Ukraine claims victory as rebel fighters reportedly flee Slavyansk

Rebel fighters abandoned their most important stronghold in the Donetsk region, according to reports in local media

Ukraine claims victory as rebel fighters reportedly flee Slavyansk

Ukraine claimed a major victory over pro-Russian separatists on Saturday as the top rebel military commander and a large number of his troops abandoned their most important stronghold in the Donetsk region.

Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, used his Twitter account to show that troops had raised the Ukrainian flag over Slavyansk, which had been held by the rebels for nearly three months, on Saturday morning.

“I have instructed the chief of the general staff to raise the national flag over Slavyansk,” Mr Poroshenko said. “Reconnaissance units from the armed forces and national guard of Ukraine are now operating in the city.”

He said the separatists had lost one tank and four armoured vehicles in the breakout.

Confusion reigned about the exact nature of the fight, however, with the Ukrainian security council also reporting that fighting continued in the city.

Rebel leaders later admitted Igor Strelkov, the rebel military commander, took the decision to abandon the town as part of a strategic withdrawal, and said they would redeploy and consolidate their forces in Donetsk and the town of Horlivka.

But they voiced defiance in the face of the Ukrainian offensive, however, citing the retreat before Napoleon in 1812 as proof that abandoning the city did not mean defeat.

“This way we win time while the Ukrainians redeploy their personnel and artillery (the Ukrainians basically “fight” by shelling peaceful cities),” said Pavel Gubarev, the “people’s Governor” of Donetsk and a key figure in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

“This time can be used effectively to join forces, unify the militia under a single command, improve communications and strengthen our forces, especially with armour and artillery,” he wrote on his Vkontakte page.

“Kutuzov also retreated, as was the plan,” he said, In an apparent reference to the 1812 battle of Borodino. “Russians only retreat before a decisive victory.” Arsen Avakov, the Ukrainian interior ministry, said he had received intelligence that Mr Strelkov, whose real name is Igor Girkin and who has been directing the defence of the city for months, had fled along with “a significant part” of his troops.

The claim could not be independently confirmed. A separatist website later posted a message saying Mr Strelkov remained in command of the rebel army and that he planned to consolidate his forces “in the nearest future,” but made no mention of his whereabouts.

While it may not herald imminent victory for the Ukrainians, the fall of Slavyansk is of immense symbolic importance for both sides.

Fighters loyal to the Donetsk People’s Republic, the separatist movement seeking unification with Russia, have held the town of 100,000 since April 12, making it a no-go area for Ukrainian forces and defying repeated attempts to retake it. About 30,000 people are believed to remain in the city.

But in a disarmingly frank interview with Russian media on Friday, a visibly shaken Mr Strelkov admitted the fall of the town was inevitable.

“If Russia does not negotiate a ceasefire or intervene with its armed forces for us, for the Russian people who live here, we will be destroyed,” he said in an emotional interview with pro-Kremlin tabloid Life News. “It will happen in a week, two at most.” He said the Ukrainian army had deployed 60 heavy guns against Slavyansk and the nearby towns of Kramatorsk and Semyonovka, and all but accused the Kremlin of abandoning the rebels.

“[The fighters] are people who consciously took up arms to defend their language and their culture, to defend Russia,” he said.

“[But] Russia does not want to help them unify with their people.” “It is very difficult to accept that in nearly three months in Slavyansk practically no real help has reached us,” he added, drawing a distinction between assistance via “private channels” and the intervention by the Russian state that “we really need”.

The assault on Slavyansk, part of a major Ukrainian offensive on rebel positions across the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, comes as foreign ministers from Russia and Europe made a further push for a ceasefire.

A contact group led by former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma is due to convene talks with rebel leaders in Donetsk on Saturday in a bid to push forward a peace plan agreed by Moscow and Kiev on Wednesday.

Mr Poroshenko said on Friday that he was ready for talks with separatist leaders, but he has demanded they release all their prisoners and that control of the border be re-established before he agrees to a bilateral ceasefire.

“Ukraine has proposed a place and time for the meeting and is waiting the other party’s confirmation,” Mr Poroshenko’s office said on Friday.

At a summit in Berlin on Wednesday, the country’s foreign ministers agreed to seek a bilateral ceasefire monitored by the OSCE.

The deal would see Ukrainian border guards working on the Russian side of the border until they regain control of checkpoints seized by rebels - but only after a ceasefire is in place.

In the meantime, he scrapped a week-long unilateral ceasefire and ordered an all-out offensive after a tentative truce failed to take hold on the ground.

Announcing the end of the ceasefire on Monday, he said the rebels had chosen war rather than peace, and said he would switch to his “plan B” - the use of force.

The resulting Ukrainian offensive using artillery, airstrikes and heavy armour may have turned the tide in the three-month long civil war raging in the country’s east, but it has also resulted in multiple civilian casualties.

Several civilians were killed on Thursday after an air strike on a village in the Luhansk region, while rebels have said indiscriminate artillery fire has landed in civilian areas across the region.

Russia has condemned the Ukrainian offensive, accusing the Ukrainians of killing 20 people, including two children, and using cluster munitions in civilian areas.

The Russian foreign ministry also accused the United States and Britain of encouraging the use of force.

“It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian government’s harsh rhetoric and activation of force came on July 3, after president Poroshenko spoke with Joe Biden and Ukraine’s foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, spoke with British foreign minister William Hague,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry struck back at British suggestions that Russian is supplying weapons to the rebels, accusing Mr Hague of “shameless” and “unfounded” accusations.

By Roland Oliphant