Ukrainian forces have this week-end defeated pro-Russian rebels in Sloviansk, Eastern Ukraine and raised the country’s flag again over what had, since April, been territory claimed by the separatists
Aleksandr Borodai, a leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying:
The punitive forces of Ukraine … moved into a large-scale offensive.
Given the disproportionate numerical superiority of the enemy troops, units of the armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic were forced to leave their previous positions on the northern sector of the front.
Sloviansk has been the key stronghold of the rebels fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine and it’s re-capture represents Kiev’s most notable military victory in three months of fighting
Last week the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, German and France had set yesterday as the day for talks between a “contact group” representing Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE security watchdog, and separatist leaders.
The talks were to have been aimed at working out an effective ceasefire observed by the opposing sides. Poroshenko declared a week-long unilateral ceasefire on June 20 which he renewed for a further three days but last Monday he refused to extend it any further.
Seems like guns are doing the talking now again. What do our readers in the region make of it all at the moment ?