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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Pro-Russians rebels down helicopter in east |
| 2014-05-06 |
| [Beirut Daily Star] Pro-Russian rebels shot down a Ukrainian helicopter in fierce fighting near the eastern town of Slaviansk Monday, and Kiev drafted police special forces to the southwestern port city of Odessa to halt a feared westward spread of rebellion. Ukraine said the Odessa force, based on "civil activists," would replace local police who had failed to tackle rebel actions at the weekend. Its dispatch was a clear signal from Kiev that, while tackling rebellion in the east, it would vigorously resist any sign of a slide to a broader civil war. Odessa, with its ethnic mix from Russians to Ukrainians, Georgians to Tatars a cultural contrast to the pro-Russian east, was quiet Monday. Ukrainian flags flew at half mast for funerals of some of the dozens killed in festivities Friday. But in the east, fighting intensified around the pro-Russian stronghold of Slaviansk, a city of 118,000, where rebel fighters ambushed Ukrainian forces early in the day. The Interior Ministry said five Ukrainian paramilitary police were killed. Separatists said four of their number had also been killed. The sound of an air-raid siren could be heard in the center of Slaviansk and a church bell rang in the main square. Russia's Foreign Ministry called on Kiev to "stop the bloodshed, withdraw forces and finally sit down at the negotiating table." It also published an 80-page report detailing "widespread and gross human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations" in Ukraine over the past six months for which it blamed the new government and its Western allies. Russia denies Ukrainian and Western accusations it is seeking to undermine the country of 45 million and using special forces to lead the insurgency across the border, as it did before annexing Crimea in March. The self-declared pro-Russian Mayor of Slaviansk Vyacheslav Ponomarev told Rooters by telephone: "[The Ukrainians] are reinforcing, deploying ever more forces here. Recently there was a parachute drop ... For us, they are not military, but fascists." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Golden B-B? |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2014-05-06 20:43 |
| #1 Ukraine said the Odessa force, based on "civil activists," John McCain pals? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-05-06 03:02 |