Pro-Russia Separatists Shoot Down Helicopters; Ukraine Crisis Deepens

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An armed pro-Russian man walks past burning debris at a checkpoint in the southern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on May 2, 2014. Ukraine's military lost two helicopters and two servicemen on May 2 in a deadly offensive launched just before dawn against pro-Russian rebels holding the flashpoint town of Slavyansk, insurgents and authorities said.

Image: VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images

By Christopher Miller2014-05-02 11:33:56 UTC

IZYUM, Ukraine - Gunfire erupted in Ukraine on Friday as military and Interior forces launched a “large-scale operation” before dawn near the edges of rebel-besieged Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the country’s embattled eastern region to force separatists to free hostages, lay down weapons and free seized government buildings, authorities said.

Two Ukrainian helicopters were shot down by pro-Kremlin rebels and their pilots were killed, the country’s Defense Ministry said. Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the insurgent-appointed "people's mayor" of Sloviansk, was quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency also as saying two helicopters had been shot down.

Meanwhile, Russia news outlets reported that a third helicopter was shot down by Kremlin-backed militia fighters. The third helicopter could not be confirmed.

Ukraine-Helicopter

A Ukrainian military helicopter lands at a checkpoint which troops seized in the early morning in the village of Andreevka, 7 kms from the centre of the southern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk, on May 2, 2014.

Image: VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images

The pro-Kremlin forces said at least one Ukrainian helicopter pilot was killed during the fighting, while another had been detained, according to the Associated Press. http://ift.tt/1i4hlxj

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a post on Facebook http://ift.tt/1iPWxyJ that other military personnel had been wounded after the pro-Russian militants fired anti-aircraft missiles at Ukrainian military helicopters. Avakov said that nine illegal rebel checkpoints had also been destroyed, and that professional mercenaries were operating within the rebel group.

“Against Ukraine’s special forces, terrorists used heavy artillery, including grenade launchers and portable anti-aircraft missile launchers,” the minister said.

Reuters reported that its photographer had seen a Ukrainian military helicopter open fire on the edge of Sloviansk, while its reporter heard gunfire during the early-morning assault.

Russia slammed Ukraine's action, with President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the offensive “punitive” and saying it effectively destroyed the “final hope” of a peace deal hashed out in Geneva between the U.S., Russia, Europe and Ukraine in March, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

An AFP reporter on Twitter wrote that at least one military armored personnel carrier had been seized by the rebels, while a journalist for The New York Times said that the rebels were “on alert, readying to fight.”

The action in Sloviansk marked a heightened military response by Kiev, which has been largely unsuccessful in recent attempts to purge the pro-Kremlin rebels from the region.

As recently as Tuesday, Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr V. Turchynov acknowledged that a significant portion of the nation was beyond the government's grasp.

Sloviansk has been the main flashpoint in the deepening crisis in eastern Ukraine. Armed pro-Russian separatists demanding a referendum on secession and joining Russia have seized several key government buildings in Sloviansk and surround cities, and have taken several hostages, including journalists and military observers. Most remain held captive, reportedly in the basement of the city’s security services building.