stations and other government buildings in about a dozen cities
in southeastern Ukraine.
Two Ukrainian helicopters were
shot down and their pilots were killed, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said.
The Ukrainian Security Service
said its forces were fighting "highly skilled foreign military men"
in Slovyansk.
The Security Service said one
helicopter was shot down with a surface-to-air missile, which they said
countered Russia's claims that the city is under control of civilians who took
up arms
The Ukrainian interior minister,
Arsen Avakov, said on his official Facebook page that government troops met
fierce resistance, but had managed to take control of nine checkpoints on roads
around Slovyansk.
The official spokesman for the
military wing of the pro-Russian forces, who will give only his first name,
Vladislav, said fighting had broken out at several points around the city. He
said government armored vehicles were seen on roads leading into Slovyansk and
claimed that Ukrainian troops had made incursions into the city itself.
Details of these claims could not
be independently confirmed.
On the road leading into
Slovyansk from Kramatorsk to the south, an Associated Press reporter saw six
Ukrainian armored vehicles parked on the side of the road.
An AP cameraman saw black plumes
of smoke on the edge of the city. An emergency siren had sounded at dawn.
The center of Slovyansk appeared
quiet but empty and tense Friday morning.
The armed element of the
insurgency is focused on Slovyansk, a city 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of
Russia in which seven European military observers from the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe remain held by pro-Russia gunmen.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
said Thursday that Ukraine should withdraw its military from the eastern and
southern regions of the country.
Hours later, Ukraine's acting
president ordered that the military draft be renewed, citing "threats of
encroachment on the nation's territorial integrity" and interference by
Russia in its internal affairs.
Moscow has consistently denounced
Ukrainian security forces' largely ineffectual operation against the eastern
insurgents and warned against committing violence against civilians.
In a telephone conversation with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin said the removal of military units was
the "main thing," but it was unclear if that could be construed as an
outright demand.
Earlier in the week, the acting
president said police and security forces had been effectively
"helpless" against insurgents in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the
heart of the unrest, and that efforts should be focused on preventing the
instability from spreading to other parts of the country.
Chapisha Maoni