Anti-terrorist operations launched in the Donetsk, Luhansk oblasts
3 June 2014
Gun battles continued on June 2 in the two regions where pro-Russian terrorists have the strongest presence: the Sloviansk and Kramatorsk regions in the Donetsk Oblast. The gunfights in Kramatorsk occurred in the vicinity of its airfield. In Sloviansk, the terrorists have planted bombs on chemical vats at factories with plans to detonate them to thwart pro-Ukrainian fighters, said Armed Forces spokesman Vladyslav Selezniov on June 2. Ukrainian soldiers fell into a trap on a road to Sloviansk in which one was killed and 13 injured.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces launched on June 3 an active attack phase of an anti-terrorist operation in the vicinity of Sloviansk, Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov reported on June 3, who asking nearby residents to remain indoors. He announced the destruction of several roadblocks controlled by the terrorists.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces launched on June 2 a full-scale anti-terrorist operation in the Luhansk Oblast, which borders the Russian Federation, reported Dmytro Tymchuk of the Information Resistance news site. The operation will target the oblast state administration building, the local Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) headquarters and border service posts and offices. Gunfire was reported throughout the day between terrorists and government forces near border posts. At least eight border guards were injured, while five terrorists were killed and eight injured, reported pravda.com.ua. An explosion occurred in the Luhansk State Oblast Administration building when terrorists fired heat-seeking rockets that hit an air conditioner in the building, a military official told a television network on June 2.
Acting Presidential Administration Deputy Head Andriy Senchenko called for martial law to be imposed in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. All the preconditions exist to free these regions from the armed terrorists, he told a June 2 television program. The government will use all measures to prevent injury to peaceful residents, he said.
More than 10,000 Ukrainians have been displaced by the armed conflicts in southeastern Ukraine, Senchenko said. Almost 9,500 refugees have left Crimea, between 530 and 500 have left the Donetsk oblast and about 150 have left the Luhansk Oblast, he said. The outflow of refugees is increasing, for which the government has prepared 42,000 beds in temporary residences.
The Russian government is continuing to support the pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine with arms, finances and fighters, said U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on June 2, as reported by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “The latest steps by president Putin are not understood,” he said.
About 10,000 armed terrorists are fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, Anton Herashchenko, an advisor to the head of the Internal Affairs Ministry, told novosti.dn.ua on June 2. “Yet the fighting competence of these terrorists isn’t very high so far,” he said.
Zenon Zawada: Various military commentators and politicians have said the campaign to destroy the terrorists could take anywhere from weeks to years. Given the terrorists’ poor organization and lack of support from the local population, the Ukrainian public will expect President-elect Petro Poroshenko to end the terrorist threat by the end of the summer. Failure to do so will become the first stain on his presidency.
