Ukraine: ambush at Donetsk checkpoint leaves 14 dead
At least 14 Ukrainian Army soldiers are killed and 30 badly injured in four separate attack in eastern Ukraine. Kiev describes the incidents as “a declaration of war.”
Video: Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson reports
Journalists at the Associated Press reported 14 dead bodies near a checkpoint in the village of Blahodatne, near the town of Volnovakha. Three charred Ukrainian armoured personnel carriers and several other burned military vehicles reportedly stood at the site.
Separatist militia said they had carried out the attacks because they now regard the Ukrainian army as an occupying force in the east of the country.
Ukraine’s acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said “war has been declared on Ukraine. We accept this challenge, and any attempt to disrupt the presidential elections [due to take place on Sunday] and to seize Ukrainian territory has been and will be, unsuccessful.”
Amateur video, yet to be verified, appeared on Youtube showing what appears to be a glimpse of the attack site from a passing car.
Separatists have been skirmishing with security forces in Donetsk for weeks. Pro-Russian insurgents in the east continued battling the Ukrainian forces around Slovyansk, the eastern city that has been the epicenter of fighting.
In the last weeks they have seized government buildings and engaged in clashes with government troops resulting in scores of deaths.
Picture: Pro-Russian activists stand in front of a monument of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin during a rally in Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine last month.
Hopes of Russian withdrawal
Meanwhile Russia’s Defence Ministry has said that its forces were leaving the regions near Ukraine as part of a massive military withdrawal ordered by President Vladimir Putin. It said that 20 trains and 15 planes full of troops were moved from the border area on Thursday, alongside four trainloads of weapons and planes that had left the Belgorod, Bryansk and Rostov regions on Wednesday.
The majority of troops would reach their permanent bases before 1 June, it added.
Hopes of a withdrawal were further reinforced after the Nato Chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen tweeted that troop activity near the Ukraine border suggested some Russian forces were preparing to pull back.
“We have seen some movement. (It’s) too early to know where they are moving to or how many of them are moving, but what we do know is the force that remains on the border is very large and very capable and it remains in a very coercive posture,” US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s supreme allied commander Europe, told a news conference.
Weâ??ve seen limited #Russian troop activity vicinity of #Ukraine border that MAY suggest that some of these forces are preparing to withdraw
— AndersFogh Rasmussen (@AndersFoghR) May 22, 2014
Vladimir Putin said that the pullout involving large numbers of troops would take time but would be clearly visible on satellite images. Nato has previously released satellite images showing how Russian troop numbers built up in the area.
Mr Putin’s announcement went further than an earlier step by the Russian leader two weeks ago. The White House and the Pentagon acknowledged activity on the border but said it was too early to determine whether it pointed to a pullout, or just more repositioning.
“It’s impossible at this early stage to tell whether or not this movement that we’re seeing is simply more of the same or if this is preparations for a broader withdrawal,” said Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
White House spokesman Jay Carney added: “Should this be the beginning of a withdrawal we would welcome such an effort.”
Forthcoming elections
Ukrainians go to the polls on Sunday to choose a new president. The election was called after the last elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, was deposed in February amid mass protests against his pro-Russian policies.