Ukrainian forces launched a "large-scale operation" to retake the eastern town of Slaviansk, pro-Russian separatists holding the town said on Friday, as security deteriorated in a crisis that has provoked the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War, according to the Associated Press.
Having seized buildings in the capital of the easternmost province, Luhansk, on Tuesday, gunmen took control at dawn on Wednesday in the nearby towns of Horlivka and Alchevsk, the AP reported.
Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-declared mayor or the town, was quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency as saying two helicopters had been shot down and one pilot had been detained while another had been killed, according to the AP.
Armed groups seeking union with Russia have seized a number of government buildings in towns in eastern Ukraine, the AP reported. The action in Slaviansk, if confirmed, would mark the first significant military response by Kiev.
The apparent assault to retake Slaviansk came only hours after Russia staged a huge May Day parade on Moscow's Red Square on Thursday, the first time since the Soviet era, according to the AP. Workers holding banners proclaiming support for President Vladimir Putin took over the streets after the seizure of territory from neighboring Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Ukraine's leaders, who came to power in February when the previous Moscow-backed president was toppled after months of protests, conceded they were "helpless" to counter the fall of government buildings and police stations in the Donbass coal and steel belt, the AP reported. Donbass is the source of around a third of Ukraine's industrial output.
Separatists had also stormed the prosecutor's office in the city of Donetsk, throwing rocks, firecrackers and teargas at riot police defending officials they accused of working for the Western-backed government in Kiev, according to the AP.
Rebels in the city of about 4 million people have declared a "People's Republic of Donetsk" and called a referendum on secession for May 11, undercutting a planned presidential election in Ukraine two weeks later, the AP reported.
