More than 50 rebels killed in biggest Ukraine government assault

[pinto]

Source: Reuters

By Sabina Zawadzki and Gabriela Baczynska
DONETSK, Ukraine Tue May 27, 2014 8:15am EDT

May 27 (Reuters) - More than 50 pro-Russian rebels were killed in an unprecedented assault by Ukrainian government forces, which raged into a second day on Tuesday after a newly-elected president vowed to crush the revolt in the east once and for all.

Reuters journalists counted 20 bodies in combat fatigues in one room of a city morgue in Donetsk. Some of the bodies were missing limbs, sign that the government had brought to bear overwhelming firepower against the rebels for the first time.

"From our side, there are more than 50 (dead)," the prime minister of the rebels' self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Borodai, told Reuters at the hospital.

The government said it suffered no losses in the assault, which began with air strikes hours after Ukrainians overwhelmingly voted to elect a 48-year-old billionaire confectionary magnate Petro Poroshenko as their new president.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/27/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSKBN0E70F620140527?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

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1. A rocket propelled grenade or artillery from a helicopter hit a truck

Many of the killed Russian-backed fighters were riding together in a truck when they were struck from above by artillery or rocket-propelled grenades from a Ukrainian army helicopter. The truck was destroyed and the truck bed contained pools of blood.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/as-many-as-45-kremlin-backed-insurgents-killed-in-heavy-fighting-on-may-26-27-349625.html

[bemildred]

2. Nearly 100 killed in Ukraine’s Donetsk

Nearly 100 people, 50 separatist and between 30 to 50 civilians, have been killed in clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists since Monday, Denis Pushilin, one of the separatist leaders in Donetsk, said.

The clashes began on Monday following the launch of an Ukrainian army operation to regain control of Donetsk airport.

Armed pro-Russians seized control of the airport in Donetsk on Sunday night, demanding the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops there, the airport’s press office said.

Ukrainian army jets and helicopters shelled Donetsk overnight and due to the clashes, the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" declared a curfew from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/335689--nearly-100-killed-in-ukraine-s-donetsk

[bemildred]

3. Ukraine PM rejects talks with Russia

Ukraine's premier said on Tuesday that Kiev did not trust Russia enough to open direct negotiations aimed at ending a deadly insurgency in the separatist east of the ex-Soviet country.

“In current conditions, bilateral negotiations without the presence of the United States and the European Union are impossible,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a cabinet meeting a day after pro-Western billionaire Petro Poroshenko was confirmed as the winner of Ukraine's presidential election.

“If you sit down at the table with them alone, they will definitely cheat you,” Yatsenyuk said in televised remarks.

Poroshenko had said on Monday that he would welcome a chance to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and that such talks could be arrange by the middle of next month.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/ukraine-pm-rejects-talks-with-russia-1.1694668