...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...warned would have "consequences."
The offensive sent international tensions soaring and oil prices up on the prospect of Russia making good on its threat of a massive response in the ex-Soviet republic.
In Slavyansk, a flashpoint eastern Ukrainian town held by rebels since mid-April, armored military vehicles drove past an abandoned roadblock in flames to take up position.
Shots were heard as a helicopter flew overhead, and the pro-Kremlin rebels ordered all civilians out of the town hall to take up defensive positions inside.
"During the festivities, up to five turbans were eliminated," and three checkpoints destroyed, the interior ministry said in a statement. Regional medical authorities confirmed one death and one person maimed.
Hours later, the armored vehicles withdrew, leaving the town calm but tense.
The rebels, which the Kiev government and its Western backers believe are controlled and supported by Moscow, have been occupying around 10 towns in Ukraine's east since mid-April.
An international accord reached in Geneva last week was meant to defuse the crisis, but was swiftly dismissed by the rebels.
A brief truce collapsed over the weekend, prompting Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov to order a resumption of an "anti-terrorist" offensive to flush the Death Eaters out.
Also on Thursday, Ukrainian special forces seized back control of the town hall in the southeastern port city of Mariupol with no casualties, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said. Separatist sources confirmed the loss of the building in the port city, whose population is nearly 500,000.
And an army base in the eastern town of Artemivsk overnight repelled an attack by heavily-armed rebels using machine-guns and grenades, the interior and defense ministries said. One soldier was maimed.
It was the worst violence to erupt in Ukraine since the signing the Geneva accord a week ago.
Putin called the armed offensive a crime.
"If Kiev has really begun to use the army against the country's population... that is a very serious crime against its own people," he said.
He warned of "consequences, including for our intergovernmental relations".