UKRAINE: Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists engage in fierce fighting near the town of Seversk

Record ID: 375752

  • Title: UKRAINE: Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists engage in fierce fighting near the town of Seversk
  • Date: 19th June 2014
  • Summary: SEVERSK, UKRAINE (JUNE 19, 2014) (REUTERS) **PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS PROFANE LANGUAGE THROUGHOUT** ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER (APC), ARMED MEN ON STREET ARMED MEN WALKING ARMED MEN LOADING INTO CAR GUN INSIDE CAR MEN ON APC APC DRIVING ON ROAD (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) UNIDENTIFIED REBEL, SAYING: "Where will we go? They have already announced that they will put us
  • Embargoed: 4th July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVA40943OJ44NATRVD3YI2X73ME
  • Story Text: Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists were locked in fierce fighting in the east of Ukraine on Thursday (June 19) after rebels rejected a call to lay down their arms in line with a peace plan proposed by President Petro Poroshenko, government forces said.
    Heavy fighting broke out at around 4 a.m. (0100 gm) close to Krasny Liman, a town that has been under government control since early this month.
    Men carried armfuls of weapons in nearby Seversk, where an armoured personnel carrier rolled down the street.

    "Where will we go? They have already announced that they will put us all into concentration camps, into filtration camps, all who supported separatists. I have not supported separatists, I'm just fed up," an unidentified rebel said, holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher on his shoulder.
    No details of the fighting were immediately available from the rebels side.
    Poroshenko, installed as a president on June 7, is pushing a peace plan to end the separatist rebellion including an offer of a unilateral ceasefire by government forces and amnesty for the separatists as long as they put down their weapons.
    Poroshenko was due later on Thursday to meet regional officials from the Donetsk and Luhansk areas of eastern Ukraine to explain his plan - though he rules out meeting separatists.
    Separatist rebellions erupted in eastern Ukraine in early April after street protests in Kiev toppled the Moscow-backed leader Viktor Yanukovich and Russia in turn annexed the Crimean peninsula. Eastern rebels have called for union with Russia.
    Kiev has accused Russia of fomenting the unrest in the east and of allowing volunteer fighters from Russia to cross into Ukraine to support the rebels. This is denied by Moscow.
    The violence has cost the lives of 147 Ukrainian soldiers and wounded 267 up to now, the defence ministry said on Wednesday. But many scores of separatist militia, civilians and members of other military bodies such as the national guard have also been killed and the overall death toll is much higher.
    Ukrainian forces, which lost 49 servicemen on June 14 when separatists brought down a military helicopter in Luhansk region, have been gradually tightening their encirclement of rebel positions to the south and east of Krasny Liman including the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk.
    Up to 4,000 separatist fighters could be involved in Thursday's fighting near Krasny Liman, and armoured vehicles and possibly tanks were being used by both sides, the military source said.
    The reported use of tanks could not be independently confirmed.
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